John is a former barramundi fisherman and builder who worked across the Top End of Australia in the 1970s and 1980s and called in at many of the remote Aboriginal camps.
Bandigan Art is a collection of the best examples of indigenous arts from around Country.
John Colquhoun has a love of the bush life and respect for the beliefs and lifestyle of indigenous people. John collected their first sculptures from Yirrkala while constructing an award-winning Glen Murcutt designed house for Banduk Marika. This project successfully motivated the move to culturally appropriate housing in the Top End. John has been collecting and exhibiting Aboriginal art for fifteen years and is known for his support for emergent community art centers.
John sponsored and collected the magnificent feathered Morning Star poles shown at Sydney’s Maritime Museum and has also mentored a number of artists, including central Australian desert painters and Arnhem Land bark painters. He will be happy to show you his extensive digital archive of the artists, their communities, and their participation in ceremonial life as well as photos of many of the sites associated with the paintings. John is interested in sharing his fascination with the land and stories the artists are expressing in their work.
Bandigan regularly offers exciting eclectic work from its core artists, including wild figurative sculptures by Lena Yarinkura and Bob Burruwal from Maningrida, minimal elegant environmental dark earth ochre paintings by Mickey Durrng, electric sacred body paintings by Peter Datjin, and new colorful landscapes and unusual ceramics from the key potters from the Arrernte community at Hermannsburg. Also, the best fiber sculptures and carvings from Maningrida, paintings and weavings from Arnhem Land, new acrylic paintings from desert artists, finely painted hollow log memorial poles, and carved Mimi spirits.