The annual Tiwi exhibition staged at the Darwin Hilton DoubleTree is a joint venture of two Tiwi-governed art centres on Melville Island, Jilamara Arts at Milikapiti and Munupi Arts at Pirlangimpi (Garden Point).
The highly anticipated show has been running for more than a decade and is considered a showcase of Tiwi art across multiple generations, featuring work by emerging and senior artists as part of the Darwin Festival.
Sitting about 80 kilometres north of Darwin, the islands are home to less than 3000 people but have long been famed for producing world-class artists and sportspeople.
The new show is titled Natinga Ratuwati Papurruluwi Putuwuripira Kapi Awirangkuwi, which means "one island, the old people, what they left behind, what they gave us, and passing it on to the next generation".
Young artist and fashion model DK Puruntatameri from Jilamara Arts has paintings on canvas for sale at the nearby Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, and says he's impressed by the work his community has produced at the Tiwi show.
"Looking at all the artworks going to new families and new homes, I'm so happy and proud to see the beautiful designs," he told AAP.
Tiwi artists are attracting growing demand globally, according to Jilamara co-manager Will Heathcote.
A US tour of the National Gallery of Victoria's The Stars We Do Not See exhibition has added to the interest, he said.
One example is artist Kaye Brown, whose Stringybark ochres are on display at the Tiwi exhibition and who will soon be showing at Frieze London.
"Colleagues of mine from when I was living in the city would dream about these kind of outcomes, and they're actually being achieved by remote Australians who are championing First Nations agency through creative practice," Heathcote told AAP.
Artists from both centres paint using natural ochres, with yellow ochre burned to create red, and these pigments mixed with gesso to create a range of other colours.
There are already dozens of red dots around the Tiwi exhibition, with Neil Black's group of bark paintings Warnarringa, Japarra and Japalinga (Moon and Stars) sold to a US collector.
Other standout works include a group of six barks by artist Mickey Wilson Fogarty titled Jaralinga (storms, clouds and rain).
Munupi Arts has an entire wall of bark paintings on display, and centre co-manager Dashielle Tandanya agrees galleries globally are paying attention.
"From the Munupi Arts perspective, it's been a really, really positive year, a lot of important institutions, galleries, and museums taking an interest in the artists," she said.
For example, the NGV has acquired four bark paintings by Carol Puruntatameri from the Tiwi show.
Munupi is also showing two paintings on salvaged car bonnets, Kimirrakinni (Bush Fire) by Declan Apuatimi and Bush Holiday Dreaming by Leon Russell Black.
"There's a lot of cars around the island that are just abandoned," said Tandanya.
"We're so remote, people don't have the means to dispose of them in the normal ways that we have in mainstream society, so this is part of the landscape of Melville Island," she said.
The exhibition runs until August 14.
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