Danny Nalorlman Djorlom


Born:		1952
Died:		Sept. 2005		
Country:	Gunbalanya  [Oenpelli]
Clan:		Djalama		
Language: 	Kunwinjku

Subjects and Themes: 
Luma Luma, crocodile, Mimi Spirits, Yawk Yawk Spirits, Goanna, Kangaroo, Rainbow Serpent.

Collections held:	
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide. 
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 
Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Canberra. 
Seasons of the Kunwinjku
    
Exhibitions:	
1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; 
1993, Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait 
Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art] 
1993/4, ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein
Westfalen, Dusseldorf; 
Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark,
1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria
1996, The Thirteenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery 
of the Northern Territory, Darwin 
December 1993 Editions Southbank Melbourne Vic. 
April 1994 Indigenart Perth WA 
December 1994 Aboriginal & Tribal Art Gallery The Rocks Sydney NSW 
February 1995 Savode Gallery Brisbane QLD 
May 1996 Framed Gallery Darwin NT
      
Select Bibliography:
Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, 
exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. 

1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works 
by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed 
by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C) 

1994, Kunwinjku Art from Injalak 1991-1992, The John W. Kluge Commission, Museum 
Arts International Pty. Ltd., North Adelaide.

Details

Danny Djorlom is the son of the late famous bark painter, Yirawala, whose works hang 
in major art galleries both in Australia and overseas.  He is about 40 years of age, 
married with one child. Danny was taught to paint by his father when the family lived 
at a beach camp on Croker Island, off the mainland of Western Arnhem Land, in the 
Arafura Sea, and attended the local school.  As there were no jobs on the island, 
however, apart from a labouring job in a housing project, he reverted to the 
traditional way of life, fishing, hunting and learning the art of painting on bark.

Each time he went through an age-grading ceremony his father passed on to him more 
and more details of sacred myths relating to the history and religion of his tribe, the
Kunwinjku.  Danny's works are now keenly sought after by art galleries and private 
collectors.  He has travelled interstate, and is represented in the Art Gallery of 
Victoria, private collections and in authentic art books. When Yiriwala died, Danny 
left Croker Island and went to live at Oenpelli.  Here he learnt to paint on Arches 
Rives paper (100% compressed cotton), and now produces traditional myths both on bark 
and on paper. He divides his time between Oenpelli and the island of his birth, and is
the keeper of all the legends passed down to him by his father. 

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