Oceanic Art Society

Promoting the understanding and appreciation of Oceanic art.

All published stories from the OAS Journal

Sydney Oceanic Art Fair – SAOF 2021

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by Bill Rathmell The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions lifted in Sydney in time for SOAF 2021 to be held, complete with masks and vaccination checks at the National Art School on Saturday 6 November. The crowd seemed very happy to be seeing objects and art in the real – as opposed to in a digital format! […]

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When plastic becomes sacred, George Nuku’s Bottled Ocean project

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By Garance Nyssen On 14 July 2019, in the port district of the Gabut in La Rochelle, south-western France, George Nuku was hurrying to finish a large whale made from transparent green, blue and red bottoms of plastic bottles[1]. Children had been making jellyfish all afternoon with the help of Nuku and Mathilde, his spouse, […]

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Hermannsburg: the Barossa Connection

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By Sally Goers Fox This recent exhibition in the Barossa Regional Gallery in Tanunda, South Australia highlights the longstanding relationships and reciprocity between the Barossa Valley and the Hermannsburg/Ntaria community of Central Australia.[1]  It is a tangible representation: revealing to the community not only the art which has stemmed from the Hermannsburg school of watercolour […]

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Pacific artists respond to Matisse

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Matisse Alive exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales 23 Oct 2021 – 3 April 2022 Review by Margaret Cassidy Artist projects from around and across the Pacific, including significant collaborative projects by Pacific Islander artists form a significant part of the contemporary response to work of Henri Matisse in the Art Gallery […]

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Massim canoes in the Milne Bay Province,Papua New Guinea

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by David Payne The traditional canoes of the Massim region of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) are colourful, stylish, and sophisticated. These traditional wooden canoes are woven into the fabric of the culture with their origins dating back through countless generations, yet they are still being made and they are extraordinary. […]

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Man Who Cannot Die – Phantom Shields of the New Guinea Highlands – Book launch talk

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Chris Boylan These shields are from the New Guinea Highlands and a major feature is their colour. This is very much part of the New Guinea tradition to have colourful shields so that when the warriors are out fighting in the hills and the valleys the shields stand out very strongly from the landscape. These […]

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Man Who Cannot Die – Phantom Shields of the New Guinea Highlands

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2021, 296 pages, Edited by Jonathan Fogel, with contributions from Chris Boylan, Bruce Cree, Hubert Langmann, Kevin Patrick, and Jessica Lindsey Phillips.  Sydney & Toronto: Boylan and Phillips. Reviewed by Noelle Rathmell-Stiels Published just weeks after the comic book superhero, The Phantom, celebrated his 85th birthday, this new book will appeal to everyone interested in a unique […]

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Georgina Beier 1938 – 2021

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By Keith Jackson Georgina Beier, called the ‘founding mother’ of contemporary art in Papua New Guinea, died in Sydney on Sunday 11 July 2021 aged 82. Her husband, Ulli Beier (1922–2011), was a German editor, writer and scholar who pioneered the development of literature in Nigeria and Papua New Guinea. Caption: Georgina Beier, Mathias Kauage, Ulli […]

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