Outstation Gallery is currently working closely with 16 Aboriginal Art Centres based in remote communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia.

Arnhem Land is a vast area of Aboriginal owned country across the North East corner of the Northern Territory.  At roughly 97,000 km2 it is bigger than Austria or Hungary and twice the size of Switzerland.  It stretches from the rocky escarpment on the western side of Kakadu National Park through floodplains, billabongs, and paperbark forests, down to white sand beaches lined with whispering casuarina trees along the top edge of Northern Australia.

As diverse as the geography, the art centres from this region produce work that often shares interconnected stories through similar forms, materials, and techniques – bark painting, woven fibre work and wood carving – with new contemporary interpretations unique to locale.

Learn more about the art centres in Arnhem Land that Outstation Gallery works with.

The Anangu people linked by their languages of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara are known collectively as the APY Lands (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara). Situated in the remote north-western pocket of South Australia, most of the art centres are nestled amongst the Mann, Musgrave, Tomkinson and Everard Ranges.

The APY region produces a diverse range of artwork, with each community marked by their own tjukurrpa (deep sacred history and lore) and creating paintings that often trace the journey of creation beings across the land.

Work from this region is represented in many public institutions and prominent private collections both nationally and internationally.

Learn more about the art centres in the APY Lands that Outstation Gallery works with.

Art of the Central Desert is defined by the area at the lower end of the Northern Territory centred around the township of Alice Springs.

Sharing borders with the Western Desert into WA and the APY Lands into South Australia, art of the Centre is connected to story, country, community and culture.

Learn more about the art centres in the Central Desert that Outstation works with.

Facing the Indian Ocean on its north-western edge, the Kimberley sits at the topmost part of Western Australia. Closer to Darwin than to the Perth, the region is marked by a rugged landscape with dramatic seasonal shifts. Torrential rain fills waterholes and gorges, runs down escarpments to form waterfalls below. Like much of the neighbouring Top End, areas become impassable in the Wet Season.

Artists from the Kimberley often use richly applied natural ochres, mapping country and creation.

Learn more about the art centres in The Kimberley that Outstation works with.

The Tiwi Islands, 100 km north of Darwin, comprise of Melville Island, Bathurst Island, and nine smaller uninhabited islands, with a combined area of 8,320 square kilometres.  Lying at the junction of the Arafura and Timor seas, the islands are marked by their history of isolation, and as such the art work is often very different in subject and stylistic innovation to their mainland counterparts.

Learn more about the art centres on the Tiwi Islands that Outstation Gallery works with.

The Pilbara region lies in the north west of Western Australia.  Now famous for its iron ore and mining, it’s also known for its stunning ancient landscapes of red rock and gorges, spinifex and coastal beauty.  There is evidence dating back at least 50,000 years of traditional culture including the world’s largest collections of Aboriginal engraved rock art.

Many remote desert communities across the Western, Great Sandy, Sandy and Gibson desert share their art through centres at Port Hedland, Newman and Roebourne.

Many of the artists paint memories of their country from pujiman (bush) days, as well as stories of powerful and dangerous creation beings.

Learn more about the art centres in Arnhem Land that Outstation Gallery works with:

Stretching west of Alice Springs, crossing borders with the Northern Territory and South Australia, is an isolated landscape of red dust and big sky.

Some of the works from this region between the Gibson and Victoria Deserts are interconnected with the neighbouring APY lands, but distinct and separate as revealed by their interpretation of law and country.

The small township of Tjukurla servicing Tjarlili artists, share familial connection with nearby Warakurna to the south. Communities at Tjuntjuntjara and Ilkurlka are some of the remotest places in Australia, and home to the dynamic, diverse and vibrant, Spinifex Arts Project.

Learn more about the art centres in the Western Desert that Outstation Gallery works with.