Alick Tipoti, Kirisal. Images courtesy of the artist and Booker-Lowe GalleryHouston is one of just a few American cities with a gallery devoted to Australian aboriginal painting, which critic Robert Hughes has called “the last great art movement of the 20th century.”

Generally executed in striking color combinations and rich patterns based on symbols found in ancestral cave, body and sand paintings, the works, which artists began painting in acrylic on canvas in the 1970s, may appear abstract to Western viewers who visit Booker-Lowe Gallery. But they relate to “dreamings,” or myths, which help preserve the ancient traditions and survival lore necessary in an oral culture.

Whether you’re unfamiliar with Australian aboriginal painting, or you know it by the vibrant work of desert practitioners, the exhibit Marking Time: Original Prints by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Artists is likely to come as a revelation.

Unlike their desert aboriginal counterparts, artists in the Torres Strait Islands, located between northern continental Australia’s Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea, are steeped in woodcarving traditions, making them adept at the intricate patterning that shows up in their prints.

Billy Missi, Ap Aw Aidel.

Equally crucial, their location exposes them to trade and other cultural exchanges with people in New Guinea. You may find affinities between some of the Torres Strait Island artists’ patterning and that of works in the Menil Collection exhibit Ancestors of the Lake: Art of Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, on view through Aug. 28.

By comparison, prints by desert-dwelling aboriginal artists, such as Gloria Mengil’s Moonoomoorrem, tend to have broad expanses of vivid color set off by simplified dot patterns.

Gloria Mengil, Moonoomoorrem.

While the Torres Strait Island artists’ prints feature recognizably human or animal figures relating to the myths that inspired them, the desert artists’ prints are purely abstract, at least to American eyes.

Further rounding out viewers’ exposure to indigenous art from Down Under, Booker-Lowe is presenting its Annual Affordable Australian Aboriginal Art Fair, also known as A5.

Priscilla Napurrurla Hebert, Lukarrara Jukurrpa. Acrylic on Belgian linen.

Reflecting the diversity of aboriginal painting, it includes beautiful dot-patterned works by desert artists and paintings from the lush Lockhart River area in northeastern Queensland such as Irene Namok, whose work features floral and tree forms and watery areas.

Not so affordable, but a must-see, is Cathleen Edwards’ Bush Tucker, a rare example of a circular-format aboriginal painting. Gallery owners Nana Booker and David Lowe suspect aboriginal artists are typically encouraged to paint in rectangular formats for easy stretching.

But they were so taken with Edwards’ stunning departure, with its dazzling patterns and stylized plant and reptile forms, that Lowe mounted it on plywood and put it under a round piece of glass.

Cathleen Edwards, Bush Tucker.

Now it’s a coffee table anyone would love to gather around, but every time someone tries to buy it, Booker finds herself upping the price rather than let it go. She and Lowe say they may start encouraging the artists they work with to try the tondo format more often.

ART FROM DOWN UNDER
Through July 30: Marking Time: Original Prints by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Artists
Through Sept. 6: A5: Annual Affordable Australian Aboriginal Art Fair
Where: Booker-Lowe Gallery, 4623 Feagan; 713-880-1541