Tjala Arts

In January 2009 Tjala Arts was acclaimed by the Australian Art Collector as one of five art centres to keep an eye on in the next few years.

The artist cooperative is located in Amata, the largest community in the Western APY Lands, right up in the northwest of South Australia.

Tjala is the word for honey ant in Pitjantjatjara. That means bush tucker on the one hand, on the other hand it is the Tjukurpa, the story of creation of the Amata region, which is reflected in many works.

Tjala Arts was founded in 1999 by the women of the region. Since then many successful artist careers have evolved here, among them Hector Burton (50 most collectable artists 2011) and Ray Ken. But also young talents like Tjungkara and Sylvia Ken or Barbara Mbitjana Moore (Open Painting Award - Telstra 2013) bear witness to the enormous artistic potential of the art centre.

Tjala Arts is known for its variety of styles, for its dynamic and complex patterns and rich colour palette but also for its large-scale collaborative works, one of which is in the collection of Alison and Peter W. Klein (KUNSTWERK) in Germany.

Photos (f.l.t.r.): Alison Riley in front of her work (Peoples Choice Award) at the Telstra Art Award 2011 © ARTKELCH Entrance sign in front of the art centre in Amata © ARTKELCH Wawiriya Burton and Ruby Williams with Robyn Kelch selecting paintings for Pro Community 2011 © ARTKELCH