Saturday 3 September -  Sunday 30 October 2022 | Main Gallery

Utopia Batik highlights key artworks from Tamworth Regional Gallery's Fibre Textile Collection. These assembled pieces include works from some of Australia’s most prominent artists of the Eastern Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people, centred at the remote community of Utopia, 270 kms north east of Alice Springs.

First introduced into the Utopia community in the 1970s, Batik was largely adopted by women in the community who used the wax resist technique to depict the layered nature of Tjukurrpa stories – surface and hidden knowledge. Over time the batik technique of layering, was adopted by artists in their painting to create artworks distinctive to the Utopia community of artists.

Tamworth Regional Gallery’s fine collection of Utopia batiks and related artworks has been built through the foresight of curator Gillian McCracken, who in 1998 undertook a reconnaissance tour into Central Australia whilst researching potential art works for inclusion in "Many Voices Touring Exhibition" Tamworth Textile Biennial. Subsequently three silk batiks were selected for inclusion in the Textile Biennial Exhibition and were later acquired into the Tamworth Regional Gallery’s Fibre Textile Collection. Thus began a cultural collaboration between Utopia batik artists and the gallery that has culminated in the presentation of a significant body of archival artwork known as the Utopia Collection Bequest to Tamworth Regional Gallery.