37781074008161
Status: Stock
Categories: Merrepen Arts
Merrepen Arts
37781074008163
Status: Stock 1m on linen
Name: Kieren Karritpul
Language: Ngen’giwumirri
Community: Daly River
Biography:
Kieren is a versatile artist working across many mediums including; painting, printmaking, fabric and ceramics. His fabric work was presented as a gift to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge during his visit to Darwin. Kieren is the youngest Director ever appointed to The Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA) His work will be exhibited in a group exhibition The Fowler Museum at University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. Kieren is a young leader in his community and, like many in his community, still goes hunting and fishing.
Ngen'giwumirri artist Kieren Karritpul works across multiple mediums to connect with and celebrate his identity and relationship to Aboriginal fibre art. His body of work includes paintings, ceramics, printmaking and textile designs.
Early Life and Influences
Karritpul was born in 1994 to a long line of artists. Art, hunting and fishing were part of his childhood in Daly River, Darwin, Australia. He often watched his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother weave and paint—an experience which influenced his own practice. As he has remarked, 'I want you to see that in my art, there's a story behind it being passed down from my Elders'.
Weaving Through Art
As he is not allowed to weave as a Ngen'giwumirri man, Karritpul often interprets the woven form through painting and other mediums. Some such works pay homage to the meticulous process of fishnet weaving, which Karritpul considered to be not only a necessity of livelihood, but also, a way of teaching one to be humble and patient.
In 2014, Karritpul held his first solo exhibition at the Nomad Gallery in Euroa, Australia. Works in the show called upon specific woven forms, including bundles of yerggi, which he watched his maternal figures make as a child. By incorporating a woven form that is iconic to his region, Karriptul's work served as a celebration of Aboriginal culture.
In 2021, Karritpul's large-scale painting Weaving Myself: the Landscape and the Land was displayed at the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of the Ramsay Art Prize 2021 exhibition. To create the work, Karritpul used two brushes—one made with his own hair. Made up of countless dark lines arranged in loose, concentric circles, the painting uses the weaving process as a visual metaphor for how he is woven into and from the land.
