“Painting from memory has probably been one of my strengths. When I paint I can picture myself being out on Country and I remember the landscape. I’m able to share this not just with my kids and my family, but with everyone. Living in the outback and not taking the time to see what it has to offer - it is something that we all forget to appreciate. Being out on Country keeps me grounded to my culture and to my home.”
– Pearl Austin
8 Wall Gallery is pleased to announce Pearl Austin’s debut solo exhibition Mabel Creek: The Resilience of Being.
18 April – 23 May 2026
Opening Event: Saturday 18 April, 4–6 pm
Pearl Austin is an Antikirinya Matutjara Yankunytjatjara artist and an active member of the Umoona Art Centre, where she currently serves as Board Chair. Austin’s practice draws from innate and lived experiences and her connection to Country in the region of and around Coober Pedy and Mabel Creek.
Her current body of work speaks to the correlation of natural and man-made environments, as she paints the creek bed and dam through its various natural states; a storm, a rapid torrent, rainfall, calm waters, and the dry season. Through her depictions of these transformative states, Austin highlights the resilience of Mabel Creek and its adaptability to pastoral interventions, including the construction of the dam, undertaken prior to the introduction of Native Title in 1993. The adaptability of the Creek is an apt reflection of the strength and resilience of First Nations people in the face of colonisation and its ongoing, systemic ramifications.
Austin works to reconnect with Country following years of separation due to the Stolen Generations. After returning to the region, spending time out at Mabel Creek and close to Tallaringa - the home of Pearl’s paternal grandmother - was an act of reprieve for the artist and her family, who were able to rebuild lost cultural knowledge and connection. The artist’s intuitive painting style and the combination of palette-knife application and dotting (wakka wakka) techniques offer a reimagined perspective on this landscape and on the impact of Western interventions on Country. A common motif throughout her practice, Austin often references bodies of water in her work, highlighting the dynamism and vitality of water within the arid environment of the central desert. As she paints this region from memory, Austin reminds us of the inextricable link between First Nations people and the land.
Pearl Austin’s solo exhibition Mabel Creek: The Resilience of Being is the outcome of a 10-day studio residency hosted by 8 Wall Gallery, with the support of Umoona Art Centre. Situated on Gadigal land, the Gallery is surrounded by a spectacular rock face that speaks to the landscape Austin paints.
“Having the opportunity to paint in a space like 8 Wall Gallery that’s surrounded by nature helps me to be able to connect me back home. It gives a sense of space, just like Umoona Art Centre where I can look up and see the hill, here at 8 Wall I look up and I can see the sky.”
Thank you to Umoona Art Centre for their continued support and collaboration in this project.
“Umoona Art Centre took us out of our homes and gave us the opportunity to connect with each other again - it’s been a blessing for all of us.”
Pearl Austin working during her studio residency at 8 Wall Gallery.
