Garry Namponan

Garry Namponan was born at the Presbyterian mission at Aurukun, on the western coast of Cape York Peninsula. His clan is Apalech and his language groups are Wik-Alkan on his Father’s side and Wik-Ngathan on his Mother’s side. His traditional homelands are south of Aurukun: Aayk, Kirk River and Cape Keer-Weer, which is the location of his family home. Namponan works across a range of media including sculpture, printmaking, book illustration and painting.
Garry studied art at the Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Northern Territory in the early 1980s and is one of the leading carvers of the Wik and Kugu Art and Craft Centre at Aurukun.
Collections  
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Vic
Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney NSW
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
Group Exhibitions
2009  Ina’ngeen – Sculpture and Paintings from Aurukun,  Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Sydney NSW
2008  Aurukun 2008, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne Vic.
2007 – PUULWAY:Wik and Kugu Totems – Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne Vic.
2006 – Carved from the Cape – Indigenous Sculpture from the Cape York Peninsula, Australian Art Resources, Melbourne Vic
2006 Imagine … The Creativity Shaping our Culture, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne Vic.
2005 New Directions from Aurukun, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne Vic.
2004  Artists from Aurukun: Wik Kaa’th Pii’tha – Wik Stories of our Dreams, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
2003  Story Place, Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Qld.
2002 – 2005  Native Title Business – Contemporary Indigenous Art, a national travelling exhibition.
2002  Kank Inum, Nink Inum, Old Way, New Way at Coolum Qld.
Bibliography 
Aird, M.,1993, Campfire Consultancy, Queensland.
Queensland Art Gallery, Story Place, Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, QAG, Brisbane, 2003.
Sutton, P., ‘Bark Painting by Angus Namponam of Aurukun’, Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 30 (3), pp. 589-598, Brisbane, 1991.
Sutton, Peter & Bosse, Joanna, Puulway: Wik and Kugu Totems – Contemporary Australian Sculpture from Aurukun, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, 2007.
Winter, Joan., Native Title Business, Contemporary Indigenous Art (Catalogue), Keeira Press, Qld, 2002.