A view of “Significant” at D’Lan Contemporary’s Melbourne gallery. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne. Photo: Gus Davidson
A renewed surge of interest sparked by biennials and major institutions in Indigenous artistic expression is turning global attention to the rich and complex landscape of Australian First Nations art—but this time in a more regulated and equitable system than that which fueled the boom-and-bust market of the early 2000s. With several major institutional exhibitions of work by Indigenous Australian artists slated for the year ahead, Observer spoke with D’Lan Davidson—founder of D’Lan Contemporary and a specialist with more than two decades of experience in Australian First Nations art—to unpack the evolving dynamics shaping the Aboriginal art market today.
Aboriginal art experienced a dramatic rise in market value in the early 2000s, driven by growing national and international demand—particularly for works from the Western Desert movement. Institutions and collectors in Europe and the U.S. rushed to acquire pieces, pushing prices skyward. A bubble followed, and as values rose, investors treated the work as a speculative asset class, flipping pieces at auction while opportunistic dealers flooded the market—often with little cultural oversight—in so-called “carpetbagging” operations. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, speculative capital dried up and the market—then already oversupplied and overheated—collapsed almost entirely.
“What led to that boom and bust was really a lack of education about what was right and what was wrong,” Davidson told Observer as we walked through “Significant,” a major curated exhibition spanning D’Lan Contemporary’s three locations in Melbourne, Sydney and New York. The show brings together exceptional works by seminal figures in Australian First Nations art alongside contemporary artists who have gained international recognition, including Gordon Bennett, Lin Onus and Daniel Boyd. Among the highlights is Budgerigar Dreaming (1972) by Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, a masterpiece widely regarded as a pinnacle of the Western Desert art movement, which is on view in Sydney.
D’Lan Davidson believes the growing international interest in Australian First Nations artists will continue to build, especially in the U.S. and Europe. Photo: Darian DiCanno, courtesy D’Lan Contemporary
In D’Lan Contemporary’s New York space, a vibrant abstract dot painting in warm yellow, ochre and earthy green tones by Emily Kame Kngwarreye stands out. Davidson revealed that the exceptional 1993 work quickly found a U.S. buyer for $220,000, as demand for the artist’s work is once again rising in anticipation of her first major European retrospective organized by Tate in collaboration with the National Gallery of Australia.
The market for Australian First Nations artists is currently undergoing a period of reassessment, with collectors and institutions revisiting it more seriously following the early 2000s boom and bust. While the 2008 financial crisis and the speculative frenzy that overheated the market were contributing factors, Davidson said they were only part of the picture. A suite of regulatory and policy reforms introduced by the Australian government in response to the ethical and commercial turmoil that had engulfed the Aboriginal art market by the end of that decade also played a role in the collapse.
With the 2007 Senate Inquiry “Indigenous Art – Securing the Future,” the Australian government formally acknowledged widespread unethical conduct in the Aboriginal art market, including artist exploitation, a lack of transparency around pricing and commissions and instances of forgery. It led to the 2010 introduction of the Indigenous Australian Art Commercial Code of Conduct, which set minimum standards for dealer-artist relationships, addressing issues such as contracts, payment terms, transparency, cultural respect and ethics. While there were discussions about making the Code mandatory, its adoption remained limited due to political resistance and industry pushback, and it was ultimately never enforced.
D’Lan Contemporary’s collaborations with major galleries like Gagosian are helping establish a global presence for Australian First Nations art. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary, New York. Photo: Peter Zwolinski
The implementation of the Australian Copyright Agency’s “Resale Royalty Scheme” that same year proved far more consequential. It granted artists long-term financial participation in the secondary market by imposing a 5 percent royalty on resales over AUD 1,000, and in the context of a post-global financial crisis downturn, that measure smashed the market. The blow was compounded when the government ended the superannuation tax incentive that had allowed individuals to invest in art through retirement funds. At the time, Davidson was working at Sotheby’s, where he estimates that at least 30 percent of the market was tied to superannuation-driven purchases. “They did it all when the market was already in a dip, and it was just catastrophic,” he said. “Because if you take that much out of any market and don’t replace it with anything else, it’s not going to be good.”
