- Gloria Tamerre Petyarre
Born at Atnangkere Soakage, Northern Territory, Gloria was a founding member of the Utopia Women’s Batik group in the 1970’s. With wonderful confidence, she merged the traditional iconography of the Anmatyerre on to the medium of silk. A very innovative and dynamic artist, she exerted a great influence on others in the group. In the early 1980s, Gloria Tamerre made her first painting on canvas (for CAAMA’s summer project exhibition) and soon developed her unique style of depicting the stories and her understanding of the traditional country. In 1995/96, she received a Full fellowship grant from the Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australian Council.
“Bush Medicine Dreaming” depicts the leaves of a special plant that is used to aid in the healing process. The leaves are collected and then boiled to extract the resin. Following this, the resin is mixed with kangaroo fat collected from the kangaroo’s stomach. This creates a paste that can be stored for up to six months in bush conditions. This medicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites, rashes and as an insect repellent. The dreaming that is the basis for Gloria’s paintings comes from the important ceremonies and traditions held by the people of Atnwengerrp. Each painting titled ‘Bush Medicine Dreaming’ shows different aspects from the process and its important links with the land.
Solo Exhibitions
| 2006 | ‘A Survey’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 2004 | ‘Power of The Land’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 2000 | ‘Leaves & Awelye’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Paintings from Anungura’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1999 | ‘New Leaves’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Gloria Tamerre Petyarre: a survey exhibition’, touring – New England Regional Art Museum; and Manly Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW | |
| 1998 | ‘The Anangkere Growth Paintings’, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT |
| ‘Gloria Tamerre Petyarre: a survey exhibition’, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, NSW | |
| ‘Utopia: Ancient Cultures New Forms’, Galeri Petronis, Malaysia | |
| 1997 | ‘Instant Pictures’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 1995 | ‘Gloria Petyarre: On the Line’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 1994 | Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 1993 | ‘Awelye’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| 1991 | Australia Galleries, New York, USA |
| Utopia Art Sydney, Australia, NSW |
group exhibitions
| 2008 | ‘The Tallis Foundation 2008 National Works on Paper’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC |
| Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, NT | |
| ‘ Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre & Ada Bird Petyarre – more than stories’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Gooch’s Utopia – collected works from the Central Desert’, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA | |
| 2007 | ‘Australian Abstraction’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Turning 20′, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘The 22nd Annual Packsaddle Selling Exhibition’, New England Regional Art Museum, NSW | |
| ‘Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery NSW, Sydney, NSW | |
| 2006 | ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2006′, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC |
| ‘Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Dreaming Their Way – Australian Aboriginal Painters’, National Museum or Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA | |
| ‘Bits and Pieces abstract art’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 2005 | ‘from big things little things grow’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Museum II’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Aboriginal Vision in Contemporary Australian Art’, Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, Washington, USA, collection of Margaret Levi & Robert Kaplan | |
| 2004 | ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2004′, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC |
| ‘Silk – Utopia Batiks from The Holmes a’Court Collection’, Holmes a’Court Gallery, Perth, WA | |
| ‘Fremantle Print Award 2004′, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA | |
| ‘Writing the Collection’, John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University of Technology, WA | |
| ‘Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Binocular: looking closely at Country’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts – The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘A Stroke of Art’, The Gallery, NSW Parliament House, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘The Women’s Show’, Vivien Anderson Gallery, VIC | |
| ‘Art Australia – Zeitgenossische Kunst’, Galerie Seippel Koln, Stadtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Kulturstiftung Schloss Agathenburg | |
| 2003 | ‘Indecorous Abstraction 2′, New Contemporaries, Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Bloomsday Door Exhibition’, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘The Marn Grook Auction’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘A Stroke of Art’, The Gallery, NSW Parliament House, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘20th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award’, The Museum & Art Gallery of Northern Territory, NT | |
| ‘Art Australia – Zeitgenossische Kunst’, Kunst: Raum Sylt – Quelle | |
| 2002 | ‘The Year In Review’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Indigenous works on paper’, Damien Minton Gallery, NSW | |
