The BEST Aboriginal Arts & Crafts in Bayview NT

Design & model agency

Located in Darwin's Parap gallery precinct, Outstation Gallery provides a backdrop for a broad range of aboriginal art work, sourced from Australian Aboriginal art centres. The gallery exhibits high quality artwork from emerging and established Indigenous artists. The gallery represents 15 remote community art centres from the Kimberley, Central Australia, the Western Desert, South Australia, Tiwi Islands and Arnhem Land. The gallery was established after many years of experience in the Indigenous art industry, working for and in conjunction with Indigenous communities, their art centres and Indigenous arts peak bodies. Outstation works to the highest ethical standards. The gallery aims to raise the profile of artists represented, while maintaining and creating new opportunities for these artists to earn a livelihood from their practice.

Centrally located in Smith St Mall in the city centre, Mbantua Fine Art Gallery - Darwin has a wonderful selection of paintings and artworks. Darwin Gallery specialises in art from the Utopia Region of Central Australia and has many pieces on offer, ranging from smaller pieces, ideal for travellers and gift-seekers, to larger pieces for the avid collector. Our Darwin gallery has a unique collection of jewellery by Australian artists on display and this joins our very own range of Aboriginal design giftware products, Utopia Australia. If you're looking for something special for yourself, or a gift for someone else, Mbantua Fine Art Gallery in Darwin really is a shopper's delight!

Australian Aboriginal art is the oldest living art tradition in the world, with paintings in rock shelters dating back over 20,000 years. The art includes naturalistic paintings of human, plant and animal figures, as well as non-naturalistic, or "abstract" designs with concentric circles, "u" shapes, and lines. The naturalistic style, predominant in Arnhemland in northern Australia, is often characterised by "X-ray" art, where the internal organs of animals are depicted. The abstract style, predominant in central Australia, originates from sacred designs used in ceremonies. These designs, originally for body painting, ground painting, and carved on sacred stones and boards, are now painted on canvas. Much of Aboriginal art relates to stories of the Dreamtime. This Dreamtime is the Creation Period in Aboriginal belief, when important Ancestral Beings formed the land and created the people, plants and animals. These Ancestral Beings, often depicted in the art, may take human, animal, plant or combined forms, and taught the people their laws and ceremonies. (Courtesy Dr. David Welch.) Aboriginal Fine Arts Gallery is a founding member of the Australian Indigenous Art Trade Association, which was established to promote the ethical trade of indigenous art.