Ngarru Gallery in Port Douglas is one of only three Australian galleries that will be featured in the Affordable Art Fair to be held in Hong Kong in May this year.

Specialising in Indigenous fine art, Ngarru Gallery owners and directors Roberta Mazur and Nicola Hood see themselves as showcasing the best Australia has to offer.

“We have a strong specialist field in Aboriginal fine art, which is Australia wide not just regional,” said Ms Mazur.

Working with the pinnacle of respected and well-known Aboriginal artists in the industry, their philosophy, first and foremost, is offering the best Australia has to offer in fine art.

It is a busy time for the gallery.  They will also be exhibiting at the Asia Contemporary Art Show in March. This is the second year Ngarru Gallery have exhibited at the show and following last years exhibition, they received an email from the Affordable Art Fair inviting the gallery to apply to exhibit for the first time in this year’s event to be held in Hong Kong.

“We submitted our application and we were accepted at the end of last year, we are pretty excited,” said Ms Mazur.

Out of over 100 galleries, being one out of three in Australia chosen to exhibit “shows us as a premier gallery, and it’s nice for Port Douglas”, she said.

Nicola Hood said it was an honour and privilege to be selected for the event.

“We are very proud to exhibit our local and lesser known artists from this region and it is an incredible privilege to showcase these artists on the world stage,” she said.

Another kudos for the gallery arrived when the Affordable Art Fair director emailed them offering an additional five metres of exhibition space in collaboration with the FRESH exhibition to be incorporated into the Affordable Art Fair event.

“We have been personally selected along with only a handful of other exhibitors, to feature our artist Gloria Petyarre Tamerre at the very front of the event.

“Gloria Petyarre Tamerre is an icon in Aboriginal art from Atnangkere and Utopia in the Northern Territory,” said Ms Mazur.

Winning multiple awards, Gloria has a collection exhibited nationally and internationally.  Her collections are in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, to name a few. She also has collections in the British Museum, Seattle Modern Art Museum and the Singapore Art Museum.

Gloria paints the traditional women business subjects that are predominate in Utopia.  She paints the leaves of the bush medicine tree. As Gloria paints she recalls songs that her mother use to sing whilst preparing the traditional medicine from leaves. Gloria specialises in acrylic on Belgium linen.

“This is another wonderful opportunity for Port Douglas to be recognised as a significant place to source fine art.

“We are delighted to showcase our region and Indigenous Australian art at such a prestigious event,” said Ms Mazur.

With 45 Ngarru Gallery fine art works now on their way to Hong Kong, Roberta and Nicola are preparing to head off next Wednesday in time to set up their exhibition spaces; first at the Asia Contemporary Art Show in March and following, the Affordable Art Fair in May, both held in Hong Kong.