Aluminium Sculpture:
Lena Yarinkura & Bob Burrawal
Lena Yarinkura
Born: 1961
Language: Kune
Bob Burrawal
Born: 1952 – 2021
Language: Rembarrnga Language
Art Centre: Maningrida Arts & Culture
Presented in conjunction with Urban Art Projects (UAP), a group of cast aluminium sculptures by Lena Yarinkura and Bob Burrawal is featured in Art Leven’s Sydney Contemporary 2026 presentation at Booth C10. The works bring the artists’ established sculptural traditions into conversation with the possibilities of aluminium casting, translating forms grounded in Country and cultural knowledge into a new and enduring material.
The collaboration between UAP and First Nations artists marked an important moment in the development of contemporary Indigenous sculpture. Working alongside UAP’s foundry specialists, artists translated established carving and sculptural traditions into cast aluminium, expanding the possibilities of their practices while maintaining the character and cultural integrity of the original works.
The casting process captures the textures, irregularities and marks of the handmade originals. Rather than smoothing these qualities away, aluminium preserves them: the evidence of weaving, carving and modelling remains embedded in the surface. The resulting sculptures have a distinctly contemporary material presence while retaining a strong connection to the customary forms from which they emerged.
Lena Yarinkura
Lena Yarinkura is a Kune artist from the Maningrida region whose practice is celebrated for its highly inventive approach to sculpture and fibre.
Drawing on ancestral beings, spirits and stories connected to her Country, Yarinkura has developed a sculptural language that is immediately recognisable. Her figures can be commanding, strange and deeply expressive, bringing ancestral and spirit beings into physical form while remaining grounded in cultural knowledge.
The translation of Yarinkura’s work into aluminium introduces another dimension to these forms. Details and textures associated with her original making processes remain visible across the cast surfaces, allowing the presence of the artist’s hand to remain central to the finished sculpture.
Bob Burrawal
Bob Burruwal was a Rembarrnga artist from the Maningrida region whose practice encompassed sculpture, bark painting and ceremonial forms.
Drawing on ancestral beings, spirits and stories connected to his Country, Burruwal created powerful sculptural figures that bring the spirit world into physical form. His works are often bold and imposing, combining strong, simplified forms with painted surfaces and intricate patterning. Deeply grounded in Rembarrnga cultural knowledge, they reflect Burruwal’s important role as both an artist and senior cultural man.
Burruwal was also closely connected to the development of contemporary sculptural practice at Maningrida, working alongside his wife, Lena Yarinkura. Together they explored new materials and approaches while maintaining a strong connection to traditional stories and forms, contributing to the distinctive and highly inventive sculptural tradition for which Maningrida has become internationally recognised.
Tradition in a New Material
What makes these aluminium sculptures particularly compelling is the meeting of an established cultural practice with an entirely different material and production process.
Casting does not separate the sculptures from the traditions from which they emerge. Instead, it provides another means through which those practices can continue, change and reach new audiences. The works retain the individuality of Yarinkura and Burarngarra’s original forms while taking on the permanence, weight and presence of metal.
Presented together at Sydney Contemporary 2026, the sculptures demonstrate that living cultural traditions are not static. Through collaboration, experimentation and an openness to new materials, Yarinkura and Burarngarra continue to extend the possibilities of contemporary sculpture while remaining deeply connected to Country, culture and the knowledge that informs their practices.
