D LAN Galleries

31/05/2026

SIGNIFICANT | GEORGE WARD TJUNGURRAYI

“This painting depicts designs associated with Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Macdonald). In ancestral times, a large group of Tingarri Men travelled to this site from Kulkuta, south-west of the Tjukurla community in Western Australia. The Kuningka (Western Quoll, or Dasyurus geoffroii) Dreaming also travelled this same route.” - Luke Scholes

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Untitled – Kaakurutintjinya (Lake Macdonald) | 2003 synthetic polymer paint on linen | 153 x 183 cm (60.2 x 72 inches | New York / Lenapehoking

Photography:
© Fred Ward Tjungurrayi, courtesy of Warakurna Artists

30/05/2026

SIGNIFICANT | NAATA NUNGURRAYI

“The grid that Naata Nungurrayi creates to structure paintings like Untitled – Marrapinti is a key contribution to the evolution of Papunya Tula painting.

While the first generation of male painters organised the picture plane with dispersed dot fields and circle-and-line compositions based on Tingarri stories, Naata rearranged that surface into a sectional, compartmentalised system – clusters of dots bordered by black lines that both divide and connect. The outcome is neither a grid as a modernist device nor a map as a Western convention, but a culturally based system for expressing place, movement and relational space within Pintupi knowledge traditions.

In this work, the compartmentalised surface acts as topographic testimony: Country presented as relational knowledge, with each bounded field symbolising a place connected to the next.” - Vanessa Merlino

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Untitled – Marrapinti 2004 | synthetic polymer paint on linen | 153 x 122 cm (60.2 x 48 inches) | Sydney / Gadigal

SIGNIFICANT | 14 May - 26 June
D Lan Galleries MELBOURNE | SYDNEY | NEW YORK

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Photography: .ox
© Naata Nungurrayi/Copyright Agency 2026

30/05/2026

29/05/2026

We would like to congratulate distinguished Yolŋu leader and artist Djambawa Marawili AM on receiving the Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement at the First Nations Arts & Culture Awards.

Senior leader of the Madarrpa clan, Marawili continues to create works which assert the enduring sovereignty of Yolŋu people over land and sea. He is a caretaker for the spiritual wellbeing of his own and other related clans, and an activist and administrator in the interface between ŋäpaki (non-Yolŋu) people and the Yolŋu people of North-East Arnhem Land.

We are honoured to be presenting Marawili’s work Bäru at Yathikpa 2025, in SIGNIFICANT – a poignant work depicting the sacred miny’tji of Yathikpa and the ancestral story of Bäru, the crocodile carrying fire into the salt waters.

Marawili continues to shape the landscape of Australian art with extraordinary force and integrity. A leading voice for Sea Rights and one of Australia’s most celebrated bark painters, Djambawa Marawili’s contribution to contemporary Australian art and culture is immeasurable.

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Bäru at Yathikpa 2025 | earth pigments and synthetic binder on hollow log | 269 x 22 cm (105.9 x 8.7 inches) | Melbourne / Naarm

28/05/2026

D Lan Galleries, in association with Papunya Tjupi Arts, is proud to present My Voice, a solo exhibition of paintings by Carbiene McDonald Tjangala, in support of Flying Fox.

Carbiene’s luminous, rhythmic paintings have distinguished him as a powerful emerging voice from Papunya. His works balance intuition and structure, offering meditative fields of colour grounded in a deep connection to place and identity.

Flying Fox is a youth-led organisation creating inclusive social experiences for young people with disabilities. Through camps and community programs, it fosters friendship, confidence, and a strong sense of belonging.

My Voice brings together artistic excellence and social impact, supporting a more inclusive and connected community.

We invite you to join us for a preview of My Voice on Thursday 11 June, 6pm-8pm at Flying Fox, St Kilda.

RSVP to: [email protected]

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MY VOICE: A Celebration Of Art, Connection & Community
11-17 June 2026
146-150 Chapel Street, St Kilda
Melbourne / Naarm VIC 3182

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Details: Four Dreamings 2023 | synthetic polymer paint on linen | 152 x 183 cm | Melbourne / Naarm
© Carbiene Tjangala McDonald/Copyright Agency

27/05/2026

D LAN GALLERIES | LIAIGRE

We are thrilled to announce a collaboration between leading French design house Liaigre, and D Lan Galleries.