| ‘Fieldwork’, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, VIC | |
| ‘Structures of Difference’, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Gartford, CT | |
| ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2002′, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘Two Thirds Sky artists in the desert country’, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, NSW | |
| ‘Indecorous Abastraction’, Contemporary Women Painters, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide, SA | |
| ‘Crossroads: The Millenium Portfolio of Australian Aboriginal Prints’, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore | |
| ‘Solstice’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 2001 | ‘Museum’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Dreamtime: The Dark and The Light’, Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Vienna | |
| ‘Desert Flowering:Aborignal Art from Private Collections’, Manawatu Gallery, NZ | |
| ‘Seven Sisters Petyarre’, Brisbane City Gallery, QLD | |
| ‘8th International Works on Paper Fair’, Byron Kennedy Hall, Fox Studios Australia, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘2001′, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 2000 | ‘Encore’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘The Australian Drawing Biennale’, Drill Hall Gallery, The Australian National University, ACT | |
| ‘Melbourne Art Fair 2000′, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award 2000′, (Reconciliation Prize), Old Parliament House, Canberra, ACT | |
| ‘Lines’, Firworks Gallery, Brisbane, QLD | |
| ‘Landscape’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1999 | ‘Utopia: Ancient Cultures New Forms’, Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA |
| ‘Ab Op’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Petyarre Dreaming’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘Crossroads: The Millennium Portfolio of Australian Aboriginal Artists’, Sherman Galleries, NSW | |
| ‘The Wynne Prize’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW | |
| 1998 | ‘1998 National Works on Paper’, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, VIC |
| ‘Primary Colours: Blue’, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Women Painters of the Desert’, Fireworks Gallery, Fortitude Valley, QLD | |
| ‘nineteen ninety eight’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1997 | ‘Tapestries’, (woven by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop), Australian Galleries, Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Flagging the Republic’, Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW | |
| ‘Nineteeninetyseven’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1996 | ‘Aurora’, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Seoul Arts Centre, Korea |
| ‘Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair’, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘Paperwork’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘new paint new work’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Contemporary Abstract Aboriginal Art’, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Imagining the Real: an exhibition of recent acquisitions from the Parliament House Collection’, Canberra, ACT | |
| “The Third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award”, Old Parliament House, Canberra, ACT | |
| ‘The Gesture’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Utopia Women’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Hidden Treasures II: Art in corporate Collections’, S H Ervin Gallery, NSW | |
| ‘Flagging the Republic’, Sherman Galleries; New England Regional Art Museum; touring exhibition, NSW | |
| ‘Contemporary Australian Abstraction’, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1995 | ‘Painted Dreams: Western Desert Paintings from the Johnson Collection’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW |
| ‘Ironsides’, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Australian art 1940-1990 from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia’, Gifu Museum of Fine Arts | |
| ‘Works On Paper’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| International Works on Paper Fair, Mitchell Galleries, State Library of NSW | |
| ‘1995 VicHealth National Craft Award’, National Gallery of Victoria, VIC | |
| ‘Inter Weave Tapestry a Collective Art’, Heide Museum of Modern Art, VIC | |
| ‘Australian Art 1940-1990 from the collection of the National Gallery of Australia’, Museum of Fine Arts, Gifu, Japan | |
| ‘Crossing Borders’, Kansas City Art Gallery, and USA tour | |
| ‘1995′, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Ada Bird Petyarre and Gloria Petyarre’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1994 | ‘The Range’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Yiribana’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW | |
| ‘ACAF 4′, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne | |
| ‘Interpretations: The Woven Language of the Victorian Tapestry Workshop’, VIC | |
| Krefield Textiles Museum, Germany, Australian Embassy, Paris, France | |
| ‘A Picture Story’, Australian Embassy, Paris, France | |
| ‘Commitments’, Artspace, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘The Body Paint Collection’, Bishop Museum, Hawaii and USA tour | |
| ‘The Australian Scarf’, Greenway Gallery, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Desert Painting’, Fireworks Gallery, QLD | |
| ‘Aboriginal Iconic Images’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC | |
| 1993 | ‘Aboriginal Art Awards’, Darwin, NT |
| ‘Commitments’, Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, QLD | |
| ‘Asia Pacific Triennal of Contemporary Art’, Queensland Art Gallery, QLD | |
| ‘Gold Coast City Conrad Jupiters Acquisition Award’, G.C.C.A.G., QLD | |
