Galerie Lapita – Oceanic Art

While in Nice earlier this year I visited the exquisite Galerie Lapita. Settled in New Caledonia since 1990, Didier ZANETTE has always been fascinated by primitive art. He keeps on exploring Indonesia, Oceania, and more particularly Melanesia, searching for tribal art objects.

I’m not an expert in ‘tribal art’ and where it originates from so did a little research. The field of African art is distinct from African-American art. The term ‘tribal art’ is also often used to describe African art.

Oceanic Art , what Galerie Lapita specialises in, properly encompasses the artistic traditions of the people indigenous to Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. They would come to interact and together reach even the most remote Pacific islands. These early peoples lacked a writing system, and made works on perishable materials, so few records of them exist from this time. It should also be noted that Oceanic peoples traditionally did not see their work in the western concept of ‘art’, but rather created objects for the practical purpose of use in religious or social ceremonies, or for use in everyday life. (source: Wikipedia)

The Lapita culture or tradition was a pre-historic Pacific Ocean people and society dating from about 1600 BCE to 500 BCE. Archaeologists believe that the Lapita was the ancestor of historic cultures in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia. The Lapita were perhaps the most advanced people of their day in seamanship and navigation, reaching out and finding islands separated from each other by hundreds of miles of empty ocean. Their descendants, the Polynesians, would populate islands from Hawaii to Easter Island, possibly even reaching the South American continent. (source: Wikipedia)

Galeria Lapita offers high quality tribal art objects that include Ceremonial & Ancestral Masks, Figures, Woven Abelam Items, Adornments & Utensils, Tribal Jewelry and aboriginal paintings. Some of their quality tribal art is specifically from the Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. There are also aboriginal paintings and some African art.

The most imposing Carved Wooden Figure. Date and Tribe unknown.

Tribal Jewellery. Date and Tribe unknown.

African Drums | Very early Wooden Figure. Date and Tribe unknown.

Weapons: Shield. Date and Tribe unknown.

Wooden Painted Sculptures. Date and Tribe unknown.

Tribal figure with Jewellery | Very early Wooden Figure. Date and Tribe unknown.

Carved Figure. Date and Tribe unknown.

Aboriginal Painting. Date and Tribe unknown.

Aboriginal Paintings. Date and Tribe unknown.

Wall of Aboriginal Art. Date and Tribe unknown.

Photograph of Tribal Figure.

Well I came away mega inspired and felt very much in awe of these unique pieces. Do any of you have experiences with Tribal Art? I’d love to know….