JACK TEEHAN | DATE 4/17/2026

Watershed moments in Australian Aboriginal modernism

Drawn exclusively from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Stars We Do Not See offers a rare opportunity to experience some of the most significant examples of modern and contemporary Australian Indigenous art. Charting watershed moments in Indigenous art from the late nineteenth century to the present, this exhibition reveals a rich history of creativity that far predates colonial contact. Dhambit Munuŋgurr’s bark painting Djirikitj-Wop! (2020) is emblematic of the innovations of contemporary aboriginal artists. It is customary that artists from Munuŋgurr’s community only paint using ochres from their ancestral lands, but after a 2005 car crash, with community experts agreeing she could no longer be expected to grind traditional ochres used for bark painting because of limited dexterity in her right hand, Munuŋgurr began working in acrylic paint. Starting with tones of red, orange and yellow, reminiscent of natural ochre, Mununggurr came to her now famous bright blue acrylic in 2019. Depicted in this artwork is djirikitj, the quail, who in Ancestral times picked up a burning twig from a fire and flew away with it, dropping it at a paperbark swamp to symbolize sacred fire, rebirth and renewal—a testament to the resiliency of aboriginal creativity. Published to accompany the exhibition opening at the Denver Art Museum this weekend, The Stars We Do Not See features a glossary of Indigenous Australian language terms, a 5000-word essay on the history of Indigenous Art in Australia, and texts on more than 150 pivotal First Nations works of art.