Yet while these reforms initially discouraged domestic collectors and constrained market confidence, they ultimately helped to improve transparency, strengthen artists’ rights and, most importantly, restore credibility at a moment when building a broader international market had become essential. “When we paid it with goodwill, our growth started to take off,” Davidson explained. “To a point that in 2020, they made it a voluntary resale royalty.”
The “Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 (PMCH Act)” was another barrier to expanding the global market for Australian First Nations artists. The law put contemporary artworks valued over AUD 10,000 in the same category as ancient cultural artifacts, which meant dealers had to apply for export permits, triggering a slow, bureaucratic process that deterred international buyers. This regulation was finally amended in 2019, effectively creating a free market for the export of contemporary Aboriginal art and clearing a critical path for international growth.
Although some Australian First Nations artists have signed on with international galleries—Daniel Boyd recently joined Marian Goodman’s roster, for instance—wider engagement with the global gallery system has been limited by a lack of knowledge and relationships with Indigenous communities and their cultural leaders. “It’s really just a lack of understanding and expertise,” he says. “You have to understand the material—not just the visual or physical quality of a work, which experts can assess—but the foundational knowledge around provenance. That’s what matters most.” To address this gap, Davidson is developing a set of guidelines for ethical and secure provenance, modeled on the standards used by Australia’s leading institutions. “It’s not me making up these rules,” he emphasized. “We’re taking the lead from institutions in Australia. There can’t be shortcuts in this industry; the best source is always the community art center.”
A view of “Significant” at D’Lan Contemporary’s Sydney gallery. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary, Sydney: Stephen Oxenbury
D’Lan Contemporary, in its efforts to create a market for contemporary Aboriginal art, has focused on strategic collaborations with established global galleries such as Gagosian, beginning with the landmark 2019 exhibition “Desert Painters of Australia,” in New York and Los Angeles. That show was followed by “Desert Painters of Australia: Two Generations” in Hong Kong in 2020, which brought together pioneering figures like Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Makinti Napanangka and Yukultji Napangati alongside a younger generation of contemporary Indigenous artists. Most recently, in 2022, D’Lan Contemporary partnered with Gagosian in Paris to present the first solo gallery exhibition in Europe dedicated to Kngwarreye—a show that in many ways laid the groundwork for the major international retrospective coming to Tate. In anticipation, Pace is opening a solo exhibition in its London gallery dedicated to Kngwarreye, organized in collaboration with D’Lan Contemporary and running through August in conjunction with the Tate survey.
Despite a general slowdown in the global art market, Davidson sees the market for Australian First Nations artists as stable. (D’Lan Contemporary recorded over $30 million in sales last year. While the start of 2025 was marked by uncertainty in domestic and international political and financial landscapes, the gallery still posted one of its strongest first quarters to date.) Growth in this market segment has been primarily driven by sustained international interest, though Australian collectors are also reengaging. “We’ve seen a notable uptick in Australian buyers, as well as continued interest from European collectors,” Davidson said. “There’s been a slight dip in activity from American buyers recently, but New York remains a key market for us.”
His familiarity with both the cultural dimensions and the business side comes from direct experience. Though Davidson trained as a contemporary artist, he soon realized his career would take a different path. After completing his business studies in the U.S., he returned to Australia, where an American collector asked for his help assembling a collection of Aboriginal art. That was in 1999, when the market for Aboriginal art was still developing. Over the years, Davidson developed his expertise and forged strong connections with artists and art centers that eventually brought him to Sotheby’s, where he rose to head of the Aboriginal art department in 2010.
His time at the auction house, which coincided with a market correction, led him to reconsider how Australian Aboriginal art was being presented and exchanged. He came to believe that private dealing, supported by scholarship and community engagement, would offer a more appropriate framework for the long-term appreciation of the work. In 2016, Davidson founded D’Lan Contemporary with the goal of supporting Aboriginal art in a more structured and culturally respectful manner grounded in close collaboration with artists, art centers and estates. In 2022, Davidson opened a New York location, establishing the first permanent gallery in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to Australian Indigenous art and broadening access and engagement with international collectors and institutions.
