Design and Art Australia Online

Val West

Val West states, “My 'Woven Stories’ body of artworks represent connections to the Dreaming and to the land through feeling deeply connected to the South Coast, NSW, Dharawal Nation through experiences lived, family, friends, collegues and to my families Aboriginal Nations of Walgett, Brewarrina & Dennawan NSW which are the Gamilaraay, Wailwan & Murrawarri Language Groups. Intrinsic to my 'Woven Stories’ artworks is also the interwoven stories inspired by the woven organic of South Coast and North Western NSW weaving – 'Woven Stories’ references continuing connections to the Dreaming through songlines represented by intricately interwoven strands of weaving, 'Ancestral twine’ (Spirit Bird Xavier Rudd), and includes skills and techniques of weaving that have been handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. My 'Woven Stories’ artworks also represents the continued practice of contemporary weaving today with traditional techniques and materials which continues to keep the Dreaming present.”

In 2009 Wollongong City Gallery, Pallingjang Saltwater 2009 exhibition was developed by Wollongong City Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW, Wollongong City Council, Arts NSW, Australian Governments Indigenous Support Program of the Development of the Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts. Sixteen South Coast Aboriginal Artists were selected to exhibit artworks and included a print component, print workshops were facilitated and artworks printed by Master Printmaker Tom Goulder at Duck Print Fine Art Studio.

Johnathan Jones (AGNSW) kindly states, 'The detailed study of flora is echoed in the woven imagery of Val Law (West), with her Woven Stories print series. Woven forms, like that seen in the sculptures of Julie Freeman and Phyllis Stewart who both weave with local grasses, vines and bark, often decorated with nuts, shells and feathers, are translated into print media by Law, who brings together the different strands or threads of life to create a whole sense of self. Her work, like that of her peer Regina Pilawuk Wilson (b.1948) from Peppimenarti in the Northern Territory, is a filigree of lines forming and re-forming, referencing her earlier line design work.’ Johnathan Jones – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW. Wollongong City Art Gallery,Pallingjang Saltwater Together Dreaming 2009, pg 24.

Sheona White (AGNSW) kindly states 'The Gallery was very honoured to have Uncle Vic Chapman (Yuwaalaraay), the first Aboriginal primary school headmaster in Australia and artist in his own right, as part of it’s team of dedicated Gallery Guides. He and local artist Valerie Law (Gamilaroi) also became workshop tutors at the Gallery and provided invaluable insight, information and support through the complex subjects that arose in relation to Indigenous art at the Gallery. Local artist Kevin Butler soon joined Uncle Vic and Valerie as local Indigenous artists at the Gallery, when in 1997 he was selected as the Gallery’s annual Resident Artist. The art of all three was represented in the inaugural Pallingjang exhibition and subsequent exhibitions since then.’ Sheona White Curator Pallingjang Saltwater 1997 and consultant curator Pallingjang Saltwater 2009. Currently working at the Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW. Wollongong Art Gallery, Pallinjang Saltwater 2009 – Together Dreaming screen 15, 34, 24 & of 164. Pallingjang Saltwater 2009 Catalogue, Wollongong City Art Gallery p.g 7, 14, 24 & 25, 2009.

[PDF]Pallingjang Saltwater – Together Dreaming
togetherdreaming.com/wp-content/uploads/.../catalogue_low_res.pdf

Duck Print Fine Art Limited Editions, Pallingjang Saltwater 2009, Wollongong City Art Gallery & Art Gallery of NSW AGNSW http://www.duckprintfineart.com.au/pallingjang2009/

Val West(Law) states “My 'Community Artworks’ body of artworks is inspired by Dreaming stories taught to me by respected Elders and Storytellers June Barker, Lorraine Brown and Francis Bodkin, and is also inspired by the landscape, seascape, fauna and flora experienced while living in the Illawarra, South Coast NSW.”

Collections

5 artworks by Val West(Law) collected in the Wollongong Art Gallery Permanent Collection from 1996-2012

Gaygar Duck and Platypus Dreaming
Val West (Law)
acrylic polymere on canvas, 1996

Gamilaroi
Val West (Law)
polymer acrylic, ochers on board and cloth, 1998

Woven Stories 8
Val West (Law)
aquatint etch on paper, 2009
Master Printmaker Tom Goulder,
Printed at Duck Print Fine Art Gallery,
For Pallingjang Saltwater 2009 Exhibition,
Wollongong City Art Gallery,
Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW.

