Crocodile, Mimi, File Snake, and Rock Wallaby, c.1995

105 x 75 cm, 124 x 94 cm frame

Est. $1,500 – $2,500

Hammer $800

Provenance: Painted for Reg Mason of Arnhem Land Art, Oenpelli, NT Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: Kuninjku artist Ivan Namirrikki was taught to paint by his father, the renowned Thompson Yulidjirri, and works within a lineage that extends from rock shelter art to ceremonial design. This work brings together four totemic figures - crocodile, mimi spirits, file snake, and rock wallaby - all intrinsic to the stone country of West Arnhem Land. The crocodile is poised with latent menace; the mimi, delicate and elongated, hover like ancestral echo. Mimi spirits are said to inhabit the rocks, revealing themselves in dreams or ceremony - their presence here implies a layered cosmology where land, myth, and memory coexist. Ivan Namirrikki's paintings are celebrated for their visual discipline and lyrical clarity. For those drawn to the deeper structures of Kuninjku storytelling, this work offers a densely woven visual narrative - highly collectable and increasingly recognised by major institutions.

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Sale 1 · Lot 24

Ivan Namirikki

b. 1961

105 x 75 cm, 124 x 94 cm frame

Est. $1,500 – $2,500

Hammer $800

Provenance: Painted for Reg Mason of Arnhem Land Art, Oenpelli, NT Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: Kuninjku artist Ivan Namirrikki was taught to paint by his father, the renowned Thompson Yulidjirri, and works within a lineage that extends from rock shelter art to ceremonial design. This work brings together four totemic figures - crocodile, mimi spirits, file snake, and rock wallaby - all intrinsic to the stone country of West Arnhem Land. The crocodile is poised with latent menace; the mimi, delicate and elongated, hover like ancestral echo. Mimi spirits are said to inhabit the rocks, revealing themselves in dreams or ceremony - their presence here implies a layered cosmology where land, myth, and memory coexist. Ivan Namirrikki's paintings are celebrated for their visual discipline and lyrical clarity. For those drawn to the deeper structures of Kuninjku storytelling, this work offers a densely woven visual narrative - highly collectable and increasingly recognised by major institutions.