Cooee Art to Art Leven
Australia’s oldest Indigenous gallery, Cooee Art, will relaunch as Art Leven, ushering in a new era for the gallery under the stewardship of long-term owner and Director, Mirri Leven.
While maintaining its strong focus on Indigenous art, Art Leven will expand its gallery model to exhibit non-Indigenous alongside First Nations artists through specially curated individual projects. The new gallery vision will focus on transparent dialogue, offering an opportunity beyond the ordinary commercial relationship between artist and gallery, fostering an environment of openness and direct exchanges between artists. Art Leven will work directly with First Nations curators, art centres, and represented artists and continue to travel regularly to remote areas of Australia to develop its exhibition program.
Recently, Art Leven travelled to the remote town of Lajamanu in the Northern Territory, bringing along Sydney artist Neil Ernest Tomkins for a weeklong painting workshop at Warnayaka Arts, alongside Warlpiri artist Kitty Napanangka Simon. The art centre’s Warlpiri owners opened a common space giving artworks room to communicate
