GLORIA PETYARRE

Gloria Petyarre first came to attention when she won the ‘Wynne Prize for Landscape’ at the NSW gallery in 1999, the first Indigenous Australian to win a major art prize at the gallery. Renowned for her ‘bush medicine leaf’ paintings, Gloria's work is represented in many international museums and galleries, and she is considered one of the most collectable indigenous artists today.

 

A niece of Emily Kam Kngwarreye, Gloria was born in 1942, moving to the Utopia community in 1977. Originally, she started batik painting and was one of the founding members of the Utopia Women's Batik Group. In 1988, the women began painting their designs on canvas rather than fabric, and the show that resulted toured notable galleries in Australia and drew international attention.

 

This success spawned the Utopian art movement and many of Australia’s foremost Indigenous artists hail from this area.

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Gloria Petyarre's works are held in several prominent international collections, including:

• National Gallery of Australia
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
• Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesvilla, USA
• Levi and Kaplan Collection, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
• Westpac Collection, New York, USA