Unlike traditional landscape painters, Rosalie Gascoigne, Dorothy Napangardi, Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Sally Gabori each forged their own career rendering the Australian landscape in a language that is non-representational and quintessentially Australian. 

Gascoigne began her artistic practice late in life (in her 50s) and through her use of found imperfect materials (drink crates, wood, galvanised tin) began to construct and compose a robust and colourful interpretation of what she described as the “boundless space and solitude” of Australia.

In another shift from the traditional and predominately white male canon of representational landscape painting, the mid-21st century saw the emergence of Indigenous Australian artists including (among others) Napangardi, Gabori and Kngwarreye, who depicted country through distinctly abstract marks rooted in a deep spiritual connection to the land.

Mrs Gabori was a Kaiadilt woman, born at Bentinck Island around 1924 where she spent the first 20 years living a traditional life until moved by missionaries to Mornington Island in the early 1940s.

Like many female artists who had family responsibilities, it was not until her 80s that Mrs Gabori discovered painting.

Soon recognised for her vivid abstract renderings of the landscape, Mrs Gabori conveyed the essence of her country in pure gestural brushstrokes and rose quickly to become recognised as one of Australia’s most significant Aboriginal artists.

Mrs Gabori’s work features in important collections and major institutions in Australia and abroad including the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, The Netherlands.

Mrs Gabori’s tribal name, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda, means “dolphin born at Mirdidingki” and, while the artist was said to be reluctant to explain her paintings, in-keeping with her deep connection to the landscape, the broad gestural brushstrokes and discordant swathes of colour in Nyikyilki could be interpreted as the spirit of the coral shoals and tidal eddies of Gabori’s ancestral home Bentinck.

Mrs Gabori is the subject of a major retrospective, currently at the National Gallery of Victoria and touring Australia and the Bendigo Art Gallery is privileged to have the major work Nyikyilki in the collection.

This selection of paintings for Collective Vision: 130 Years continues to honour the work of these important female artists who - rather than tame the landscape through direct representation - chose instead to reflect the essence of it, and in turn enrich our experience and understanding of Australia.

The Bendigo Art Gallery is open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Sunday.