A comment in 2003 by a visitor to the South Fremantle home of owners Anna Kanaris and Arthur Clarke of Artitja Fine Art changed the course of their lives.  “Walking into this house is like walking into an art gallery”, the visitor said.    Without realising it the couple had inadvertently turned their home into an art gallery which seven years later has become one of Perth’s leading Indigenous art galleries exhibiting work from remote and regional Australia. 
Topped with an abiding interest of the art and its aesthetic, coupled with a respect for the ancient Australian Aboriginal culture and tradition, the Artitja Fine Art directors’ established their private gallery Artitja Fine Art in South Fremantle, with the aim in mind of connecting two cultures through the medium.

Artitja Fine Art specialises primarily in Central and Western Desert art from remote communities in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and offers a one-to-one specialised service to serious patrons and art collectors.

Since 2006 Artitja Fine Art have been the exclusive representatives of one of Australia’s top Indigenous fibre textile artists Janine McAullay Bott, whose bush sculptures are a direct link to her Nyoongar culture. 

Operating the home gallery by appointment, Artitja Fine Art also holds three-week exhibitions every three months at the Earlywork Gallery space in South Terrace, South Fremantle.  This allows the gallery to increase their public profile to existing and new art lovers and explain their business model to the art buying public who ultimately love viewing art in a home environment.  

In their practice as Indigenous Fine Art dealers the Directors make a commitment to value the culture of the Indigenous people of Australia and treat with respect art centres, the artists and the art which are a very important part of the continuation of the culture and life choices of the artists. 

Anna Kanaris was first introduced to Aboriginal art and culture in the early 1980's while working in community radio in Perth, Western Australia. She was involved in liaising with community educational centres, elders and their representatives in isolated communities in the State's north west setting up satellite radio test broadcasts to enable the learning of languages to the younger members of the community.

Anna has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Communication Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from Murdoch University, and left a full time career in radio journalism to pursue cultural and educational interests in the Aboriginal art world, leading to forming Artitja Fine Art with her partner Arthur Clarke, who also has had an abiding interest in Indigenous art and culture, having had spent many years in the State's north west.