Alair Pambegan continues his ancestors’ traditions with innovative sculptures and paintings that use the distinctive red, white and black ochre from his Country in Cape York Peninsula. Pambegan is custodian for Kalben-aw (Flying Fox Story Place) and Walkaln-aw (Bonefish Story Place), two significant ancestral narratives and story places along the Watson and Archer Rivers that run into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Selected Works
Selected Works
earth pigments on found rakes
Collection of Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Alair Pambegan and Tony Albert
ochre on wood, 11 painted bullets
Collection of Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
acrylic on canvas
180 × 150 cm
acrylic on canvas
180 × 150 cm
acrylic on canvas
100 × 100 cm
acrylic on canvas
100 × 100 cm
About
Alair Pambegan
Biography
Alair Pambegan is a Wik-Mungkan artist from Aurukun, on the western Cape York Peninsula in North Queensland. He is the son of the late Arthur Koo’ekka Pambegan Jr a respected elder, lawman and artist, and continues his father’s custodianship of Kalben-aw (Flying Fox Story Place) and Walkaln-aw (Bonefish Story Place), two significant ancestral narratives and story places along the Archer and Watson Rivers that flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Deeply grounded in the traditions passed down to him, Pambegan carries forward Wik-Mungkan cultural knowledge through painting and sculpture. His practice spans abstract canvases and large-scale installations crafted from milkwood, ochre and charcoal, drawing inspiration from his father’s law poles and ancestral stories.
Pambegan’s work has been exhibited extensively and is represented in major public collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Southern Australia, Australia; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia.
Alair Pambegan, Wik-Mungkan people.
Courtesy Wik & Kugu Arts Centre, Aurukun.
Sullivan+Strumpf acknowledge the Indigenous People of this land, the traditional custodians on whose Country we work, live and learn. We pay respect to Elders, past and present, and recognise their continued connection to culture, land, waters and community.