KWM Live Exhibition for Contemporary First Nations Art Award

King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is pleased to present the KWM Contemporary First Nations Art Award exhibition at Melbourne not-for-profit gallery fortyfivedownstairs from 6th to 29th July.

After conducting the 2020 Contemporary First Nations Art Award judging online, KWM is delighted to host an in-person exhibition to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding contribution made to Australian culture by First Nations artists in remote, regional and urban areas throughout Australia.

Selected from more than 60 entries, 29 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists were chosen as finalists, including eight artists from the Northern Territory, four from New South Wales, eight from Queensland, three from South Australia, four from Victoria and one from both Tasmania and Western Australia.

Winner of the 2020 KWM Contemporary First Nations Art Award, Michelle Woody's (Tiwi Islands, NT) artwork will be displayed at the exhibition, along with the finalists' works. Woody's winning work, Ngiya Murrakupupuni', encapsulates her contemporary Tiwi style for which she is gaining national recognition. In the long-standing tradition of her ancestors, Woody utilises natural ochres sourced on country around Milikapiti that are collected, crushed and burned into the three traditional colours of the island landscape: white, yellow and red.

The 2020 finalists are: Amala Groom, Angkaliya Curtis, Ashlee Murray, Brian Robinson, Carmen Glynn-Braun, Carolanne Ken, Dhuwarrwarr Marika, Fiona Foley, Gordon Hookey, Helen Ganalmirriwuy, Ian Waldron, Jenna Lee, Joe Dhamanydji, Josh Muir, Judy Watson, Kait James, Karla Dickens, Kaye Brown, Maree Clarke, Marina Pumani Brown, Michael Cook, Michelle Woody, Patju Presley, Reggie Uluru, Richard Bell, Sally M Nangala Mulda, Samantha Hobson, Timothy Cook and Travis De Vries.