Alcaston Gallery is very proud to present important new paintings by Karen Mills. The new body of paintings forms part of an ongoing series by Karen Mills that began with a bush trip in 2013, assisted by Waringarri Arts, WA in which the artist accompanied Kittey Malarvie to visit her country at Sturt Creek Station.
The ethereal paintings illustrate the artist's observations of this landscape, and the rich history of Indigenous culture pre-colonisation, often hidden beneath layers of sediment formed over thousands of years. The use of clay adds a provocative dimension to Mills’ paintings.
“I see my paintings as lyrical landscapes of memory.
The inspiration for this work is the desert landscape of Sturt Creek, a major creek system in the East Kimberley that flows into Paruku (Lake Gregory), on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.
When I was out on Country at Sturt Creek Station, I thought deeply about the Old People and the never ending presence of Aboriginal culture and history that survives in the Land. The sight of stone flakes scattered on the ground, exposed in the open, was clear evidence that Aboriginal people had lived there enjoying the abundance of the creek for a very long time.
All the work is made with natural pigments. I like the simplicity of making my own paint with dry pigments, water and a binder. One of the pigments is a white ochre from Darwin and is the unbleached, sandy colour that can be seen in the work.”
-Karen Mills, 2014
We are pleased to welcome Brenda Croft, former Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at National Gallery of Australia & Art Gallery of Western Australia, now Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW Art & Design, Sydney to open Karen's new exhibition and speak of the artistic development in her oeuvre to date.
Karen Mills' artwork has been featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is held in private collections around the world.
- Beverly Knight, 2014