Woven Stories
Val West (Law)
aquatint etch on paper, 2009
Master Printmaker Tom Goulder,
Printed at Duck Print Fine Art Gallery,
For Pallingjang Saltwater 2009 Exhibition,
Wollongong City Art Gallery,
Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW.

Water lilies Dreaming
Val West (Law)
aquatint on paper, 2012
Master Printmaker Tom Goulder,
Printed at Duck Print Fine Art Gallery.

University of Wollongong Permanent Collection

Family Reunion
Val West (Law)
acrylic polymer on canvas, 1986

Exhibitions 1995 – 2014

2014
Boomalli Aboriginal Artist’s Cooperative
$300 Dollar Donation Exhibition

2011
Parliament of New South Wales Aboriginal Art Prize exhibition
Parliament of New South Wales
Campbelltown Art Centre
COFA College of Fine Art.

2009
Pallingjang Salt Water 2009
Wollongong City Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW, Wollongong City Council, Arts NSW, Australian Governments Indigenous Support Program of the Development of the Environment, Heritage, Water and the Arts.

2009
On This Island
NG Art Gallery&
Duck Print Fine Art Studio

2009
Scarf Exhibition
Edmund Rice College

2009
One Year On
Vision and Space Gallery

2008
Sorry day Exhibition
Vision and Space Gallery

2008
Continuing the Circles Exhibition,
Vision and Space Gallery, Deidre Armstrong

2007
Print makers Inaugural Exhibition Vision and Space Gallery Art Arena and Project Contemporary Art Space.

2007
Milestones Art Heritage and
Place Exhibition.
University of Wollongong
Project Contemporary Art Space.

2007
Collected Women’s Exhibition
Wollongong City Gallery.

2008
NAIDOC Week Exhibition Vision & Space Gallery.

2004
Peoples Choice Exhibition
Wollongong City Gallery.

2002
Pallingjang Salt Water 111
Wollongong City Art Gallery.

2000
Mum Shirl Tribute Sacred Trust of Memory Exhibition. Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative.

2000
Diriyay (War Cry) Aboriginal Expo Homebush Sydney.

2000
Boomalli Exhibition Boomalli
Aboriginal Artist Cooperative.

2000
Pallingjang Salt Water 111
Wollongong Cty Gallery Wollongong City Council.

1999
Boomalli Members Exhibition
Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative.

1998
NAIDOC Visions exhibition
Wollongong City Gallery exhibition toured to
Parliament House of New South Wales

1998
NAIDOC Visions exhibition
Wollongong City Gallery.

1998
NAIDOC Week Exhibition
University of Wollongong.

1997
Pallingjang Salt Water Exhibition
Wollongong City Gallery.

1996
Looking Into Aftertime
Project Contemporary Art Space.

1995
Unjustified Project Centre for
Contemporary Art Space

Artworks In Publication

1999
Boomalli Aboriginal Artist Cooperative,
artwork titled Earth, Wind, Fire and Water by Val West (Law)Printed Cards.

1999
NSW Reconciliation Council
Commissioned Val West (Law)
Logo painted for 1999, NSW reconciliation Council Conference.

2000
NSW Reconciliation Council
Poster printed of artwork titled Bridge over Troubled Waters
Collaborative artwork Kevin
Butler and Val West ( Law )

2000
NSW Department of Aboriginal
Affairs, printed postcards for
NAIDOC 2000 artwork Bridge over Troubled Waters

2009
Wollongong City Gallery
Pallingjang Saltwater 2009
Woven Stories pg 16, Woven Stories 8 pg 24, Woven Stories 10 pg 25.

2010
NSW Department of Aboriginal
Affairs poster re-printed of collaborative artwork titled Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Collections
Wollongong City Gallery.
Wollongong University.
Private Collections New Zealand the UK and Australia.

Community Artworks – Murals

2014 Holy Spirit College, Welcome Poles of Kindness, Peace and Respect.

2006 Engadine Primary School

2007 Grays Point Primary School

2008 Keiraville Primary School

2008 Wollongong Botanic Garden Discovery Centre with Keiraville Primary School After-school Art Class Collaborative Mural.

