Angelina NGALE - Ancestor's Story
ADG: 6139
DescriptionCLICK HERE TO VIEW ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Ancestor's Story - Story of Painting
Angelina NGALE
Born 1947
Language Eastern Anmatyerre
Area Ahalpere Country, Utopia, Northern Territory
Country Arlperre
Region Utopia Homelands
Medium Batik on silk/cotton, acrylic on canvas/linen, wood carving
Stories Body Paint Design, Bush Plum, Women’s Dreamtime, Ancestor Stories
Born to Nellie Petyarre at Utopia Station c.1947, Angelina was wife number one to artist and sculptor, Louis Pwerle (c.1935-1999), number two wife is Sarah Morton Kngwarreye all of whom are renowned artists at Arnkewenyerr, a small outstation in the north of the Utopia region. Angelina was involved in the Utopia Women’s Batik group in the 1970s and began painting in the late 1980s. Her first works were included in a group exhibition in Sydney ‘Utopia Women’s Paintings’, 1989.
Angelina now lives with her sisters Kathleen and Polly, and extended family at Camel Camp near Three Bores in Utopia, located 240km North East of Alice Springs. As with her sisters, Angelina began producing batiks in the 1980s, and also had skills in producing wooden sculptures, influenced by her late husband, Louis Pwerl, the older brother of Cowboy Louis Pwerl. Angelina was formerly known as Angelina Pwerl (her husband’s name) and she is referred to today as Angelina Ngal(e). (Pwerl in Alyawarr language is the equivalent to Ngal(e) in the Anmatyerr language).
Angelina’s work can be bold and vibrant with linear work illustrating body paint design, yet they are delicate and subtle when portraying her Bush Plum story from Ahalpere country. Angelina’s happy paintings of the Women’s Ancestor Dreamtime Stories depict female ancestors painted up for Awelye (Women’s Ceremony) in brightly coloured landscapes.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Commonwealth Law Courts, Melbourne
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Latrobe University Collection, Melbourne
Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney
The Holmes A Court Collection, Perth
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Artbank, Sydney
Allen, Allen and Hemsley Collection, Sydney
Finalist
1997 Finalist.14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1997 Finalist. 28th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment, Alice Springs
2006 Finalist. 23rd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, (Telstra Award). Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
2008 Finalist. 2008 Wynne Prize for Landscape painting. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2009 Finalist. 26th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, (Telstra Award). Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Exhibitions
1989 Utopia Women’s Paintings, the first Works on canvas, Sydney
1990 The Last Show, Utopia Art, Sydney Art from Utopia, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW, Second Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1991 Long Hot Summer, Utopia Art, Sydney, Men and Dogs, Utopia Art, Sydney
1992 Aboriginal Painting, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA
1993 Utopia Women, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1994 This Land, Utopia Art, Sydney
1994 The Oval Board Collection, Bishop Museum, Hawaii; Wadsworth Athenaeum, Connecticut; Tampa Museum of Art, Florida, USA
1994 Central Australia Aboriginal and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1996 Painted People; Sculpture from Utopia, Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney
1998 Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1998 Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy
1998 Art Gallery ‘Culture Store’, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1999 Blue Chip 2: The Collectors’ Exhibition Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Madrid and touring regional Spain
2002 Indecorous Abstraction: Contemporary Women Painters, Adelaide
2004 Explained, A closer look at Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2004 Melbourne Art Fair 2004, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2008 Power of Place, Paintings and Sculpture from the Eastern Desert, Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
2010 Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide and touring Korea International Art Fair, COEX Korea Exhibition Centre, Seoul, Korea
2011 E(merge): two spiritualities, Space Station Art Space, Beijing and Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
Further reference
Boulter, M. The Art of Utopia, Craftsman House Press, NSW 1991
Isaacs, J. ‘Bush Gardens’ Art & Australia, Vol 35, No 4, 1998, Fine Arts Press, NSW
Kleinert, S and Neale M. The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, 2000, Oxford University Press, NSW
Ranking - Most Important Australian Indigenous Artists (both living and deceased)
2011 Ranked 139/200
