Ever since its inception in the early 1970s, the contemporary Aboriginal art movement in Australia has been continually developing and expanding to embrace an ever widening group of artists, communities, and artistic styles. Focused almost exclusively on works created during the past ten years, the installation Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from Australia, on view through June 27, presents a selection of fourteen canvases by both well-known and emerging indigenous artists from Australia's central desert, where the movement originated, as well as from the Kimberley region and the Tiwi Islands, exploring some of the work that artists in these areas are producing today.

Managing Editor Michael Cirigliano talks with Associate Curator Maia Nuku about the art-making traditions explored in the exhibition On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift.

An installation of 14 bold and colorful paintings created by contemporary Aboriginal Australian artists will go on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 15. Drawn from a U. S. private collection, Contemporary Aboriginal Painting from Australia will provide an introduction to Aboriginal painting, which has become Australia's most celebrated contemporary art movement and has attained prominence within the international art world. The installation will present works created primarily over the past decade by artists from the central desert, where the contemporary painting movement began, and from adjoining regions, to which the movement spread. The works on view—all of which have never before been on public display—will feature paintings by prominent artists, including some of the founders of the contemporary movement, as well as emerging figures. This is the first presentation of contemporary Australian Aboriginal painting to be held at the Metropolitan Museum.