Regina Pilawuk Wilson

Henry F. Skerritt, ed., Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, Reno and Munich, 2016, pp. 118-119

Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans, Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia from the Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, 7 September 2016 - 1 January 2017; additional venues: Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University, Miami, 28 January - 7 May 2017; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 23 September 2017 - 21 January 2018; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, 17 February - 13 May 2018; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 2 June - 9 September 2018; Museum of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1 November 2018 - 24 February 2019

In the monumental Syaw (Fishnet) Regina Pilawuk Wilson captures the physical expanse of a traditional woven riverine fishing net and the colours of dappled light playing on the surface of water. In her pictures Wilson translates the techniques of weaving traditional fishnets, carrying bags and sun mats in natural fibres coloured by plant-based dyes, into acrylic paintings of intense luminosity, enhanced by the marks of warp and weft. As is customary, a young Regina Wilson was educated in the techniques of preparing, dyeing and weaving fibre by her mother and grandmother and added painting to her repertoire later in life after attending the Biennale of Contemporary Art, Festival of Pacific Arts, in New Caledonia in 2000. While she continues to weave, painting has become Regina Pilawuk Wilson’s main medium. She is now recognized as one of Australia’s leading painters having exhibited at the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2009.

Wally Caruana