21 October - 15 November 2025
The solo exhibition ‘Tjukurrpa’ celebrates the life and work of Shorty Jangala Robertson (c. 1925–2014).
Born in the remote desert northwest of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory, Shorty lived his early years completely immersed in traditional life.
Before contact with non-Aboriginal Australia, he travelled with his family across the landscape, learning the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) stories and ceremonial practices that would later inform every brushstroke of his artistic practice.
Shorty came to painting much later in life, first picking up a brush in the late 1990s, painting full time in 2000 at Warlukurlangu Art Centre.
Shorty’s journey from bush born lawman to celebrated painter is a story of cultural endurance and artistic transformation. His paintings are not just visual compositions, they are maps of knowledge, sites of memory, and ceremonial narratives.
Shorty's works reflect a strong adherence to traditional iconography, with concentric circles, sinuous journey lines, and dotted infill depicting ancestral narratives. His use of bold colours, dynamic compositions, and gestural brushwork became hallmarks of his mature style.
This exhibition brings together works from across his career, each canvas a living testament to the depth, complexity, and beauty of the stories he carried, and to his legacy as both a custodian and innovator of one of the world’s oldest continuous artistic traditions.
Shorty’s works have been exhibited widely in Australia and internationally and his work held in major national and international collections, both public and private.
