TOMMY CARROLL

Tommy Carroll was born on Doon Doon Station, 100 kilometres north of the Warmun Community in 1955. After working for many years as a stockman on various cattle stations he took up painting in late 1999.  He has a strong, individual style and his work is often dark and brooding, with a heavy use of black charcoal and natural red ochres. Other works, by contrast, are alive with bright yellows and vibrant reds. They depicts the stories of the Doon Doon Station country and the Ngarranggarni dreamings.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2004    Tommy Carroll and Mabel Juli, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney.

2003    Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne.

2002    Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2006    Recent Works by Warmun Artists, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney.

2005    Waterhole 11, Raft Artspace, Darwin.

2005    New Work From Warmun, Gadfly Gallery, Perth.

2003    Recent Works by Warmun Artists, Framed Gallery, Darwin.

2002    Warmun Group Show, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.

2002    Colleen Carter, Tommy Carroll and Katie Cox, Span Gallery, Flinders Lane,  Melbourne.

2002    Collectors Show, Span Gallery, Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

2000    Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra.

Selected Collections

Australian National Gallery, Canberra

Parliament Collection, Canberra

Extracts of reviews and writings about the artist.

Tommy Carroll was born on Doon Doon Station, 100 kilometres north of the Warmun Community in 1955. His bush name is Balabany and his languages are Gija and Kimberley Kriol. As a young boy he worked as a stockman at Doon Doon and throughout his youth he also worked on Bow River and Lissadell Stations as well as assisting the Outstation Manager at Warmun Community.

Carroll commenced painting in late 1999, inspired to do so by his wife, Katie Cox, another emerging Warmun artist. He says that painting makes him think about his country, the Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) stories and about the places he used to visit as a child and when he was working as a stockman.

Tommy Carroll's works are often dark and brooding. He uses heavy concentrations of black charcoal and red natural ochres. The majority of Carroll's paintings derive from stories near or around Doon Doon Station, and primarily the stories are associated with the Ngarranggarni.

http://www.gabriellepizzi.com.au

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Tommy was born in 1956 at Doon Doon Station in the East Kimberley and worked as a stockman for many years. His knowledge of the country in which he worked is extensive and the pivotal focus of his paintings. He is a natural – his style is strong, individual, balanced, striking. It is obvious that he has never followed in anyone’s footsteps – his works are most definitely by Tommy Carroll. The paintings flow with the landscape – from minimal yet precise black and white to vibrant reds and bright yellow to the softer black/brown/green of his grandfather, Paddy Carroll’s country.

http://aboriginal-art-australia.mobile034.com