Dawn Ngala Wheeler

Dawn Ngala Wheeler

Skin name:     Ngala
Language:     Luritja, Western Arrarnta
Date of birth:     1953-01-12
From:     Hermannsburg
Community:     Ntaria : NT

Dawn was born in 1953 in Hermannsburg. She is the daughter of Pastor Peter Buller, a Lutheran missionary of whom she has fond memories of, and recalls learning to make music sticks from him. Dawn married in 1970 and has two daughters, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild. They live at their outstation near Ntaria – Rrirrkathathaka (Red Sand Hill).

Dawn draws on the landscape around her, her love of her father’s country, who’s memory has inspired her to maintain links to her Luritja heritage through her art practice. Dawn is a precise and methodical potter, and her style has been noted for her considered figurative story telling.

Exhibitions

1997 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1998 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1998 Hermannsburg Potters, National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1999 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1999 All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2000 Hermannsburg Potters: Aranda Artists of Central Australia, New Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2000 Women’s Work – Our Imagination in the Bowls, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2000 This Earth For Us, Commonwealth Institute, London, England
2000 Hermannsburg Pots, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2001 Pmara Nunakana Larkama – Our Sparkling Country, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2001 Nunaka Pmara Mara Inthorra – Our Beautiful Country, DESART Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2001 Pots, Prints and Paintings, Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
2002 Nanah Etatha Nunaka – This is Our Life, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2002 Pmara Nunakana – Our Country, Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
2002 Pmara Nunaka, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia
2002 Hermannsburg Potters, Thornquest Gallery, Southport, Queensland, Australia
2002 Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2003 Hermannsburg Potters in Paint, Thornquest Gallery, Southport, Queensland, Australia
2003 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2005 Aranda Landscapes 2005, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2005 Arrkutja Wurra, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2005 Hermannsburg Pottery, Painting Exhibition, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2005 The Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2006 Pmara Nurnaka Etata – Our Land is Alive, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2006 Melbourne Art Fair, represented by Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2006 Iltja nurnaka Urrkaapuma – From Our Hands, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2006 Hermannsburg Potters, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2006 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2007 The Women’s Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2007 Classic Ceramics and Oil Paintings, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Hermannsburg Potters 2011 – Stories from Clay, Australia
2007 Hermannsburg Life, Craft Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2007 24th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
2007 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2007 Indigenous Ceramics, SoFa Chicago, United States of America
2008 Nanah Etatha Nuka – This is our Life, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2009 Iltja Nunaka Orkapurna Ntari – Hand-made from Hermannsburg, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2010 Themes of the Central Desert: New ceramics by the Hermannsburg Potters, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2011 Desert Mob 2011, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2011 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2012 Desert Mob 2012, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2012 Hermannsburg Potters 2012. All Things Clay, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2013 Air Born, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, Australia
2013 The Hermannsburg Potters – New Hand-built Pots & Sculpture, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2014 Hermannsburg Potters – New Marks, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2015 Our Land is Alive – Hermannsburg Potters for Kids, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Provenance Does Matter – The Collectors’ Exhibition, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Pmara – Country, Home, Map, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Provenance Does Matter – Living with Contemporary Art II, Alcaston Gallery at Gallery 369, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
2016 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2016 Ltharta, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2017 Clay Stories, Sabbia Gallery, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
2017 Time and Tide, Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia.
2017 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2017 Irna: Trees, Alcaston Gallery, Victoria, Australia
2017 Clay Stories, Seppeltsfield, South Australia, Australia
2018 Clay Stories, Araluen Arts Centre, Northern Territory, Australia.
2018 Lurpa, Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Major Commissions:

1994 Mural for the Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1996 Relief tile murals for main entrance and throughout the Alice Springs Desert Park, Northern Territory,

Collections

University of Technology Queensland
University of New South Wales
Parliament House
Kerry Stokes Collection
Australian Institute of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies
Gordon Darling Foundation
National Gallery of Australia
Queensland Art Gallery
National Portrait Gallery
National Gallery of Victoria

Artworks

Lilla Outstation and Lyerrtjina (Budgerigar)
Dawn Ngala Wheeler
  • $2,500.00