| ‘After the Field’, Manly Art Gallery & Museum, NSW | |
| ‘Aboriginal Women from the Desert’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| Myra Morgan Gallery, Kansas , USA | |
| ‘International Works on Paper Fair’, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Fremantle Print Award 1993′, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA | |
| 1992 | ‘New Tracks Old Lands’, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston and travelling, USA |
| ‘Aboriginal Art – Utopia in the Desert’, Nogizaki Arthall, Tokyo, Japan | |
| ‘ACAF 3′, Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne, VIC | |
| Gallery Rai, Tokyo, Japan | |
| 1991 | ‘Aboriginal Womens’ Exhibition’, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Touring, NSW |
| ‘A Picture Story’, Meat Market Gallery, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘Small Paintings Major Works’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Desert Paintings’, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Long Hot Summer’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1990 | ‘Tagari Lia: My Family’, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK |
| ‘Utopia Men and Dogs’, Austral Gallery, St. Louis | |
| ‘Art from Utopia’, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, NSW | |
| ‘Utopia Artists’, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC | |
| ‘New Year-New Art’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘A Picture Story’, Tandanya, Adelaide & The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland | |
| Gallery Gundulmirri, Warrandyte, VIC | |
| 1989 | ‘Utopia Women’, Coventry Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
| ‘Art from Utopia’, Austral Gallery, St. Louis, MO, USA | |
| ‘A Summer Project’, S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW | |
| Orange Regional Gallery, NSW | |
| ‘Contemporary Aboriginal Art’, Bloomfield Gallery | |
| ‘Utopia Batik’, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT | |
| ‘Utopia’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| ‘Aboriginal Art Now’, N.E.R.A.M., Armidale, NSW | |
| 1988 | ‘Time Before Time’, Austral Gallery, St. Louis, MO, USA |
| ‘Contemporary Aboriginal Art’, Utopia Art Sydney, NSW | |
| 1977-1987 | Exhibited with the Utopia women in exhibitions in Australia and abroad |
Collections
| Allen, Allen & Hemsley | Art Gallery of New South Wales |
| National Gallery of Australia | Baker-McKenzie |
| Campbelltown City Art Gallery | Flinders University, South Australia |
| Gold Coast City Art Gallery | Griffith University Collection |
| Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery | Museum of Victoria, Melbourne |
| National Gallery of Victoria | Powerhouse Museum, Sydney |
| Queensland Art Gallery | Queensland University of Technology |
| Riddoch Art Gallery, S.A. | Supreme Court, Brisbane |
| The Robert Holmes a’Court Collection | University of New South Wales |
| Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, U.S.A | Westpac, New York |
| James D. Wolfensohn Collection | Woollongong City Art Gallery |
| Woollongong University Collection | Macquarie Group Collection |
| University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland | Singapore Art Museum |
| Museums and Art Galleries of the NT | British Museum |
| University of Woollongong |
Awards
| 1999 | Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales |
Other Projects
| 2002 | Featured in ‘Two Thirds Sky – artists in desert country’ a documentary produced by Arcadia Pictures |
| 2001 | Cover image for Butt, P., Eagleson, R. & Lane, P. “Mabo, Wik & Native Title”, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, 2001 |
| 1997 | Cover image Indigenous Law Bulletin August – September (Vol. 4) Issue 5, U.N.S.W. |
| 1994 | Tapestry commission for the Law Courts, Brisbane |
| 1993 | Tapestry for Victorian Tapestry Workshop |
| Mural for Kansas City Zoo,USA |
Publications
AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION ‘Passport to a Global Career’, 2003
AUSTRALIAN GALLERIES ‘Tapestries’, exhibition catalogue, 1997
BIDDLE, J. L. ‘breasts, bodies, canvas’, Central Desert Art as Experience, 2007
BOULTER, M./ HODGES, C. ‘Australia’s First International Art Movement’, Utopia Art Sydney, 1990
BOULTER, M. ‘The Art of Utopia’, Craftsman House Press, 1991
BRODY, A. ‘Utopia Women’s Paintings: The Robert Holmes a’Court Collection’, Heytesbury Holdings, cat.,
Perth 1989
BRODY, A. ‘Utopia – A Picture Story: 88 Works on Silk’, cat. Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc., Adelaide, 1989
BRODY, A. ‘Contemporary Aboriginal Art’, Heytesbury, 1990
BRODY, A. ‘Utopia – A Picture Story’, Heytesbury Holdings, Perth, 1990
CARUANA ,W. ‘Aboriginal Art’, Thames and Hudson, 1993
DRURY, N. (ed.) ‘Images 3: Contemporary Australian Painting’, Craftsman House, 1998.
GARSIDE, S.(ed.) ‘Gloria Tamerre Petyarre: a survey exhibition’, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery
cat., Sydney,1998.
HODGES, C. ‘Utopia Women’, Coventry Gallery, cat., Sydney, 1989
NEALE, M. ‘Yiribana’, AGNSW, 1994
NEALE, M. ‘Women Artists of Utopia’, A.N.G. Association News, May/June 1991, A.N.G. Canberra
PRITCHARD, S. cover ‘Indigenous Peoples the United Nations and Human Rights’, The Fedration Press, 1998.
TALMACS, R. ‘Philosophical Abstractions’, 1992
TALMACS, R. ‘Awelye- Gloria Tamerre Petyarre 1993′, cat., essay
VOIGT ‘New Visions New Perspectives: Voices of Contemporary Artists’, Craftsman House, 1996
WATSON, B. ‘Awelye’ article S.M.H. 15/10/93
WALKER,S. ‘Modern Australian Tapestires from the Victorian Workshop’, Victorian Tapestry Workshop, 2000
VARIOUS ‘Asia Pacific Triennal of Contemporary Art’, cat., Queensland Art Gallery, 1993
Articles
BROWN, PHIL Art Beat ‘Between the Lines’, Brisbane News 1-7/3.00