2008 Corrimal Primary School

2008 St Francis Xavier Wollongong Primary School

2009 Penshurst Primary School

2011 Corrimal High School Collaborative Mural Project In2Careers Corrimal High School.

Community Artworks – Public Art Commissions

2000
Oak flats cycle and Walkway Project. Shellharbour Council commission for artworks drawing of Whale Starfish Shell & Dolphins artist Val West (nee Law). Embossed in sets from Shellharbour Village to Oak Flats by Shellharbour Council. Project Coordinators Sue Barnett and Ashley Frost

2001
Ribbonwood Neighbourhood Youth Courtyard Mosaic Project.
Wollongong City Council.
Project Coordinator Cultural Services
Primary Artists
Tori de Mestre, Janett Clauston and Val West ( Law )
Commission to assist the facilitation
with Dapto High School mosaic workshops
and with the collaborative mosaic construction of the Mosaics for the Youth Courtyard.

2006
Six Daughters of the West Wind
Merrigong Environment Sculpture Project.
Wollongong City Council.
Project Coordinator Cultural Services Sue Bessell. Primary Artists Tina Lee and Alison Page. I was selected as an Artist for clay hand forming for lilly pillies tiles at the base of one of the sculptures titled Six Daughters of the West Wind Merrigong Environment Sculpture at Mt Keira.

Awards

2004
Deans Merit Award, Outstanding Academic Performance,
Bachelor of Creative Art, Visual Art.
Wollongong University

2004
Contribution to Public Artworks
Wollongong City Council

Education

• Bachelor of Creative Art Visual Art, University of Wollongong, UOW.
• Certificate 1V Training and Assessment TAFE.

*Statement of attainment Ceramics Hand forming Practice, West Wollongong Technical and Further Education. *Child Care Certificate. *Certificate in Child Care Studies. *Completed most of the Bachelor of Teaching, University of Wollongong. *Completed most of a Post Graduate Diploma in Vocational Education & Training VET, University of Sydney UTS

Writers:

vwest
Platypus

Date written:

2015

Last updated:

2017

Val Law, painter and printmaker, was born in Walgett, NSW in 1965. Law’s artistic career began in 1995 when she exhibited in “Unjustified”, a local NAIDOC group exhibition at the Project Centre for Contemporary Art, Wollongong. The following year she exhibited again in Project’s NAIDOC exhibition, “Looking into Aftertime”. Tess Allas curated both of these exhibitions.

In the mid 1990s Law spent time with Roy and June Barker in North West NSW, who told her local Dreaming stories. These stories were about Biamee (God), the creation era, Platypus Dreaming and how the platypus came to be. These stories became a feature of Law’s early paintings. In 1997 Law joined Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative as an artist-member and exhibited with them that year in their annual “Artist Members” show. She also participated in the “Seeing the Forest For the Trees” exhibition and the “Mum Shirl” tribute exhibitions at Boomalli in 1998 and 2000 respectively.

Law’s work has been included in all three Wollongong City Art Gallery “Pallangjang” exhibitions including the highly successful “Pallangjang III” touring exhibition co-curated by Vic Chapman. John Monteleone, of Wollongong City Gallery wrote of Law’s work in the “Palingjang III” catalogue essay that her “visual approach is delicate, spiritual and autobiographical.” In 2003 Nick Hartgerink wrote about Law in the catalogue for the “People’s Choice – The Permanent Collection of Wollongong City Gallery” exhibition stating, “Val’s work is inspired and inspiring. Her art has been an expression of self discovery as a member of the Stolen Generation. It is filled with wonder, hope and compassion, and an insight that comes from deep in her soul.”

In 2001 Law began an undergraduate course in Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, majoring in Visual Arts which she completed in 2004. In 2003 she was included in the Faculty of Creative Arts, Dean’s Merit List and in 2006 Law completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Vocational and Workplace Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Law has been a consistent community arts worker in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven districts of NSW. She has conducted workshops at the Wollongong City Art Gallery, taught art at the NSW Department of Technical and Further Education, Illawarra Institute and worked on numerous community art projects including the Shellharbour Foreshore Walkway and a mosaic at the Ribbonwood Neighbourhood Centre’s Youth Courtyard in Dapto. In 2004 Law received recognition from Wollongong City Council for her contribution to NAIDOC Week. In 2007 Law was still working in the area of community arts from her home base in Wollongong and has stated that this dedication to life long learning in creative arts, visual arts and adult education is strengthened through her practical experience, academic studies and facilitation of adult and further education within the visual arts industry.

Writers:

Allas, Tess Note:

Date written:

2007

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed