Aboriginal art galleries in Flinders Lane
Formerly Melbournes textiles industry precinct, Flinders Lane is now lined with boutiques and galleries, including several commercial galleries that sell work by Aboriginal artists.
Start your walk at the top of the city near Treasury Gardens and call in at Aboriginal Galleries of Australia (corner of Spring Street). Here the walls are lined with the dots and designs of colourful canvases based on important cultural stories, and sculpture by contemporary artists from the central desert, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kathleen Petyarre and Clifford Possum.
Continue along Flinders Lane to Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, which has represented contemporary Aboriginal art since 1983, sourcing the best works from desert and urban artists and dealing exclusively with community representatives. The gallery houses a wide range of paintings, sculpture, fibreworks, photography and installation. Represented artists include Papunya Tula, Leah King Smith, Christian Thompson, Julie Gough, and Lorraine Connelly Northey.
Near the corner of Russell Street, Flinders Lane Gallery shows three major (group and solo) exhibitions of work by central and western desert Aboriginal artists working at Utopia, Spinifex, Papunya and more each year. They have worked closely with Aboriginal artists and communities for the past 17 years, and were the first Melbourne gallery to show the colourful paintings of renowned Utopia artist Minnie Pwerle.