The Work

Painted at Aurukun on Cape York Peninsula, where three rivers meet the Gulf of Carpentaria, this work embodies Pambegan's distinctive visual language. Earth pigment from his Country mixed with acrylic and sand creates the grainy, tactile surface that anchors his semi-abstract compositions. The ochres; red, white and black, come directly from Kalben-aw along the Archer River. These aren't decorative choices but cultural continuity, the same pigments used in Wik-Mungkan ceremony for generations. Pambegan's paintings translate body-painting designs into canvas, patterns that carry ancestral narratives of Kalben (Flying Fox Story Place) and Walkaln-aw (Bonefish Story Place), inherited through his father, Arthur Koo'ekka Pambegan Jr.

Artist Position

ESTABLISHED. Pambegan carries custodianship of two major ancestral narratives inherited from his father Arthur Koo'ekka Pambegan Jr (1936–2010), revered lawman and artist featured in the 1st National Indigenous Art Triennial at NGA: Culture Warriors. His work is held in the Art Gallery of NSW, the Art Gallery of South Australia, QAGOMA, and the National Gallery of Australia. He participated in the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2018) at QAGOMA. Currently featured in the 5th National Indigenous Art Triennial at NGA, one of only ten artists selected by curator Tony Albert for what he describes as "the most seminal work of their careers”.

Market Intelligence

Pambegan's canvases through Wik & Kugu Arts Centre have traded in the AUD6,000-10,000 range for works of this scale. 2025 Indigenous Australian art auction sales reached AUD11.7 million in the first six months, a potential 50% increase over 2024's full year. Cairns Art Gallery commissioned and acquired Pambegan's Winchanam ceremonial works in 2021. His practice sits at the intersection of institutional validation and primary market accessibility.

Collection Rationale

This is an accessible entry for an artist with institutional credibility. Four major institutional art collections already holding his work. Father's legacy in inaugural Triennial establishes historical continuity; Alair's selection for 5th Triennial confirms contemporary relevance. The addition of sand to ochre and acrylic creates surface tactility that photographs cannot capture: Country embedded in material itself. Acquire while primary market pricing is still available before retrospective attention arrives. Exhibits Sullivan & Strumpf, Sydney.

The Work

Painted in Oak Park, Illinois, where Netrabile walks daily through forests collecting fragments, twigs, larch needles, and river stones as talismanic anchors. Nightcrawler emerges from this ritualistic practice, swirling brushstrokes in amber, peach, and green, creating atmospheric fields where foreground and background collapse. The canvas mimics the perspectival illusion she experiences at sunset when the eye can no longer distinguish depth. Emigrated from Bangalore at age seven, hints of Indian miniature detail slip into Midwestern observation, decorative brushstrokes with hieratic semblance fusing childhood memory with present landscape. Portal rather than picture, channelling somatic presence from body to perceiving soul.

Artist Position

ESTABLISHED MID-CAREER. Netrabile completed a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This technical foundation informs her approach to painting as an ecosystem crossed by a circulatory system, colour housing both nutrients and pathogens, explained through engineering principles. Reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times (2020), featured in Brooklyn Rail (2024), and New City Art "50 Chicago Artists' Artists" (2025). Influenced by Clarice Lispector, T.S. Eliot, Wendell Berry, Pablo Neruda.

Market Intelligence

Strong Phillips auction performance: The Meadow 2021 achieved USD60,960 against a USD12,000-18,000 estimate (May 2025), exceeding by 339%. The Forest Ablaze sold USD25,400 against the USD10,000-15,000 estimate. Sliver Moon achieved USD21,000 against USD8,750-11,250 estimate. Consistent pattern of exceeding estimates indicates collector confidence. Work held in Orange County Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum, Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon, Museu Inimá de Paula, Brazil.

Collection Rationale

Sits naturally alongside Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, and painters investigating sensory experience and atmospheric abstraction. Indian-American heritage offers cross-cultural depth rare in landscape painting. Smaller format provides accessible entry to museum-collected artist with proven secondary market strength and international institutional backing. Exhibits Union Pacific, London.

