Pictured: Artists Roderick Yunkaporta and Craig Koomeeta with the Pack of Camp Dogs purchased by the Queensland Art Gallery and currently on show at the Gallery of Modern Art exhibition 21st Century: Art in the First Decade.
Avril Quaill is the new artistic director of the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair and sees this year’s event as a chance to boost links between local artists and the international arts market.
The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair promises huge exposure for local artists when it returns this spring.
It's the third fair and this time its artistic direction is in the hands of Indigenous artist Avril Quaill.
Avril says the fair is an international drawcard.
"Increasingly the industry is turning its gaze to Queensland with collectors coming from around Australia but also from North America, and Europe," she said.
"Once you have curators coming and purchasing, this gives a signal to the rest of the arts industry that (the subject) artist is worthy of collecting or buying. The value of the work increases immediately."
Last year's Cairns Indigenous Art Fair saw about $700,000 of art sales, as well as 10,500 visitors to three days of art, dance, music and debate.
Avril predicts further increases in sales and visitors for this year's third fair, set for 19–21 August.
"We're looking at a wider audience," she said.
"The target audience will include those people who stay in the five-star hotels, as well as the arts industry from around Australia and international visitors who continuously come to Australia looking for the newest 'art star' in Australian Indigenous art.
"CIAF has established itself as a groundbreaking event (that is) increasingly being recognised as a truly unique celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture."
Avril has definite plans for the event.
"I'm looking forward to seeing new works by established artists (working) in new mediums that they’re not particularly known for," she said.
"I'm also looking forward to seeing works by emerging artists who have been mentored by other artists, not necessarily from their own communities, but artists who have worked collaboratively with major artists from other regions and in, say, media such as performance, film and newer technologies of digital media.
"I think that's what's going to create the excitement in 2011 (to) enhance the more 'traditional' art forms such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, and fibre works."
Avril was announced as the fair’s artistic director in November and moved to Cairns in February. For her part, it's a move to bring her closer to the artists and art of the region.
Avril is a Nunukul woman with clan associations to the Goenpul and Nuigi people of Moreton Bay.
She established herself as an artist in the early 1980s and is a founding member of the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Sydney. She has held senior curatorial positions at the National Gallery of Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery.
"(This new role) is an opportunity for me to get back to the field, to meet artists on the ground, looking at their work; and investigating their processes of art making in contemporary times," she said.
"I feel I can bring a lot of energy and curatorial experience to the role. I am Aboriginal from Queensland. I think I'm bringing a lot of experience in the arts, having worked in Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts industry for the last 25 years."
Turning point
Avril believes Queensland's Indigenous arts industry is at an exciting point of its history.
"Interestingly, Queensland Indigenous artists are getting known overseas," she said.
"It's an interesting period for Queensland in that those mature artists are coming back to live in Queensland and they've brought back those (international) networks with them. They've started to do mentorships, working with emerging artists in their ancestral regions."
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