The Dreamtime in America
Expand you Mind into Deep beauty
Design DownUnder — Where the Dreaming Meets the World
Some of the most extraordinary art being created anywhere in the world today comes from men and women living in some of its most remote places — the desert communities, river country, and sacred landscapes of Aboriginal Australia.
This art is not a relic of the past. It is radical, contemporary, and vibrantly alive. It pulses with a spiritual energy that connects its creators to one of the oldest living cultures on earth — a culture whose cosmology, the Dreamtime, understands the universe not as a sequence of events moving through time, but as an eternal, sacred totality of being. The ancestors of the Dreamtime shaped the waterholes, the mountains, the stars, and the animals — singing them into existence. That creative power lives on in every painting.
Design DownUnder exists because this art deserves to be seen.
Founded by Ron Acker — a former US State Department official whose life was transformed by a single exhibition of Aboriginal paintings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales — Design DownUnder represents established and newly emerging Aboriginal artists from remote communities across Australia, with particular emphasis on paintings, sculpture, fabric, and glasswork.
The challenge these communities face is invisibility. Thousands of extraordinary works sit in extremely remote art centers across Australia, in places like Balgo, Warmun, and Fitzroy Crossing — seen by only the most intrepid visitors, simply because of where they are. Design DownUnder bridges that distance, bringing authenticated, fairly traded Aboriginal art directly to collectors in Asheville, Charlotte, and beyond.
Every work we represent comes with fully documented provenance — the art center's original catalogue number, an official certificate, and the story behind the painting as told by the center itself. Over 90% of our purchases are made directly from art centers affiliated with ANKAAA or DESART, ensuring that every artist is fully and fairly compensated.
When you purchase through Design DownUnder, you are not simply acquiring a beautiful object. You are participating in something larger — sustaining artists, supporting remote communities, and bringing one of humanity's most profound spiritual traditions into your home.
We also offer a variety of amazing non-Aboriginal Australian artists, such as world renowned Asian Australian artist, Hiromi Ashlin, creator of the most beautiful Zen-inspired works on earth. Now is the perfect time to invest in these extraordinary works, as the favorable exchange rate between the U.S. and Australia makes collecting even more rewarding.
Come in. Let us introduce you to the Dreaming.