Timothy Cook

b. 1958 Melville Island

Timothy Cook, a leading Tiwi artist from Milikapiti on Melville Island, has been a central figure at Jilamara Arts and Crafts since the late 1990s. His paintings draw from his Country of Mananowmi in the Goose Creek region and reflect ceremonial, ancestral and cosmological knowledge passed down through his matrilineal line. Working with locally gathered natural pigments, Cook has developed a highly recognisable gestural style that interprets the Kulama initiation ceremony and its connections to the moon, stars and seasonal cycles.

Guided by the teachings of senior Tiwi artists and the enduring visual language of jilamara, he reimagines traditional motifs including circles, dots and linear patterning, into compositions that feel both ancient and contemporary. Over decades of practice, Cook has become particularly known for his expansive circular works, which evoke the ritual ground, lunar halos and the collective presence of ceremony. His paintings have featured widely in major exhibitions, affirming his position as one of the most distinctive voices in Tiwi art today.

Timothy Cook

Works Available

Relevant Exhibitions

Register Interest

Enquire