PATRICK MUNG MUNG
Patrick Mung Mung was born at Yunurrel (Spring Creek) in 1944 and, like a number of Indigenous artists from the area, he worked as a stockman for many years on stations in the East Kimberley. He started painting in 1991 and was instrumental in establishing the artist and community owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. He is now a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder law and culture man in the Warmun community.
His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family are powerful influences on his art. Painting on canvas with a palette of soft and hard natural pigments that he extracts locally, he depicts the country of his birthplace (Yunurrel), his father’s country (Jarlarlu), Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) stories from Texas Downs Station country, and aerial maps of Ngarrgoorroon country, which is characterised by hilly terrain and waterholes.
Patrick Mung Mung often presents his narratives as landscapes in colour blocks of varying size that are linked by white dotted lines that simultaneously join and separate the composition, as well as providing movement across the canvas.
Solo Exhibitions
2010 Raft Artspace.Alice Springs.
2008 The Gentle Light of Warmun. Seva Frangos Art, Perth.
2007 Patrick Mung Mung & Betty Carrington. Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
2006 Patrick Mung Mung & Mabel Juli. Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
2003 Artplace. Perth.
2000 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne.
Group Exhibitions
2012 Bankwest Contemporary Art Prize. Bankwest Art Gallery, Perth.
2012 Patrick and Betty. Short Street Gallery, Broome.
2012 29th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2011 28th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2011 Gallery Gabriel Pizzi, Melbourne, Vic.
2011 Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards. Perth.
2011 Jiliny: Warmun Men. Short Street Gallery, Broome.
2011 My Country and Me. ReDot Gallery, Singapore.
2010 Framed Gallery. Darwin, NT.
2010 Art + Soul. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
2009 Ochre: A Study in Materiality. Short Street Gallery, Broome.
2009 The Best of the Best 2. Framed Gallery, Darwin.
2009 The Youngest One. Chapman Gallery, Canberra.
2009 First and second generation artists from Waringarri and Warmun. Seva Frangos Gallery, Perth.
2009 Sharing Difference on Common Ground: Mangkaja, Mowanjum, Waringarri, Warmun. Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth.
2008 Melbourne Art Fair. Melbourne.
2008 Ten Years of Warmun Ochres. Chapman Gallery, Canberra.
2008 East of East Kimberley: Warmun in Asia. ReDot Gallery, Singapore.
2008 Warmun: Ten Years On. Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
2008 Mungowum Ngarraknaari Yaarun (Strong Stories, Strong Culture). Short St. Gallery, Broome.
2007 Warda-wurrarem (all kinds of stars). Raft Artspace, Darwin.
2007 Ochre, Brushes, Canvas: new work from Warmun. Hogarth Galleries, Sydney.
2007 Greetings from Turkey Creek. Mary Place Gallery, Sydney.
2006 Warmun Art Centre Presents. Mary Place Gallery, Sydney.
2006 Gentlemen of Warmun. Seva Frangos Art, Perth.
2006 Bungle Bungles. Short St. Gallery, Broome.
2005 New Works from Warmun. Framed Gallery, Darwin.
2005 Gija: across the border. Raft Artspace, Darwin.
2005 Waterhole Country. Short St. Gallery, Broome.
2005 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2005 Waterhole11. Grant Pirrie in association with Raft Artspace, Sydney.
2003 Masters Show. Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs.
2003 True stories: Art of the East Kimberley. Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney.
2003 Framed Gallery. Darwin.
2003 Artist in Residence Exhibition. Coomalie Culture Centre, Bachelor, NT.
2002 Framed Gallery. Darwin.
2002 Munumburra: Wise old men from Warmun. Artplace, Perth.
2002 Im Land Ist Das Sein (Land Is Life, Art from Australia) Agdschloss. Granitz, Binz, Rugan, Germany
2002 Warmun Group Show. Flinders University Gallery, Adelaide.
2002 Collectors Show, in association with Seva Frangos. Span Gallery, Melbourne.
2002 Group Show. Framed Gallery, Darwin.
2002 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne.
2002 Flinders University Art Museum. Adelaide.
2002 Easter Show. Bett Gallery, Hobart.
2002 Native Title Business Exhibition - Australia wide, to 2005
2001 Past Modern. Short St. Gallery, Broome.
2001 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2001 Das Verborgene im Sichtbaren, Staedtische. Galerie Wolfsburg (with Aboriginal Galerie Baehr, Speyer), Germany.
