Ngurra Camp

Nikki McCarthy

Ancestry:
Nikki McCarthy grew up on the Northern Beaches. She is a descendent of the Dabee Tribe from Wiradjuri Nation. Nikki's people come from Rylstone area, and her great grandparents were given breast plates from the Australian Government. - honouring them as King & Queen of their tribe. Nikki's people were the Koradji (Shamans) and trackers, both her father and grandfather were trackers.

Artistic Style & Artistic Influence:
Nikki's artistic career began when she dug up clay in her back garden and made a horse. This evolved to a new genre of art titled Tribal Metaphysics.

Tribal Metaphysics always combines new technology and scientific media together with older more traditional mediums such as feathers, beeswax, wood, bones, leather, shells, fishing line and nets, ochre’s, sand, string, clay, crystals, cobwebs, rock, bones, leather, fire, water, chamois, body paint, and performance. New technology and scientific media are utilised such as the scanning electron microscope, the light microscope, scientific glass, Italian glass, acrylic paints, polymer, bronze, slumped glass, lead, computer technology, special effects lighting, plasma light, neon, Perspex, titanium baked enamel, chemicals, film and video, CD rom images, photography and other associated mediums and special effects.

Exhibitions/Collections/Acclaims:
Nikki has been awarded numerous grants and awards for her work. Nikki received the Inaugural Indigenous Visual Art Fellowship from the NSW Ministry for the arts and was a finalist in the Fulbright awards. Public works and commissions range from Public Schools & Expressways to churches and group projects on Manly Beach. Acquisitions The Australian Museum to QANTAS and Ku-ring-gai Council, to name a few. Solo & Group exhibitions numerous group exhibitions one being ‘Brushstrokes’ at Manly Art Gallery to exhibiting in New York. Nikki has also had her artwork printed in an array of media and publications such as The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture Catalogue and filmed by SBS Television – Masterpiece and Vox Populi.