Zane Saunders

A descendent of the Butchilla tribe of Fraser Island, Zane Saunders has lived in Kuranda for most of his life. he grew up exploring the rainforests and fishing and swimming in the Barron River with his brothers and sisters, and has travelled extensively on Cape York Peninsula:

My Spirituality – and the people and the culture – are the basis of my work. InShadows in the Dust, I a, interested in how the old people kept up their cultural practices through those times when it wasn’t allowed. The stockcamp became their life but they were always in contact with their aboriginality and the bush.

Zane is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Northern Territory University Collection and the Holmes a Court collection. In 1994, he represented Australia at the Dreamspeaker’s conference, Canada.
Collections
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
University of Queensland, Anthropology Museum, Brisbane
Individual Exhibitions
2006 Lone Guinea Fowl: Exhibition: Paintings, Installation, Sculpture & Performance KickArts, Cairns
2006 Danceweek 06: – Performance & Installation, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2006 NAIDOC: – Performance, Kuranda
2006 Envirofiesta ‘Mother Story’ – Performance
2006 On Edge: Live Art in Public Space – Performance outside Cairns Regional Gallery, Cairns
2007 Being A Medium: Performance and Installation, 3 Nights in collaboration with File_Error JUTE Theatre, Cairns
2008 On Edge, LAPS Program, Cairns – Performance
2008 Yarrabah Community: Performance
2008 On The Edge: Group Exhibition – Paintings & Performance – Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2008 TKRP ‘Fire Management’ project: Performance, Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns
2009 Mofo Gallery ‘Parcel’ – Installation Works & Performance
Group Exhibitions
1987, Pacific International Hotel, Cairns;
1988, Ageless Art, Queensland Museum, Brisbane; South Pacific Festival of Art, Townsville; Cairns Art Society 42nd Annual Exhibition.
1989, Cairns Art Society Annual Exhibition, Qld; Rockhampton Community Arts Centre; Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne.
1990, Balance: views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane; The Seventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1992/3, New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia.
1993, Time and Tide, Adelaide Festival Centre Foyer, Adelaide, and touring
1994, Urban Focus, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Don’t leave me this way, art in the age of AIDS, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
Awards
1988, Cairns City Council Purchase Award; 1988, Cairns City Bicentennial Community Committee Art Scholarship; 1988, Grafton House Galleries Award, Cairns; 1990, Professional Development Grant for six months, from the Aboriginal Arts Unit of the Australia
Bibliography
Eglitis, A., 1990, ‘Zane Saunders,’ Special Double Issue Artlink 10(1&2), 87. (C) ; Isaacs, J., 1989, Aboriginality: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland. (C) ; 1990, Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, exhib. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. 1996 Shadows in the Dust, exhibition catalogue, Wild Pony Pty Ltd