Molloy Gallery - Australian Aboriginal Art

	6.6.08 - Molloy Gallery tours 20 art centers across Australia We fly to Australia every few months to buy art, but this last trip was very different. It was a trade mission organized by the Australian government to promote Aboriginal art to the US market. On the 'mission' were nine lucky collectors from the US including Peter Molloy. Our journey started in Uluru (Ayers Rock) on May 25 and after 40 flights in a 10-seater plane we finished in Darwin on June 6. In between, we had visited 20 key art centers across the country. We also met with prominent art dealers in Alice Springs and Darwin and had tours of MAGNT (Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory) and the Darwin Supreme Court Art Collection. The whole experience was culminated with an extraordinary tour of ancient rock art in the escarpments around Oenpelli. We met art dealers, curators, dozens of artists and saw hundreds of paintings: acrylics from the desert, ochre paintings from the Kimberleys and bark paintings from the 'Top End' (Arnhem Land and Tiwi Islands). While we acquired a few pieces from the Kimberley and Top End art centres, our gallery's focus continues to be the collectible art from the Central and Western Deserts. The tour not only opened our eyes to new artists from the desert communities, but also helped us establish relationships with new sources for existing artists, giving us a better selection and potentially better prices. All in all, a wonderful experience, a great education and an enormous privilege.
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During the 2 week tour, Peter Molloy visited 20 art centers across Australia - an incomparable education and experience

The tour started at Uluru (Ayers Rock), which we used as a base for the first few days, visiting art centers around Uluru and from there to the art centers at Ernabella, Amata, Patjarr and Warakurna

(L-R) Peter Molloy (CA), Ron Acker (DC), John Oster (Desart), Margaret Levi & Bob Kaplan (Seattle), Pam McClusky (Seattle Art Museum), Joel Newman (Austrade), Manuel Pulido (IL), Natalie Clark (WY).

Warakurna arts center, one of our early stops on the tour.

We were ferried from the desert airstrips to the art centers in 10 seater trucks called 'Troopers'. Roads were typically dirt making for some rough rides in our Troopers.

Patjarr was one of our interesting stops in the first half of the tour. A township of only 40 people, it is already producing some great art. I bought two paintings by Nancy Carnegie.

Nancy Carnegie of Patjarr explains to me and others the story of the Tjakura rockhole sites in her painting.

Warlayirti Artists in Balgo is a well-established art center that provides important support and income for the town. It also represents some great artists such as Eubena Nampitjinpa.