The Inland Sea

FIONA OMEEYO
Born: 1981 Lockhart River QLD
Region: Eastern Cape York Peninsula
Language: Umpila
Lives & works: Cairns, QLD

Born in the remote community of Lockhart River on the Eastern Cape York Peninsula, Fiona Omeenyo was taught the traditional ways of the area including fishing and gathering food, activities she still enjoys passing down to her children and grandchildren. Fiona was also a founding member of the Lockhart River ‘Art Gang’ established in the 1990s.

Fiona is best known for her figurative arrangements symbolic of ancestral spirits and nurturing family stories. Fiona has exhibited nationally and internationally and travelled to the USA and UK with her exhibitions. In 2016 she began a series of new sculptural commissions of her work for both private and public locations in Brisbane.

MICHAEL EATHER
Born: 1963 Launceston, TAS
Education: 1980-83 Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture Major) Visual Arts Teaching Tasmanian School of Art/University of Tasmania
Lives and Works: Brisbane, QLD

Born and educated in Tasmania Michael lived and travelled in the Northern Territory before settling in Brisbane. Since 1985 he has continued to work as a multi-disciplinary artist as well as a gallerist, project curator and consultant with extensive experiences across contemporary Indigenous art forms and issues. In 1990 he co-founded Campfire Group Projects aligned with collaboration and cross-cultural initiatives. He is Director of FireWorks Gallery, a commercial enterprise established in 1993. In 2019 he established Ghost Ship Studio in Newstead where he continues to make sculpture and painting including collaborative artworks. Michael has had 25 solo exhibitions and been involved in over 50 group exhibitions nationally and internationally.

My country Pathacy (Chester River near Coen) that’s where my Grandmother is from.  My figures are about family and country. I do my painting to carry my culture on and so my children will know our stories. 

With an intuitive confidence for colour and composition and a desire to reveal an implicit Indigenous narrative, Fiona explores the essential notions of family and connectedness in her paintings. Beginning as a teenager as part of the famed Lockhart River Art Gang, Fiona is comfortable painting both small and larger scale works developing her distinctive technique over many years. The artist often builds rich textures of blended colours, scraping through the layers revealing her recognisable imagery and figures and coastal landscape forms. Whilst these may be reminiscent of some Quinkan rock art iconography (of Laura near Cooktown, FNQ) Fiona explains that her figures are a personal interpretation of togetherness - her own family and spirit.

Accordingly the artists’ themes constantly revolve around bloodline, kinship and connectivity. A continuous relationship with past and present is expressed through the artist’s sense of line and space (both positive and negative). The figures are at once families involved in day-to-day activities such as fishing and hunting or exploring the human condition.

Courtesy of the artist and FireWorks Gallery 2021.

Artwork will be delivered and installed in your space. When your rental period is complete your artwork will be collected and returned to HireWorks at FireWorks.