TENNANT CREEK BRIO

The gallery’s three exhibition levels are transformed into A Gutful of Gold. The underground space becomes a system of passages lined with painted solar panels, explosive ordnance maps, and slot machines. Above, the upper levels carry the weight of both the mythological and material histories of Tennant Creek, intertwined with the legacies of 20th-century global industrialism. Through painting, welding, and re-making, these objects are reimagined in the collective’s gutsy signature style, evoking the boom-and-bust cycles of Australia’s industrial past and the artistic futures taking shape along, and beyond, the Stuart Highway.

Tennant Creek Brio is a cross-cultural artist collective that fuses local histories, regional and global art influences, and First Nations perspectives. Their transformative creative energy reflects the collective’s name: an audaciously punk, collaborative energy born of a frontier community’s resilience.

Notable exhibitions include participation in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020), the Cross Section exhibition at Cassandra Bird in Sydney (2024), and their first major survey, Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis, at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne (2024).

Artists: Fabian Brown Japaljarri, Lindsay Nelson Jakamarra, Rupert Betheras, Joseph Williams Jangarrayi, Clifford Thompson Japaljarri, Jimmy Frank Jupurrula, Marcus Camphoo Kemarre, Eleanor Jawurlngali Dixon, Gary Sullibhaine and Lévi McLean with collaborator Jonathan Leahey.