TOWN CAMP CHRONICLES: Artworks from Mparntwe's Town Camps
Forthcoming exhibition
Short St Gallery presents Town Camp Chronicles featuring new artwork from the acclaimed Town Camp art collective in the Mparntwe/Alice Springs town camps. The art from Mparntwe’s town camps carries a distinctive immediacy that feels both intimate and incisive. Painters such as the sought after, Sally M. Mulda, Betty Conway, Marjorie Williams, and Grace Robinya, chronicle life in the Town Camps with a visual history that is both frank and joyful. Their artworks embrace the bold and declarative with a candid narrative style that transforms everyday scenes, community experiences, and personal histories into vibrant visual testimony. These artworks are a compelling blend of humour, resilience, and truth-telling, each artwork a lineage of lived knowledge translated into colour, line, and story.
Sculpture is embedded within the town camp community and reveals another dimension of this creative world. These works are at once tactile, playful, and deeply embedded in cultural memory; carrying the spirit of familiar characters, local animals, or everyday objects, they are stitched with care and imbued with personality. They are whimsical objects that hold a quiet strength, celebrating community and the collaborative act of making. The artworks form a powerful chorus that speaks to the rhythm and realities of town camp life with sincerity and artistic intelligence.
Together, the paintings and soft sculptures form a language that is richly grounded and inventive, offering a warm, thoughtful window into the ingenuity and storytelling traditions of Central Australia's town camps. Short St Gallery is delighted to invite you to view our annual opening exhibition with the town camp artists, Town Camp Chronicles. A catalogue can be obtained through enquiries@shortstgallery.com.
Sculpture is embedded within the town camp community and reveals another dimension of this creative world. These works are at once tactile, playful, and deeply embedded in cultural memory; carrying the spirit of familiar characters, local animals, or everyday objects, they are stitched with care and imbued with personality. They are whimsical objects that hold a quiet strength, celebrating community and the collaborative act of making. The artworks form a powerful chorus that speaks to the rhythm and realities of town camp life with sincerity and artistic intelligence.
Together, the paintings and soft sculptures form a language that is richly grounded and inventive, offering a warm, thoughtful window into the ingenuity and storytelling traditions of Central Australia's town camps. Short St Gallery is delighted to invite you to view our annual opening exhibition with the town camp artists, Town Camp Chronicles. A catalogue can be obtained through enquiries@shortstgallery.com.