My
name is Ganbold Lundaa (Gawaa). I was born in Mongolia in a traditional
rural village south west Gobi. I was born the third of seven children,
my father was the local council representative and my mother, the
village doctor. At the age of sixteen my study was cut short by the
Mongolian revolution, during this period I worked as a nomadic
herdsman, on either camel or horseback. I left my village at the age of 20 to
do national service. Once
completed I moved to Ulaanbaatar city joining my father's new,
post-revolutionary business, which traded cashmere. Soon after, I also
began working for a USAID project working to help the economic
development of my home region. Throughout this time, I was drawing. I
would sketch the Gobi desert during my free time.
It was during this period I began to
learn foreign languages and
travelled around my country. I also explored China and Russia. At the
Invitation of my friend Mark Stibich, I had the opportunity to visit
the USA. This trip was very instrumental in my life, as it opened my
eyes to many art galleries and resources available to artists that I
was unfamiliar with. Greatly influenced by what I had seen in the
visual arts and my time abroad, I began to paint.
In 2003, I returned to Mongolia and
met an Australian woman, Jessie
Stanley, with whom I fell in love. She brought me to Brisbane,
Australia where we had a beautiful daughter called Lily.
I moved to Sydney and I decided to
focus solely on art. I began to
explore painting and print making. My work is based on my experience as
a Mongolian living in Western society.
Often the materials used for my
artworks are recycled, some I found on
the streets, some purchased from second-hand stores, some donated. The
main themes of my work include traditional oriental designs and
contemporary text based paintings.
pedroTV meets Gawaa at his solo painting exhibition held at Alpha art gallery 226 Union St Erskineville Sydney March 2011
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/dTuhqhRbEgA