Liaigre will present a rare showcase of its distinct creations at the Lands by Capella in Sydney from April 21 to June 15 of this year.

Featured in the current issue of Vogue Australia, the collaboration continues a rich exchange between art, design and place. We are honoured to be apart of the dialogue between French and Australian creative expression and to showcase works by Australia’s preeminent and emerging First Nations artists.

The collection on view includes important works by artists such as Carbiene McDonald, Pepai Jangala Carroll, Ivan Sheperd and Roy Riwa. An extraordinary collection of nineteenth century artefacts will also feature.

We look forward to welcoming you to The Lands by Capella in Sydney until June 15.

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D LAN Galleries | Liaigre
April 21 - June 15
Monday to Saturday, 11:00am - 7:00pm


Photography: Nic Gossage

26/05/2026

SIGNIFICANT | NYAPANYAPA YUNUPIŊU

“It was once assumed that Australian First Nations art belonged to the past. Something fixed, preserved, rather than lived. Djorra is a quiet but powerful rebuttal to that assumption, and a measure of just how far that idea underestimated artists like Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu.”

D LAN Galleries Curator, Vanessa Merlino, discusses Djorra, one of the highlights of SIGNIFICANT 2026. We invite you to view this remarkable work in person, now on view in our Melbourne gallery through 27 June.

23/05/2026

SIGNIFICANT | EMILY KAM KNGWARRAY

“Painted at Delmore Downs in December 1993, Untitled marks a pivotal moment in Emily Kam Kngwarray’s career.

By the end of 1992, the Anmatyerr artist had entered her renowned ‘colourist phase’, and this work exhibits its subtler qualities: warm golds, soft pinks and sage green applied with a bouncing, dragging technique that moves across the surface with the rhythm and weight of women dancing in ceremony.

This work has an exceptional provenance. Acquired directly from Delmore Gallery in the Northern Territory, it became part of the Thomas Vroom Collection, one of Europe’s most prominent collections of Aboriginal art, which has been the foundation of the former Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht for over a decade, before passing to a private European collection.” - Vanessa Merlino

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Untitled 1993 | synthetic polymer paint on linen | 121 x 91 cm (47.6 x 35.8 inches) | New York | Lenapehoking

© Emily Kam Kngwarray/Copyright Agency 2026

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SIGNIFICANT | 14 May - 26 June
D Lan Galleries MELBOURNE | SYDNEY | NEW YORK

22/05/2026

We are thrilled to announce the launch of AFTER HOURS, a new late-night programme celebrating First Nations art and culture in our Sydney gallery.

With a changing event schedule of exclusive curator talks, workshops and immersive performances and screenings, AFTER HOURS will transform our gallery into an evening destination for art and conversation in the heart of Woollahra.

Launching with AFTER HOURS | SIGNIFICANT on Thursday, 4 June, we invite you to explore our annual exhibition featuring masterpieces by leading First Nations artists, and a talk with Curator Vanessa Merlino, accompanied by wine and nibbles.

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AFTER HOURS | SIGNIFICANT 
Thursday 4 June, 6-8pm
97-99 Queen St, Woollahra 
SYDNEY / GADIGAL NSW 2025

21/05/2026

SIGNIFICANT | MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA SALLY GABORI

“Makarrki 2009 is part of one of the most intimate and recurring themes in Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori’s work – the dulkiiwatha, or conception places, of her closest kin on Bentinck Island. Makarrki is the Country of her older brother King Alfred, a significant figure in Kaiadilt history.

Painted in 2009 during the mature phase of Gabori’s unprecedented late-life practice, Makarrki exemplifies her ability to hold landscape and kinship within a single gestural field.

The vertical format of the linen support, 198 x 101 cm (78 x 39.8 inches), invites the eye to move over the work as one might traverse a tidal landscape, colour fields dissolving and reforming across the picture plane. For Gabori, who began painting at eighty-one years of age having had no prior exposure to a graphic tradition, each work constitutes an act of cultural restitution, a reclamation of Country, language and love.” - Vanessa Merlino

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Makarrki 2009 | synthetic polymer paint on linen | 198 x 101 cm (78 x 39.8 inches)

Photography: .ox
© The Estate of Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori/ Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia

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SIGNIFICANT | 14 May - 26 June
D Lan Galleries MELBOURNE | SYDNEY | NEW YORK

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