Mukayi Baker, “Piltati” 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 121 cm, Courtesy Ernabella Artists
Exhibition “CREATURES OF ALL TIMES” explores the theme of animals in Australian Aboriginal art in its traditional and contemporary dimensions: creation ancestors, spirit totems, food, tool providers and companions. Bringing together a wide variety of works by Aboriginal artists living in very different regions of Australia, the exhibition highlights the powerful connection that Australia’s first peoples have with animals, plants, and, more broadly, nature and the Earth.
For millennia, and still today in remote and regional Australia, Aboriginal traditional owners have cared for their land, drawing on their traditional knowledge and skills, and have in recent years played an essential role to protect threatened and vulnerable species.
With colonisation came the introduction of new species, which resulted in the extinction of many endemic species. In remote Australia, Indigenous peoples have lived in harmony with animals, embracing the new species while preserving the biodiversity and the natural resources. And in cities, many Indigenous Australians have maintained and value this connection to the land, the sea, the human and non-human beings, and all that connect them.
With over 50 artworks using a variety of techniques and media, including paintings, sculptures, bark, prints, ceramics and textiles, the exhibition celebrates Australian wildlife and the diversity of artistic expressions of Australia’s First Nations peoples, and offers a reflection on our connection to the living world.
Exhibition organised by social enterprise IDAIA in collaboration with the artists and their Aboriginal artist cooperatives, in partnership with New Angles – Five Seeds and with the support of the Australian Embassy in France.
Practical information:
10 April – 26 July 2025
Special events:
- Programme in preparation
Venue:
Espace New Angles
8, passage du Grand Cerf
Paris 2e – France
Passage entrance: 145 rue Saint Denis or opposite 49 rue Montorgueil
Métro: Les Halles – Etienne Marcel – Sentier
Admission: free entry
Opening times:
- Thursday – Friday: 16:30 – 19:30
- Saturday: 11:00 – 18:00
- And by appointment
>> Questions and exhibition catalogue: info@idaia.fr
The artworks come from 10 official Aboriginal artist cooperatives:
Barkly Artists, Tennant Creek, Northern Territory
Babbarra Women’s Centre, Maningrida, Northern Territory
Boomalli Artists, Sydney, New South Wales
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Artists, Northern Territory
Ernabella Artists, Pukatja, South Australia
Ikuntji Artists, Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory
Maningrida Artists, Maningrida, Northern Territory
Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Northern Territory
Waringarri Artists, Kununurra, Western Australia
Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu, Northern Territory
Staged in the magnificent and atypical exhibition space at the heart of the Passage du Grand Cerf in Paris, the works are available for sale to generate income for the artists and co-operatives, and to help support the ethical and sustainable Australian Aboriginal art sector.