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Timo Hogan – 2021 Telstra Art Award winner

10 September 2021
Culture and Capability
A man wearing dark pants and without a top stands on semi-arid and grassy soil. Behind him is a large black and white painting. In the background are a few trees, a flat landscape and darkening sky.

Timo Hogan, a Spinifex Arts Project painter from Tjuntjuntjara in Western Australia is the 2021 Telstra Art Award winner.

Timo Hogan from the remote community of Tjuntjuntjara in the Great Victoria Desert of Western Australia is the 2021 Telstra Art Award winner.

The award is the main prize in the annual Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards competition.

Timo is one of the youngest artists (late 40s) at the Spinifex Arts Project where he paints and this is the first year an artist from the Spinifex Lands has won such a prestigious award.

Before he took to painting full-time, Timo worked as a bus driver picking up the older people and taking them to and from the studio. He also has held the position of director for the Spinifex Arts Project Aboriginal Corporation for the last 3 years helping the Art Centre to grow in strength for all the artists living in Tjuntjuntjara.

Timo is incredibly proud that his place, Lake Baker, and his painting Lake Baker 2020, have been recognised with this award.

The painting depicts the Tjukurpa (creation) of the lake.

Extract from Catalogue: Pantjutjara – Timo Hogan: an exhibition in association with Spinifex Arts Project 7-29 August at Outstation Gallery, Darwin

‘For here at Lake Baker, Timo tells of the Tjukurpa within the landscape and the inhabitants that made it so. He surveys the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Men Creation Line) of his birthright and brings this into focus on the two-dimensional plane for all to see.’

‘Timo depicts the Two Men as the physical manifestation of two small grass knolls upon the lake itself. The two men carefully monitor the lake’s expanse as the ever present Wanampi (powerful water serpent) departs his kapi ngura (home in the rock hole) and becomes the fearful, commanding presence as he defines the perimeter of the lake, always watching, always aware of the Two Men. It is this interaction and movement between the residents of the lake that is ever present and allows Timo the creative latitude of a constantly changing landscape.’

Read the judges’ comments about Timo and the artwork at 2021 Winners.

Find out more

Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) is Australia’s longest running and most prestigious art awards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. Each year the Awards showcase an incredible range of contemporary artworks from across the country.

The 2021 Telstra NATSIAA finalists will be on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin from 7 August 2021 to 6 February 2022. The works will also be available to view in the online gallery.

Read about the 2020 NATSIAA winner Iluwanti Ken who is preparing a path for young artists.