aboutgallpng

About GalleryPNG

Welcome to GalleryPNG.

GalleryPNG represents Papua New Guinea artists in promoting it's unique and diverse art and culture globally. We aspire to embrace the aesthetic qualities, create awareness and help establish artists, promoting PNG Arts worldwide.

Goal

The aim of GalleryPNG is to establish a suitable environment for all artists to work as a group, helping one another to interact and share ideas. The venue will act as a stepping stone for the artists to establish themselves whilst assisting and passing on the skills to help the upcoming artists.

GalleryPNG's long term goal is to have an open learning Art Centre for those with interest in art and to network with similar organisations in the Pacific region to exchange ideas and provide a platform for residency programs and symposiums.

Gallery History

GalleryPNG is an Art Association established at the beginning of 2006. It is a non profit group designed to cater for the needs of Contemporary Artists in Papua New Guinea. This group was established to basically act as a vessel for PNG artists to utilise various media channels to display and promote their artworks. Furthermore, it is used to improve and educate the process of art making, quality presentation, use of subject matters and intellectual property issues whilst preparing them to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Brief History of PNG Contemporary Art

The early 1970s is referred to as the birth of Contemporary Art in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea Contemporary art is a very recent phenomenon, which has no links to any art movements that are evident in the West. It also cannot be categorized as part of PNG's traditional heritage, in contrast PNG's authentic art forms displayed in Museums around the world are linked to the culture which dates back thousands of years.

Contemporary art emerged in the later part of the 1970s after the establishment of the National Arts School straight after the country's independence in 1975. From than on the Arts School had its share of re-forms and re-structure within the PNG National Education System and recently the University of Papua New Guinea.

The pioneers of Contemporary Art are, Artists like Akis, Mathias Kauage, Jakupa Ako, Cecil Wungi and David Lasisi to name a few. They have brought the understanding of this fascinating style of art making to reality in PNG. In recognition, this process originated from a vision and initiative by Ulli and Georgina Beier. Today Contemporary Artists are embracing this new art form as a means to relate to the past and be a voice of representation to record and promote PNG’s vast cultural diversity.

The late Mathias Kauage openly embraced this new form of art and was very keen to learn from the Beiers, which to his credit led him to become PNG's foremost or the man behind the birth of contemporary PNG art. Mathias from his humble view of life shared his knowledge with his family members. Today evidence of his influence and unselfish nature is very much evident among some of the contemporary artists who were under his guidance. Some of these artists have now become influential and are exhibiting their art globally.

This group of early artists and their art continue to intrigue me and I have come to appreciate and understand their journey in embracing this new concept of art making. This is very much evident today from the amount of work each artist produced within a short period of time. This group of pioneers worked around the period when PNG was on the crossroads to self-governance and post independence. A period in which social issues and political instability was a concern. These issues did not distract their creative process but only complimented their research into subject matters of representation in their approach in recording their ever-changing environment.

D.Waswas 2006