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 | Born: c.1916 Deceased: 1996 Language Group: Anmatyerre Country: Alhalkere , Utopia Region, North East of Alice Springs Medium: Acrylic on Canvas and Linen, Batik on Silk Subjects: 'Whole Lot' says Emily, including Alhalkere country and Atnwelarre (Pencil Yam) and Kame (Pencil Yam Seed) Dreamtime stories |
Emily Kame Kngwarreye was a senior custodian for Alhalkere country. She began painting quite late in her life and had first been introduced to silk batik with a group of women from Utopia in 1977. Emily had been working with and exhibiting batik in Australia and abroad between 1977 and 1987 before taking up acrylics on canvas.
Canvas gave Emily and the other artists a greater freedom of expression to experiment with different styles in which to portray their Dreaming stories. Because batik had been the first medium that the artists at Utopia had really experimented with, and it being rather a 'onehit' medium, they developed quite contrasting styles on canvas and Utopian Art now has probably the most diverse range of styles than any other Aboriginal Art region.
Emily's trademark style of superimposed bold gestural dotwork, sometimes overlaying linear patterns derived from Ceremonial body paint designs, would have been technically impossible in batik. In this way, Kngwarreye, as an artist, was able to fully express her country and Dreamings more accurately, as she had been taught.
Collections
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Allen, Allen and Hemsley, Sydney, New South Wales
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Artbank, Sydney, New South Wales
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
BP Australia
Benalla Regional Art Gallery, Benalla, Victoria
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Campbelltown, New South Wales
Carnegie Collection, Melbourne, Victoria
Coventry Collection, Sydney, New South Wales
Delmore Collection, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Florida, USA
Mbantua Gallery Permanent Collection, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, Western Australia
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
The Vatican Collection, Vatican City, Rome
University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales
University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales
University of Sydney Union, Sydney, New South Wales
Awards
| 1992 | Australian Artists Creative Fellowship |
Solo Exhibitions (selection of)
| 1997 | Emily Kngwarreye, Gallery Savah, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1997 | Emily Kame Kngwarreye- Looking Back, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1997 | The Spirit Sings: Paintings by Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc., in association with DACOU Aboriginal Art Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia |
| 1997 | Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Body Paintings Series, Robert Steele Gallery, New York, USA; Anima Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia |
| 1997 | Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| 1998 | Major survey Exhibition Emily Kame Kngwarreye- Alhalkere-Paintings from Utopia, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland; The Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria |
| 2001 | Emily, Aboriginal Dreamings Gallery, Nicholls, Australian Capital Territory |
| 2007 | Emily Kame Kngwarreye: 1916 – 1996, Mbantua Cultural Museum, Alice Springs, Northern Territory |
| 2008 | Utopia: the Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, National Museum of Art, Osaka, and National Art Centre of Tokyo, Japan in conjunction with the National Museum of Australia, Canberra |
Group Exhibitions (selection of)
| 1997 | Masterworks: A Classic Collection, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1997 | Emily Kame Kngwarreye and other Fine Works from Utopia, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland |
| 1997 | Fluent - Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Yvonne Koolmatrie, Judy Watson – XLV, II Esposizione Internationale D'Arte, La Biennale Di Venezia, Venice, Italy |
| 1997 | Shimmer: Ada Bird Petyarre, Barbara Weir, Gloria Petyarre, Josie Petrick Kemarre, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne, Victoria |
| 1997 | Flagging the Republic, Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, New South Wales |
| 1997 | Women of Utopia, Phillip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, Queensland |
| Ninteenninetyseven, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales | |
| 1997 | The Eye of the Storm: Eight Contemporary Indigenous Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1998 | Fluent, Australia's Representative Exhibition at the 47th Venice Biennale. Curator: Hetti Perkins. Toured by Art Gallery of New South Wales |
| 2000 | Artists of Utopia, Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia |
| 2002 | Mbantua Gallery USA Exhibitions: Art and Soul Gallery,Nashville, Tennessee; 'The Cove Gallery'Portland, Oregon; Urban Wine Works, Portland, Oregon; Mary's Woods, Portland, Oregon (Benefit – OHSU Heart Research Centre) |
| 2003 | Mbantua Gallery USA Exhibitions: New City Merchants, Knoxville, Tennessee; Art and Soul Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee; 'The Cove Gallery' Portland, Oregon; Contemporary Aboriginal Art Event, Umpqua Bank, Portland, Oregon; Mary's Woods, Portland Oregon; Art From The Dreamtime, Portland Art Museum, Portland Oregon (Benefit - OHSU Heart Research Centre) |
| 2004 | Evolution of Utopia, Mbantua Gallery Cultural Museum, Alice Springs, Northern Territory |
Exhibitions of Silk Batik (selection of)
| 1987 | Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Western Australia |
| 1987 | Darwin Museum Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory |
| 1987 | Yirrkala Community Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory |
| 1987 | Jogjakarta Fine Art Academy, Jogjakarta, Indonesia |
| 1987 | Sydney Expo, Craft Council Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1987 | The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory |
| 1988 | Time before Time, Austral Gallery, St Louis, Missouri, USA |
| 1988 | Painting and Batik from the Desert, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales |
| 1988 | Utopia batik, Craft Council Gallery, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| 1988 | Utopia Batik, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland |
Further References (selection of)
| Brody, A. | Utopia Women's Paintings: The first work on canvas, Exhibition Catalogue, Heytesbury Holdings, Perth, 1989 |
| Brody, A. | Contemporary Aboriginal Art: from the Robert Holmes à Court, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth, 1990 |
| Brody, A. | Utopia: a Picture Story, 88 Silk Batiks from the Robert Holmes à Court, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth, 1990 |
| Boulter, M. | The Art of Utopia, Craftsman House, Roseville, 1991 |
| Caruana, W. | Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, 1993 |
| Johnson, V. | The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Crafts Wales, 1994 |
| Emily Kame Kngwarreye: New Directions, Exhibition Catalogue, Utopia, 1994 |
Emily was a senior custodian for Alhalkere country. Her paintings, through gestural brushstrokes, have an underlying theme that she describes in her own words as 'all that country- it's whole lot, everything!' meaning that her paintings were not just a landscape, but also embodied the spiritual and conceptual aspects relating to her country's creation (also known as Dreaming).
The landscape aspects include actual landmarks, vegetation, wildlife and seasonal influences in her country. Spiritual aspects involve the ceremonies (or Awelye in Emily's native language, Anmatyerre) which are performed through singing, body paint and dance. Ancestral rights and obligations in which past, present and future simultaneously co-exist and law is passed from generation to generation, is introduced here. Ceremonies are an expression of a co-existence between Aboriginal people and the earth.
