Details of Alan Griffiths
About
Alan Griffiths is a respected Aboriginal Elder of the Mirrima Community and is deeply committed to cultural maintenance and traditional ways. When he was a young man, he was given a ceremony by his Grandfather. Later, in 1974, he had his own dream and added this to the songs that he already practised.
Alan has continued to dream stories and as a result the Bali Bali Balga has evolved. The Bali Bali Balga is a cultural ceremony that tells dreaming stories (old and new) about the country, the spirits and the Noongali people. It is structured in verse and each verse is represented by a Balmoora (woven dance board) made to a specific design that relates to the song line. Alan and his wife Peggy regularly perform the Bali Bali Balga and participate in many of the other ceremonial performances including the Joonba, Wonga, Morroom Moorum, Liga and Moonga Moonga ceremonies.
Alan's artistic career began in the early 1980s carving Boab nuts and making digeridoos for the growing white community of Kununurra. Later he began painting for Waringarri Aboriginal Arts and Red Rock Art.
Alan & Peggy also work with the school and language centre in Kununurra teaching children traditional dancing. In 1997, they were invited to launch the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in Darwin. Alan is also an accomplished printmaker.
Alan was born at Victoria River Downs Station where he lived and worked as a stockman until 1957, he then moved to Elgee Station until 1960, Pethrick Station in 1961, Elizabeth Downs station (Daley River) in 1962. In 1963, he worked for the Public Works Department laying pipe in Wyndham. Alan then returned to stockman work at Newry Station in 1964. In 1965, he went to Argyle Station where he married his promised wife Peggy. From 1966 until 1981, Alan worked on a cotton farm driving a tractor.
He has won the East Kimberley Art Awards. He combines the contemporary with the traditional to create works that merge western and aboriginal cultures with an ease and quirkiness which is completely unique. His figurative works are like animation which allow him to explore contracting and expanding timelines of cultural history. He merges mirrawong with Noongali histories and corroborees with droving stories, while each individual figure is a personification of his friends, families and wider community. He documents times of happiness, times of fighting and times of dancing with a sense of humour, celebration and acceptance of the fundamental foilables of humanity.
MEDIUM
Pigment on paper and canvas
Carved slate and boab nut
Limited Edition Prints
DREAMING
Night Bird/Jidgdgig
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 Alan Griffiths: Paintings and Prints, Charles Darwin University Gallery, Darwin, NT
2005 Traditional Stories, Seva Frangos @ Span Galleries, Melbourne, Vic
2003 Camel Trek Country, Span Galleries, Melbourne, Vic
2000 Greenhill Galleries, Perth, WA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008 Kimberley Ink and Ochre, Wollongong University, NSW
2006 Collectors Editions: Iconic Waringarri Prints from the Kimberley, Northern Editions, Darwin
2005 Celebrate, Seva Frangos Art, Perth, WA
2005 When Waringarri Came to Town, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
2005 Indigenous Art, Australian Embassy, Paris, France
2004 Waringarri Song and Dance Cycle, Sunken Gardens, University of Western Australia, Perth
2004 Kimberley Focus, Concert Hall, Perth International Arts Festival, Perth, WA
2004 Hunter Art 1, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Newcastle, NSW
2003 Moon Show, Arthouse Gallery Rushcutters Bay, Sydney, NSW
2003 Kimberley Art, Short st. Gallery, Broome, WA
2002 Heyson Prize, Adelaide, SA
2002 Kimberley Ochre, Cullen Bay, Darwin, NT
2002 Warrgebarenkoo, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA
2001 Short on Size, Short st. Gallery, Broome, WA
2001 Ochre, Short st. Gallery, Broome, WA
2001 Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley landscape, Short St. Gallery @ Australia Square,
Sydney, NSW
2001 All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2001 Groundwork, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, WA
2000 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery
of Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
2000 Redback Art, Brisbane, OLD
2000 Cowara House, Cowaramup, WA
1999 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Gallery of
Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
1999 Kimberley Art Award, Kununurra Arts Council, Kununurra, WA
1997 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Gallery of
Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
1995 Fremantle Print Art Awards, Perth, WA
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia
Parliament House Collection
University of Woollongong, NSW
Broadmeadows Health Service Collection
Artbank Australia
Batchelor Institute of Advanced Education
St Mary's School, Perth
Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery, Darwin
Kununurra Police Station Public Art Project, Kununurra
Newcastle Regional art Gallery, Newcastle
Edith Cowan University Collection, Perth
Royal Perth Hospital Collection
Australian Capital Equity, Perth
Cable Beach Resort, Broome
Private collections - Australia and International
Bibliography
2006 Arts Backbone, Vol. 6, March 2006.
2004 Perth International Arts Festival Catalogue, February, 2004.
2002 Berndt Museum Newsletter, September, 2002.