The Work

This work employs Daniel's signature technique of contrasting delicate stains and washes with passages of abstract impasto and intricate patterning. A cloaked figure stands at the threshold between water and earth, where the night sky mirrors the lake surface in a doubled cosmic space. Throbbing brushstrokes in vibrantly contrary colours unite what is above and below, micro and macrocosmos, providing equal footing for the mythic protagonist and the natural world. The composition recalls medieval tapestries with its tightly focused patterning around a central axis, yet pulses radioactively with futuristic energy. Stone Age sheath or medieval cloak, oracular truthteller or derelict deity; Daniel refuses clarity, letting the viewer luxuriate in ancient yet contemporary landscapes as folk tales from the future.

Artist Position

ESTABLISHED MID-CAREER. BFA and MFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, Creative Capital Grant, 2009 Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Painter, NARS Foundation Residency. Press in Harper's Magazine (April 2023), New York Times (May 2024), Artnet, Newsweek, Frieze, Border Crossings Magazine. Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Grand Valley State University. Self-described as a "landscape painter of weird narratives."

Market Intelligence

Work held in Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Harvard Business School, and the Brandes Family Art Collection. Climate-focused narrative painting is gaining traction among collectors as environmental consciousness reshapes acquisition priorities. Major institutions, including Tate, declared a climate emergency, and leading collectors like Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo advocate supporting climate-conscious artists as a proactive cultural investment. Recent solo exhibitions at Grand Rapids Art Museum and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, alongside international fair representation (Art Taipei 2024, Untitled Miami, Art Brussels, Paris Art Fair). Multi-continent gallery representation across North America, Europe, and Asia. Harper's Magazine April 2023 feature and NYT May 2024 coverage signal accelerating critical attention.

Collection Rationale

For collectors building positions in contemporary landscape painting, addressing environmental themes through mythological rather than didactic frameworks. Sits naturally alongside Jules de Balincourt, Hernan Bas, Dana Schutz, Lisa Sanditz, Peter Doig, or Neo Rauch; painters Daniel herself cites as influences. The dual Canadian-Israeli perspective creates distinctive cross-cultural iconography. Access point to an artist with established museum validation and foundation backing, prior to broader secondary-market development. Exhibits Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York.

The Work

A blindfolded woman plays piano, her shadow cast against a wall where a light fixture glows. This painting demonstrates Aguilar's thesis: creativity and interiority persist beyond the visual realm of appearance. Painted in fluorescent oils with characteristic chromatic clashes, the work investigates spaces where self-construction unfolds. Working from found photographs reimagined with anachronistic elements, Aguilar collapses past and present to expose tension between the objective, commodified self and the subjective, interior one. The blindfold becomes an instrument rather than an impediment; freed from mirrors and screens, the figure accesses something deeper than surface.

Artist Position

MID-CAREER INSTITUTIONAL. Self-taught painter with BA in Philosophy from Florida International University. International exhibition history across the United States, Europe, and Asia since 2010. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include HOW Art Museum Shanghai (2024) and Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2023). Featured in "Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black & Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art" at The Mennello Museum, Orlando (2018). Philosophy background informs sustained investigation of social constructs, violence, and American identity through painted intervention in photographic archives.

Market Intelligence

HOW Art Museum Shanghai solo exhibition "Immunity and Discord" (2024) marks Asia-Pacific institutional recognition. Work held in Long Museum Shanghai, Yuz Museum Shanghai, Aurora Museum Shanghai, Bass Museum Miami, ICA Miami, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Brown University, and Akron Art Museum. Recipient of the 2022 South Florida Cultural Consortium Award with resulting institutional presentation at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2023). Akron Art Museum’s "Recent Acquisitions" exhibition (2022) signals active institutional collecting. Featured in "Toward the Celestial: ICA Miami's Collection at 10 Years" (2024), demonstrating sustained institutional confidence. Included in Fondation Frances Paris group exhibition "Life is a Wound That I Cannot Get Rid Of" (2024), establishing European institutional visibility. 

Collection Rationale

Anchors contemporary figurative holdings exploring archival photography, American social history, and identity construction. Large-scale format commands presence in established collections. The fluorescent oil technique creates a distinctive visual signature that sets the work apart from conventional figurative painting. Sits naturally alongside painters interrogating institutional violence, historical narrative, and psychological interiority. Complements collectors building Latin American contemporary, Miami School, or cross-cultural US-Asian institutional dialogue. Accessible pricing at USD35,000 relative to comparable museum-collected figurative painters with eight-institution validation. Exhibits Night Gallery, Los Angeles.