A view of “Significant” at D’Lan Contemporary’s New York gallery. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary, New York. Photo: Peter Zwolinski
“All the education I’ve had on this art has come through conversations with Indigenous leaders,” Davidson emphasized, adding that close collaboration with communities remains essential to ensuring proper provenance and confirming that artists are treated fairly. “Most of the problems during the previous boom stemmed from a lack of discernment around provenance. It’s about due diligence, but more importantly, ethical provenance.” When a work comes through a recognized community art center, there is confidence that the artist was compensated appropriately and that proceeds were distributed in a way that supports the broader community. In his experience, when artists are disconnected from that framework and not paid fairly, the integrity of the work suffers. “There’s a real energy in the work when it’s painted in Country, with their people,” he says. “You take the artists out of that, and the work is not the same.”
Davidson was adamant that Australian First Nations artists do not view the market for their work as a form of externally imposed or colonial exploitation. They’re fully aware of its potential and how it can support their communities through a circular economy model, where profit-sharing is standard practice. He recalled an incident at TEFAF when a journalist asked whether he believed Kngwarreye would have approved of her work being shown in an art fair context. He suggested the journalist speak with Kelly Cole, lead curator of Kngwarreye’s upcoming Tate retrospective. “She told the journalist, ‘What artist wouldn’t?’ Just because she’s Aboriginal, why wouldn’t she want to be exhibited at a prestigious fair like TEFAF?”
What continues to make Aboriginal art resonate across cultures and ages is its profound connection to something universally human—the realm of dreams. Each dotted or string-patterned painting is a ritual act of remembrance, rooted in Dreaming stories and sacred sites. The distinctive visual language (by turns hypnotic, rhythmic and meditative) echoes the chant, dance and song structures of ceremony. These works serve not just as visual objects, but as maps, memory tools and vessels for the transmission of law and cultural knowledge, created by artists who carry the responsibility of custodianship over community, land and tradition.
“Pillars of Remembrance,” which closed in the gallery’s New York location in April. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary. Photo: Peter Zwolinski
While some contemporary Australian Aboriginal art remains closely tied to ancient rituals, Davidson pointed out that First Nations artists’ practices are increasingly diverse. There are artists who continue to work within and alongside their communities, grounding their practice in ritual, not only as a spiritual act but also as a meaningful part of community life. However, a growing number of urban Indigenous artists have pursued formal training in formal institutions, such as Daniel Boyd and Archie Moore, who represented Australia at the most recent Venice Biennale, where he received the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Contemporary Aboriginal artists are also increasingly engaging with new media and technology, extending their aesthetic traditions and cultural narratives into digital forms and virtual environments.
Davidson believes strongly that the market for Australian First Nations artists will only continue to grow, first in the U.S. and Europe, and likely next in Asia. This October, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., will host the largest-ever exhibition of Indigenous Australian art in the U.S., “The Stars We Do Not See,” as part of its new partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria. With over 200 pieces by more than 130 artists, the show will mark a key moment in expanding international appreciation of the movement, particularly in the States. Meanwhile, the Asia Society in New York is currently presenting “Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala,” an exhibition highlighting the rich history of the tradition.
Even among more contemporary artists, Davidson has observed growing interest from U.S. collectors and institutions. While the gallery’s first New York exhibition featuring works by Boyd sold out quickly—with roughly half of the works acquired by art collectors in the United States and the other half returning to Australia—the second exhibition sold out entirely to U.S.-based buyers. Building familiarity and appreciation is largely a matter of exposure, he said. “People just need to become familiar with the artist.” Given the major institutional exhibitions on the horizon, he believes this moment will play a significant role in expanding international audiences for Aboriginal art.
“Significant” is at D’Lan Contemporary’s three locations in Melbourne, Sydney and New York through July 3, 2025.
