Current exhibition #2

The ‘3-pla’ exhibition is currently on show at UMI Arts gallery space.

3-pla is a collaborative exhibition of three Indigenous artists using three different mediums across three different art forms: wood carving, digital imagery and ceramics.

Kel Williams, Ian Jensen and Robert Romelo first met in 2009 at the Cairns TAFE while enrolled in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts course. Together, they have extended and developed their artistic skills and knowledge via a collaboration which they believe complements each other’s creative abilities. Working in this way has enabled the group to build on their artistic knowledge and experiences acquired personally and collectively over the years.

Born in Cairns, Kel Williams has both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. Under the guidance of his parental grandfather, a wood carver from Thursday Island, Kel commenced learning the art of carving at the age of ten. “My grandfather specialised in carving fish”, says Kel, “but I showed a preference for carving Aboriginal figures and Australian native animals.” After a long career in boat building, Kel is now running his own business as a professional artist in woodwork.

Ian Jensen is a local Yidinji-Murri from Gordonvale. His clan-group is the Lower Coastal Yidinji from the Mulgrave River and Russell River areas. His artwork encompasses a range of mixed mediums, including digital imagery, acrylic, creative designs (logos, etc), prints, craft work and painted artefacts. “My style and creative approach focuses on the ‘nowtime’ more so than the ‘dreamtime’”, says Ian. “My art works are primarily influenced by contemporary style and techniques, but with strong, secondary influences that I draw from traditional Yidinji abstract design.”

Robert Romelo was born in Gordonvale. His father is a Yidinji man, and his mother is from Old Mapoon (Thanakwithi). Robert has always been an artistic person, specialising mainly in the creation of ceramic art works. “My style and techniques in ceramics are greatly influenced and inspired by my Grandaunt, Thancoupie, from whom I graciously adopt the stories she told me years ago about our spiritual and cultural ways of our land, sea and animals. My cultural identity is a combination of both my Mother’s and Father’s traditional countries, and it’s the stories from them that also find their way into my art pieces”.

In addition to the group’s three key art forms, a selection of other artworks including paintings, Murri artefacts, lino-cut and digital prints will also be showcased.

The UMI Arts office and galleries are located at 335 Sheridan St, North Cairns. It is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.