Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection the only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the exhibition and study of Australian Aboriginal Art. Admission and parking are free.

Join Kluge-Ruhe and the Collaborative Curation Lab of the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures on Thursday, S...
08/26/2026

Join Kluge-Ruhe and the Collaborative Curation Lab of the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures on Thursday, September 3 at 5:30 pm in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia for:

Jilarti (Brolga)

an award-winning artwork created by Pedro Wonaeamirri and performed by his nephew Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri. Colin is being asked to perform this work for the first time in an important moment of cultural stewardship.

This ground-breaking multimedia artwork is presented in conjunction with the exhibition 'Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association,' on view in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda.

A short Q&A and light refreshments will follow the performance. Please RSVP: https://kluge-ruhe.org/events/pedro-wonaeamirri-jilarti-brolga/

Images: 1. Pedro Wonaeamirri. Photo by Will Heathcote. 2. Film still from Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni and Colin Heenan-Puruntatameri's collaborative video “Kapala” (2024). Videography by Will Heathcote. Courtesy of the artists and Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Jilamara Basil Hall Editions

"Listening to the sounds of Country and feeling those footsteps of our Ancestors and being able to reconnect again. And ...
08/26/2026

"Listening to the sounds of Country and feeling those footsteps of our Ancestors and being able to reconnect again. And also celebrate that and share it. It’s been a really privileged experience working on regenerating our Quandamooka weaving." —Sonja Carmichael

Carmichael drew inspiration from the celestial bodies over Quandamooka Country when weaving these “story bags.” The lifecycles of Quandamooka weavers are deeply entangled with the cycles of Giibum (the moon). The artist wove these bags with ghost nets, or abandoned fishing nets and ropes, which she finds while walking the beaches of Minjerribah.

Images: 1&2. SONJA CARMICHAEL, "Giibum (Moon Phases, Story Bags)," 2025-26, installation of 5 woven bags, ghost nets, wire, fishing line, and other marine debris washed up on the shores of Minjerribah during changing tides.

3. Sonja Carmichael on Quandamooka Country collecting ghost nets that have washed up on the shores of Minjerribah. Photograph by Glynn Carmichael. Images Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.

University of Virginia UVA Arts

"Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Associa...
08/24/2026

"Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association" is now on view in the Upper West Oval Room of The Rotunda at the University of Virginia. The exhibition is curated by Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni and Emmy Monaghan.

Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association is an art and cultural center located in Milikapiti on the Tiwi Islands, situated off the mainland of the Northern Territory in Australia. Now nationally and internationally renowned within the contemporary art world, Jilamara originally began as a screenprinting shed in the 1980s.

All but one of the prints in this exhibition were produced during a series of etching and screenprinting workshops from 2017 to 2023 hosted by master printmaker Basil Hall. In this work, Pedro Wonaeamirri beautifully translates his jilamara (body paint design) that is used in his painting practice into the medium of print.

PEDRO WONAEAMIRRI, "Jilamara (Body Paint Design)," 2017, etching and screenprint on Hahnemühle paper. Printed by Basil Hall and Jonathon Larson. Gift of Basil Hall, 2023. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, 2023.0006.866.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Jilamara UVA Department of Art

"For me, it’s about our weaving practices and Yalingbila (humpback whales), which are of great significance to our peopl...
08/23/2026

"For me, it’s about our weaving practices and Yalingbila (humpback whales), which are of great significance to our people and Country. Along with traditional cultural practices, Yalingbila were almost eradicated when the largest whaling station in the Southern Hemisphere was established at Tangalooma on Mulgumpin. Yalingbila were nearly wiped out . . . slaughtered for ten years in our lifetime, and taken from the beautiful, sacred waters here, harpooned and hauled up on our Ngugi people’s place of belonging . . . the destruction versus regeneration, the same with the intent to erase us, and practices like weaving, and eradicate our Yalingbila population for wealth."
—Sonja Carmichael

Carmichael's solo exhibition, "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our Ancestors’ Hands – Story Bags" is on view through January 10, 2026.

Images:
SONJA CARMICHAEL, "Yalingbila (Humpback Whales) Dungu (Tears)," 2026, ghost net and shells. Photos 1 & 3 by Renata Buziak. Photo 2 by Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Creative Australia

A few spots are available for our upcoming weaving workshop with Charlottesville-based artist Lauren Williams on Septemb...
08/22/2026

A few spots are available for our upcoming weaving workshop with Charlottesville-based artist Lauren Williams on September 5 from 11 am - 1 pm.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn the basics of weaving on a handmade loom and will create their own small tapestry using a variety of materials. We will discuss the ins and outs of weaving and learn some important terms — warp, weft, shuttle, and more! All necessary materials will be provided, but participants are encouraged to bring in anything that they are interested in experimenting with — rope, fabric scraps, paper ephemera, etc. — to explore the ways that varied materials can change a woven piece. This workshop is geared toward adults, free to attend, and registration is required: https://kluge-ruhe.org/events/weaving-workshop-with-lauren-williams-2/

University of Virginia UVA Arts

Join us on September 17 from 5-7 pm for a reception at Kluge-Ruhe to welcome our fall 2026 resident artist, Sonja Carmic...
08/21/2026

Join us on September 17 from 5-7 pm for a reception at Kluge-Ruhe to welcome our fall 2026 resident artist, Sonja Carmichael.

Sonja Carmichael has been at the forefront of the regeneration of Quandamooka weaving. A Ngugi woman from Quandamooka Country, she lives and works on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island in southeast Queensland. In her flourishing artistic practice, Carmichael creates woven gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bags) using traditional fibers such as ungaire (freshwater swamp reed), as well as discarded ghost nets, fishing lines, and other marine debris found during her regular beach walks on Minjerribah. The gulayi she creates are now a powerful symbol of cultural resilience and renewal.

Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including Tarnanthi 2020: Open Hands, Art Gallery of South Australia; TarraWarra Biennale: ua usiusi fa’ava’asavili (2023), Tarrawarra Museum of Art; Seeds and Sovereignty (2024), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA); and On Country: Photography from Australia (2025), Recontres d’Arles, France.

We will be celebrating the opening of Carmichael's solo-exhibition, "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our Ancestors’ Hands – Story Bags" in our Focus Gallery.

All are welcome, light refreshments will be served.

Image: Sonja Carmichael. Photograph by Angie Simms. Courtesy of the North Stradbroke Island Museum on Minjerribah.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Creative Australia

Join us for JILARTI (BROLGA), an award-winning live performance by Pedro Wonaeamirri, on Thursday, September 3 at 5:30 p...
08/17/2026

Join us for JILARTI (BROLGA), an award-winning live performance by Pedro Wonaeamirri, on Thursday, September 3 at 5:30 pm in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.

Pedro Wonaeamirri is a renowned senior Tiwi artist and cultural leader who is also the current president of Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association in Milikapati on Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia.

This ground-breaking multimedia artwork celebrates the performative foundations of Tiwi artmaking, where songlines, dance and body ornamentation are central parts of the creative practice. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, on view in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda through January 24, 2026.

A short Q&A and light refreshments will follow the performance.

Presented by Kluge-Ruhe and the Collaborative Curation Lab of the Institute of the Humanities and Global Cultures.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Jilamara

"Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Associa...
08/16/2026

"Nginingawula Jilamara Ngirramini kapi Jurra | Our Art Stories on Paper: Printmaking at Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association" opens August 18 in the Upper West Oval Room of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.

The exhibition is curated by Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni and Emmy Monaghan, and showcases both the enduring legacy of printmaking at Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association and artists’ contemporary innovations. One such innovation is this gorgeous screenprint created by Woody during her spring 2026 artist residency at Kluge-Ruhe using ink made with natural ochers from her Country.

Images: 1 & 2: Michelle Pulatuwayu Woody Minnapinni, "Ngiya Murrakupupuni amintiya Jilamara (My Country and Art)," 2026, screenprint with natural pigments on BFK Rives paper. Printed by Thomas Dean and Jeremy Taylor. Gift of the artist, 2026. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, 2026.0003.001.
3. Woody paints the transparencies for her screenprint using a pwoja (ironwood comb) at Infinite Repeats in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Now on view in our Focus Gallery, "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our Ancestors’ Hands – Story Bags" is Sonja Ca...
08/13/2026

Now on view in our Focus Gallery, "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our Ancestors’ Hands – Story Bags" is Sonja Carmichael’s first international solo exhibition.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation titled "Wunjayi Wagaringya Quandamooka Jagun (Carrying Quandmooka Country Today) – Yarabin Ragi (Sea and Bush)," 2026. For this installation, Carmichael has enveloped an assortment of found materials from the land and sea in birrepi bunbi, or tiny woven gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bags), that hover above a bed of sand. There are 238 gulayi in this installation, one for each year since 1788, when colonization began in Australia.

The use of copper wire speaks to resistance and survival and connects to a collaborative work created by the artist and her daughter, Elisa Jane Carmichael, on view at the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC.

Images:

1. Visitors to the exhibition view the installation of Sonja Carmichael, "Wunjayi Wagaringya Quandamooka Jagun (Carrying Quandmooka Country Today) – Yarabin Ragi (Sea and Bush)," 2026.
2 & 3. Details of Sonja Carmichael, Wunjayi Wagaringya Quandamooka Jagun (Carrying Quandmooka Country Today) – Yarabin Ragi (Sea and Bush), 2025, installation of 237 birrepi bunbi (tiny gulayi or Quandamooka women’s bags) with gara (shells): quampi (shellfish), yugari (pippies), ginyingara (oyster); danggal (banksia nuts); tuckabin (grass tree); burney bean seeds; driftwood; fishing line; and sand. Photograph by Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Creative Australia

Opening tomorrow in our Focus Gallery is Sonja Carmichael's solo exhibition "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our ...
08/08/2026

Opening tomorrow in our Focus Gallery is Sonja Carmichael's solo exhibition "Cammeerangan Ngalin-ngur Gining | From Our Ancestors’ Hands – Story Bags."

Sonja Carmichael has been at the forefront of the regeneration of Quandamooka weaving. A Ngugi woman from Quandamooka Country, she lives and works on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island in southeast Queensland. Through weaving, Carmichael and her daughters—artists with whom she collaborates—have connected with the hands of their ancestors.

In her flourishing artistic practice, Carmichael creates woven gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bags) using traditional fibers such as ungaire (freshwater swamp reed), which continue to grow throughout Saltwater Country despite the devastating effects of colonization and climate change. She interlaces the traditional fibers with natural materials such as shells, as well as discarded ghost nets, fishing lines, and other marine debris found during her regular beach walks on Minjerribah. The gulayi she creates are a powerful symbol of cultural resilience and renewal.

Images
1 & 2: Sonja Carmichael, Mulgumpin Gulayi, 2026, ungaire (freshwater swamp reed) and 29 loose shells. Photo by Louis Lim. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.
3. Carmichael on Quandamooka Country holding ungaire (freshwater swamp reed) that she has collected. Photo by Glynn Carmichael. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.
4. Carmichael weaving a gulayi (Quandamooka women’s bag) with ungaire (freshwater swamp reed). Photo by Renata Buzak. Courtesy of the artist and Onespace.

University of Virginia UVA Arts Creative Australia

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