Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Ngak Ngak the Hunter, 1999

Lot description

GINGER RILEY MUNDUWALAWALA c.1936 - 2002 Ngak Ngak the Hunter, 1999 acrylic on Arches paper 55 x 71cm (image); 84.1 x 98.5cm (framed) signed front bottom center ‘Ginger Riley'; Alcaston Gallery stamp verso; AK4733 PROVENANCE Alcaston Gallery, Victoria, Cat No. AK4733 The Collection of Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE, Sydney, New South Wales Accompanied by the original receipt and letter from Alcaston Gallery EXHIBITED Ginger Riley: Always at Home, August - September 1999, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Vic Ginger Riley Munduwalawala's paintings are grounded in the Country of his mother, near the Limmen Bight River, where a network of ancestral events defines the landscape. Central to this is the area of the Four Arches, a site shaped through the actions of powerful ancestral beings whose presence continues to structure both place and story. Riley's work brings these events into view, not as distant history, but as something ongoing, witnessed and held through painting. The composition presents Yumunkuni, also known as Beatrice Island, brought into being by Ngak Ngak the Sea Eagle, the artist's totem. Figures emerge across the surface, including Garimala and Bulukbun, whose actions form part of a larger sequence of creation and consequence. Bulukbun rises from the sea in response to a ritual performed incorrectly, introducing a moment of tension within the broader narrative. Surrounding forms and repeated V-shaped elements draw from body paint designs, framing the scene and reinforcing its ceremonial context. © GINGER R MUNDUWALAWALA / Copyright Agency, 2026