2001 New Paintings from Warmun Art Centre. Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane.
2001 Chapel off Chapel. Melbourne.
2001 Collectors Show. Bett Gallery, Launceston and Hobart.
2000 Bett Gallery. Hobart.
2000 This Earth for Us: Australian Dreaming. Commonwealth Institute, London, Bristol & Edinburgh, UK.
2000 Limited Edition Prints. Chrysalis Publishing, Melbourne.
2000 Ben Grady Gallery. Canberra.
2000 Blickdicht-an und Einblicke Zeitgenossische. Adelhausermuseum, Freiburg, Germany. 2000 Traumpfade Zeitgenossische Malerei Australischer Aborigines, Stadtische Galerie. Traunstein, Germany.
2000 Kunst der Aborigines. Galerie Baehr, Germany.
2000 Melbourne Art Fair (Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi). Melbourne.
2000 State of my Country . Hogarth Galleries, Sydney.
2000 The Art of Place. National Indigenous Heritage Art Award. Canberra (selected to tour).
2000 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1999 Short St. Gallery. Broome.
1999 Karen Brown Gallery. Darwin.
1999 Hogarth Galleries. Sydney.
1999 Hale School Annual Art Award. Perth.
1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi. Melbourne.
1999 East Kimberley Art Award. Kununurra, WA.
1999 Japingka Gallery. Perth.
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Artbank, Sydney.
Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne.
Banks Collection, USA.
Broadmeadows Health Service Collection, Victoria.
Coomalie Culture Centre, Northern Territory.
Edith Cowan University Collection, Western Australia.
Gavan Fox Collection, Adelaide.
Harding Family Collection, Queensland.
Harland Collection, NSW.
Kaplan Collection, USA
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth.
Murdoch University Collection, Perth.
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
National Australia Bank, Sydney.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Nibberluna Collection, Tasmania.
Parliament House Collection, Canberra.
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria Collection, Melbourne.
Ron Whyte collection, Sydney.
Strachan Collection, Melbourne.
Wesfarmers Collection, Perth.
Awards
2012 Winner. Bankwest Contemporary Art Prize.
Extracts of Reviews and writings about the artist.
Patrick Mung Mung is a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder in the Warmun Community in the East Kimberley. Painting with natural pigments on canvas is a significant aspect of his art practice. His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family, land and work are powerful influences in his work. Like his late father, George Mung Mung, Patrick is a strong cross-cultural communicator. Mung Mung’s work is influenced by the previous generation of Warmun artists for their raw directness and composition; these artists include Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji. Mung Mung was born at Spring Creek and worked as a stockman for many years on Texas Downs Station and nearby stations in the East Kimberley. He was the last worker to leave Texas Downs when it closed in the 1970s. In 1991 following his father’s death, it fell to Mung Mung to accompany his father’s carving Mary of Warmun to Canberra for the exhibition Aboriginal Art and Spirituality at the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Mung Mung, which was to see him take on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick Mung Mung started painting in 1991 and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. Mung Mung is a current member of the Warmun Art Centre Committee.
http://www.gabriellepizzi.com.au/artists/gabriellepizzi_patrick_mung_mung.html
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Patrick Mung Mung is a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder at Warmun Community in the East Kimberley. Painting with natural earth pigments on canvas is a significant aspect of his art practice. His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family, land and work are powerfully linked in his work. Like his late father, George Mung Mung, Patrick is a strong crosscultural communicator. Mung Mung's work is influenced by the previous generation of Warmun artists, which include Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji - in its raw directness and composition. Mung Mung was born at Spring Creek and worked as a stockman for many years on Texas Downs Station and nearby stations in the East Kimberley. He was the last worker to leave Texas Downs when it closed down in the 1970s. In 1991 following his father's death, it fell to Mung Mung to accompany his father’s carving ' Mary of Warmun' to Canberra for the exhibition 'Aboriginal Art and Spirituality' at the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Mung Mung, which was to see him take on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick Mung Mung started painting in 1991, and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. Since that time, Mung Mung has led Gija performances of the Gurirr Gurirr around Australia and in Paris and Canada. Themes Aerial maps of Ngarrgoorroon country Jarlarlu country - Patrick's father's country Ngarranggarni stories from Texas Downs Station country Stories about station life Yunurrel (Spring Creek) country, Patrick's birthplace
http://sevafrangosart.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Patrick-Mung-Mung.pdf
