The Ipswich Art Gallery is featuring local Indigenous artist Kylie Hill, alongside QAGOMA's touring exhibition, I, Object.

Hills' exhibition, Jardibirri Nungarima Bukanyi: Standing Strong for the Future, marks the gallery’s first solo showcase of an Indigenous artist.

Kylie Hill is a proud Aboriginal woman from the Kalkadoon and Waanyi region of Mount Isa and the Quandamooka, Ngui region of the Moreton Bay Area, but for the past 30 years, she has called Ipswich home. Hill is well-known in the community for her work in Indigenous art, including designing the first Indigenous uniforms for Softball Australia and creating the first Indigenous artwork to be put in a courtroom in Wynnum. Her current exhibition reflects the importance of keeping culture alive for future generations.

The exhibition, assembled over four months, was demanding, Hill credits the Ipswich art gallery team as a significant support system.

“The process was hard...

“A lot of heartbreak and a lot of tears,” she says.

The rainbow serpent, Boodjamulla in Waanyi language slithers across the gallery wall connecting the various paintings.

Among the artworks is Nungarima’s Jarjums (Kylie’s Children), a piece to honour her children, including those taken too soon. Kylie describes the emotional process of creating the piece.

“I cried when I painted it…

“In 2022 I said I’m gonna paint about this one day. I had to do it in some sort of story for people…

“I want other people to capture that and relate to it too…

“With our mob, no one really talked about it [miscarriage] then,” she says.

Hills' work paints a picture of her life, she aims to connect with audiences everywhere.

“It’s a celebration of my life…my connections…

“A lot of the art was past hurts put into something beautiful,” she says

Kylie Hill’s exhibition runs until October 27.

The QAGOMA touring exhibition, I, Object, is also on display at the Ipswich gallery until October 13th.

The instillation features contemporary pieces by leading Queensland artists; Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Michael Boiyool Anning, Fiona Foley, Danie Mellor, Christian Thompson, and Warraba Weatherall, and others alongside 20 historical shields, boomerangs, and clubs.

Visitors are encouraged to journey through the landscape, stories, and traditions of First Nations peoples in their all-ages interactive exhibition.

Ngarrindjeri artist David Pearce recently exhibited Blak and Abstract at the Ipswich Community Gallery. He describes his work as “Indigenous art, but not as you know it”.

Pearce uses black to represent his Aboriginal heritage, and his abstracts display a sense of isolation, of walking between two worlds.

“We mightn’t live out on country in the bush, but our culture is there and it's strong still, If you go back to our culture, you will basically heal…

After suffering the tremendous loss of his three brothers and both his parents, David hadn’t picked up a paintbrush for 15 years.

He started painting again after his brother passed and hasn’t stopped since.

His recent pieces are dedicated to the life of his son, whom he lost three years ago in a car accident. Pearce says he pushed aside everything and everyone during that time.

“I experienced so much traumatic grief from his loss but doing this exhibition…I don’t feel anything but pure joy and happiness and creativity. I feel very connected to my heritage, very grounded, and very connected to my son…doing this was very cathartic for me…

“It brought back a lot of my spirituality and the practicing of my customs and traditions…

“The night of the opening…I felt this jolt in my body, and I got a warm tingling sensation over me, and I became quite emotional, but that feeling was my spirit going back into my body because after losing my son my spirit was gone. But that night it came back…

“I said to myself that beauty can come out of pain and out of grief…It’s completely changed my whole life again,” he says

David continues to paint and is ultimately working towards a solo exhibition for Ipswich's main gallery.

For information on the Ipswich Art Gallery exhibitions visit https://ipswichartgallery.qld.gov.au/

Kylie Hill’s Art, KJH Artworks visit https://www.facebook.com/p/KJH-Artworks-100047851338238/ https://www.instagram.com/kjhartworks/?hl=en

For David Pearce’s art visit: https://www.blackswanart.com.au/blak-abstract/