Regina Pilawuk Wilson is one of Australia's most acclaimed Indigenous artists. Together with her husband, Harold Wilson, Regina founded the Peppimenarti (meaning 'large rock') Community as a permanent settlement for Ngan'gikurrungurr people in the Daly River region in 1973. The location of the community is an important dreaming site for the Ngan'gikurrungurr language group and is situated amid wetlands and floodplains at the center of the Daly River Aboriginal Reserve, 300 kilometers south west of Darwin.
Regina win the General Painting category of the Telstra National Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Award in 2003 for a golden syaw (fish net) painting. Examples of Regina's work are held in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, The National Gallery of Victoria, The Gallery of Modern Art (Queensland Art Gallery), The British Museum, and numerous private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas. Her paintings have been included in many group exhibitions at public and private art institutions, including the 3rd Moscow Biennale of Art, the Wynne Prize exhibition (2008 & 2009), and Dreaming Theur Way: Australian Women Painters ar rge National Museum of the Arts, Washington, D.C. At the time of her visit to Charlottesville as a Mellon Fellow, Regina's work was touring the USA as part of the exhibition Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, an exhibition co-organized by Henry Skerritt, curator at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. It opened at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. in May 2018.
Regina Wilson, accompanied by her son Henry and Granddaughter Lily, traveled to Charlottesville in May 2018. Her residency coincided with two art exhibitions in Charlottesville, one at Kluge-Ruhe and one at Second Street Gallery. Ngunguni: Old Techniques Remain Strong at the Kluge-Ruhe was curated by Regina, Henry, and Malcolm Wilson and represents the culmination of an important collaboration between Kluge-Ruhe and Durrmu Arts Aboriginal Corporation to research and digitally repatriate Ngan'gikurrungurr cultural material in the Kluge-Ruhe collection. Second Street Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Charlottesville hosted Ngerringkrrety: One Voice, Many Stories, a solo exhibition of Regina's paintings.
While in Charlottesville, Regina and Henry participated in a curatorial round-table for students, faculty, and staff at UVA. The day-long program explored the role of community consultation and curating, digital repatriation and access to historic collections by Indigenous communities.