Gloria TAMERRE PETYARRE - Awelye - Women's Ceremony
ADG: 1689
DescriptionCLICK HERE TO VIEW ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Awelye - Women's Ceremony - Story of painting
Gloria Petyarre, Ada Bird Petyarre, Violet Petyarre and Myrtle Petyarre celebrate the Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming depicting awelye (women’s ceremony) designs, by illustrating bold and linear patterns in their works.
Lizard species form a substantial part of the Central Australian Aboriginal people's diet and are depicted in Bush Tucker paintings as an Aboriginal food source .
The Mountain Devil Lizard or Thorny Devil Lizard story tells of the Old Woman Mountain Devil Lizard who travelled the vast regions of the Utopia region identifying sacred sites and forming the landscape.
The Mountain Devil Lizard is tiny and is said to carry a small sac of ochre around his neck to help create the country, He is an important ancestral totem for the famous sisters: Kathleen Petyarre, Violet Petyarre, Myrtle Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, Nancy Kunoth Petyarre, Jean Petyarre and Ada Bird Petyarre from Utopia region in Central Australia.
They inherited the Mountain Devil Lizard (Arnkerrth) story from their paternal grandmother, and they are the custodians of this significant Dreaming with an obligation to maintain this Aboriginal Dreamtime story, and pass it on to future generations.
The Petyarre sisters each paint a different interpretation of their Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming.
Gloria TAMERRE PETYARRE - Biography
Born c.1932, Utopia Station, N.T.
Skin Name Petyarre (pronounced pi-jah-ra)
Language Group Anmayterre
Country Atnangkere
Community Boundary Bore
Region Utopia Homelands, Northern Territory
Stories Awelye (women's ceremonial body paint designs) Dreaming Stories, Arnkerrthe (Mountain Devil Lizard), Angertla (Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming) Engcarma (Bean),Unyar(Emu), Annlara (Pencil Yam), Kadjeta (Grass Seeds), Elaitchurunga, Bush Medicine (Acacia leaves)
Gloria Petyarre is one of the seven well known artists- the ' Seven Petyarre Sisters', from the Utopia Region (Ada, Myrtle, Nancy, Kathleen, Violet and Jean Petyarre). Gloria first gained recognition as an artist working in the medium of batik, exhibiting with the Utopia Women in shows around Australia and abroad for a decade (1977-1987) before taking up the medium of canvas, painting her first work for CAAMA's Summer Project exhibition. In 1990-1991, Gloria travelled to Ireland, London and India as a representative of the Utopia women, accompanying the 'Utopia: A Picture Story' exhibition.
Gloria’s work is based on the body paint designs for her Dreamings, and shows clearly the designs painted across the women's breasts and shoulders, particularly for the Mountain Devil Lizard Ceremony. Since those early, highly distinctive works, she has developed her paintings to higher levels of abstraction, and continually experiments with line and colour. Gloria's work features on the cover of the Art of Utopia by Michael Boulter, and has been included in major survey exhibitions including 'Flash Painting' at the National Gallery of Australia in 1992, the 1991 Art Gallery of NSW touring 'Aboriginal Women's Exhibition', and in solo exhibitions. A multi-award winner, Gloria won the AGNSW Wynne Prize for landscape painting in 1999 and has been selected as a finalist four times since. Gloria’s work has featured many times in the most prominent Aboriginal art prize in the country, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Award.
Awards and Commissions
2004 Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, Highly Commended, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1999 Winner, Wynne Prize for Landscape P
ainting, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1993 Design for tapestry for Victorian Tapestry Workshop
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Allen Allen and Hemsley (Allens), Sydney
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Westpac, New York
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise
Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt Gambier, SA
Robert Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
British Museum, London
Singapore Art Museum
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Flinders University Art Museum
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia
Ranking - Most Important Australian Indigenous Artists (both living and deceased)
2011 Ranked 21 /100