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Born around 1944 at Yunurrel (Spring Creek), Patrick Mung Mung is a senior Gija elder who lives at Warmun in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Mung Mung was a leading figure in the establishment of the Warmun Art Centre, which has produced many of Australia’s prominent Indigenous artists including the late Rover Thomas. Mung Mung began his arts practice after the passing of his father, George Mung Mung, who was an equally respected elder and an artist of national acclaim. In 1991 Patrick accompanied his father’s carving Mary of Warmun to Canberra for the exhibition Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, an event that is credited as the genesis of his extensive art career. Like many Indigenous artists, Mung Mung has had a long career in the cattle industry. Working as a stockman for Texas Downs Station and others in the East Kimberley area allowed him to remain on and near “country” and to live alongside his family, who were strong in culture. This accumulated knowledge of country and kin has had a lasting influence on his art. Mung Mung uses soft and hard palettes of natural pigments extracted from his local surrounds. His paintings tell of the Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) stories, the stories of Jarlarlu his father’s country and more recently of Ngarrgooroon country, which is characterised by hilly terrain and waterholes. The narratives are often presented as landscapes, comprising creamy sections of colour that vary in size and shape. These are sewn together by white dotted lines that simultaneously join and separate the composition, as well as provide movement across the canvas. This style of dotting is a traditional technique commonly used in the region, as is the flat view that Mung Mung adopts. Mung Mung has had five solo exhibitions in Perth and Melbourne, and his work has been selected for many group exhibitions in all states, including the 17th, 18th, and 22nd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award of 2000, 2001 and 2005, and for several exhibitions in Germany. His work is represented in numerous state and private collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Parliament House Collection, Canberra, Artbank and the Kerry Stokes Collection. Carly Lane. http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/documents/MungMungCOPY.pdf
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Mung Mung is a senior artist and elder statesman in the Warmun Community which is situated at Turkey Creek in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region. Mung Mung was instrumental in establishing the community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. He is currently chairperson of the Warmun Art Centre. Ngarragoorroon Country depicts Mung Mung’s family country which is located north of the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park. This area is abundant with hilly terrain and waterholes. The artist’s family spends most weekends here camping, fishing and hunting for bush tucker. Patrick’s work is influenced by the previous and highly regarded first generation of Warmun artists, including his father George Mung Mung and Rover Thomas. Patrick’s work has similar lyrical and compositional features and like his predecessors, his paintings have a fine and elegant quality. Mung Mung’s knowledge of his country and family’s cultural memory are powerfully related through his art. The artist possesses a quiet wisdom and, like his father, is a strong cross-cultural communicator.
http://www.ccpr.murdoch.edu.au/art/acquisitions/patrick_mung_mung.html
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Patrick Mung Mung is a senior artist at Warmun Art Centre and an elder at Warmun Community in the East Kimberley. Painting with natural earth pigments on canvas is a significant aspect of his art practice. His knowledge of his country and his cultural memory of family, land and work are powerfully linked in his work. Like his late father, George Mung Mung, Patrick is a strong crosscultural communicator. Mung Mung's work is influenced by the previous generation of Warmun artists, which include Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji - in its raw directness and composition. Mung Mung was born at Spring Creek and worked as a stockman for many years on Texas Downs Station and nearby stations in the East Kimberley. He was the last worker to leave Texas Downs when it closed down in the 1970s. In 1991 following his father's death, it fell to Mung Mung to accompany his father’s carving 'Mary of Warmun' to Canberra for the exhibition 'Aboriginal Art and Spirituality' at the High Court of Australia. This occasion marked the beginning of a journey for Mung Mung, which was to see him take on his father’s role of senior artist, law and culture man. Patrick Mung Mung started painting in 1991, and was instrumental in establishing the artist-and-community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998.
http://www.paddingtonartprize.com.au/images/pap/2010/artists_cvs/mung-mung-patrick.pdf
situated at Turkey Creek in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region. Mung Mung was instrumental in establishing the community-owned art centre at Warmun in 1998. He is currently chairperson of the Warmun Art Centre. Ngarragoorroon Country depicts Mung Mung’s family country which is located north of the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park. This area is abundant with hilly terrain and waterholes. The artist’s family spends most weekends here camping, fishing and hunting for bush tucker. Patrick’s work is influenced by the previous and highly regarded first generation of Warmun artists, including his father George Mung Mung and Rover Thomas. Patrick’s work has similar lyrical and compositional features and like his predecessors, his paintings have a fine and elegant quality. Mung Mung’s knowledge of his country and family’s cultural memory are powerfully related through his art. The artist possesses a quiet wisdom and, like his father, is a strong cross-cultural communicator.
http://www.ccpr.murdoch.edu.au/art/acquisitions/patrick_mung_mung.html
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