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Gloria Tamerre Petyarre

Gloria Tamerre Petyarre

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It is with great sadness that we learn of Gloria Petyarre's passing on 8th June 2021. Gloria was one of Australia's most successful female artists and she will be a great loss to the art world. Gloria participated in the first art projects in Utopia, north east of Alice Springs in 1977 and her works have been highly sought after by collectors around the world. We will miss her generosity of spirit, her warmth, her teachings. Travel safely home to your country Gloria.

Petyarre was born c. 1938 at the remote location of Atnangkere, an important water soakage for Aboriginal people on the western boundary of Utopia Station, 170 miles north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She speaks Anmatyere and English.

Gloria is a highly respected artist from the Utopia region. Beginning with the batik movement in 1978 and then with painting in 1988.

Gloria and her sisters settled at Mosquito Bore, on Utopia Station near her birthplace. Gloria's mother and six sisters have managed to hold onto their land near Utopia Station as a group, establishing a camp at Boundary Bore. Gloria was one of the key Anmatyerre women involved in the successful claim for the freehold title, which led to the 1979 formal hand-over of the Utopia pastoral lease back to its traditional owners.

When Gloria was a young child, her paternal grandmother began instructing her in what is today recognised as Petyarre's great artistic subject, the Dreaming narrative of Arnkerrth, the Old Woman Mountain Devil or Thorny Devil Lizard, Gloria's Dreaming ancestor. The mountain devil is a small lizard, which criss-crosses the vast terrain around Atnangker country in a characteristically jerky style, leaving a semi-circular pattern of tiny tracks. The enormity of its journeys can be seen in the landscape of Gloria's works. Arnkerrth feeds on a particular type of ant and is highly skilled in the art of desert survival, on account of her astonishing capacity for self-camouflage. Taking on the colours of her immediate surroundings, whether that is the vibrant red earth of the Centre or the dull-green foliage of certain bush tucker, Arnkerrth usually succeeds in outwitting predators.

Gloria, her sisters and brothers are the custodians of Arnkerrth (Mountain Devil Lizard or Thorny Devil Lizard Dreaming), Green Pea Dreaming, Atnangkerre (Women Hunting Ankerr (Emu) and Arengk (Dingo) Dreaming). All of her paintings directly refer to these "Dreamings" and the associated country around Utopia in the eastern central desert of Australia. Gloria and her sisters (they all have the same father and four mothers), Ada Bird Petyarre, Kathleen Petyarre, Nancy Petyarre, Myrtle Petyarre, Violet Petyarre and Jeannie Petyarre all paint these Dreamings. Gloria also paints bush medicine leaves - her paintings of these renowned for their amazing, almost palpable, movement.

The importance of Gloria's clan country serves not only as a creation site but also as a sacred place in which to reconnect to the Dreaming through ceremonies and initiation rites. Gloria continues to demonstrate her detailed accurate knowledge and respect for country through her remarkable paintings, giving her audience an insight into her ancient world of endless beauty.

Gloria's extensive and remarkable career includes a number of awards such as Australia's longest running Art Prize, the coverted Wynne Prize from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia and for a Mural for Kansas City Zoo, Kansas, USA. Her work is included in a number of Art Collections such as: Allen, Allen & Hemsley; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Australian National Gallery; Museum of Victoria, Melbourne Australia; The Robert Holmes a Court Collection; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, U.S.A.; Westpac, New York; James D. Wolfensohn Collection; Singapore Art Museum; and the British Museum, London, UK.

Gloria has held numerous solo and group exhibitions world wide since 19991 including the US, Singapore, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, India and Korea. Through Cicada Trading gallery, Gloria has also exhibited in the US, Italy, Turkey, France, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Selected Exhibitions
· 1984 The First National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
· 1985 The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
· 1988 Time Before Time, Austral Gallery, St. Louis, USA;
· 1988 Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utopia Art Sydney.
· 1989 Utopia Women, Coventry Gallery, Sydney.
· 1989 Art From Utopia, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA;
· 1989 Utopia Batik, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs;
· 1989 Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
· 1990 'Utopia - A Picture Story,' an exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes a Court Collection by Utopia artists which toured Eire and Scotland;
· 1990 Tagari Lia: My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 -from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK.
· 1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; 1991, Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
· 1992/3 New Tracks Old Land: An Exhibition of Contemporary Prints from Aboriginal Australia, touring USA and Australia;
· 1993 Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery.
· 1994 Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
· 1995 A Celebration of the Art and Craft of Aboriginal Women, Aboriginal and Tribal Art Centre, Sydney.
· 1996 Nineteeninetyseven, Utopia Art Sydney; Aurora, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Seoul Arts Centre, Korea; Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne; Paperwork, Utopia Art Sydney; new paint new work, Utopia Art Sydney; Contemporary Abstract Aboriginal Art, Sherman Galleries, Sydney; Imagining the Real: an exhibition of recent acquisitions from the Parliament House Collection, Canberra; The Third National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra; The Gesture, Utopia Art Sydney; Utopia Women, Utopia Art Sydney; Hidden Treasures II: Art in corporate Collections, SH Ervin Gallery; Flagging the Republic, Sherman Galleries; New England Regional Art Museum touring exhibition.; Contemporary Australian Abstraction, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne.
· 1997 Tapestries (woven by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop) Australian Galleries, Sydney.; Flagging the Republic, Grafton Regional Gallery; L'Art des Aborigènes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Galerie de Stassart, Bruxelles; L'Art des Aborigènes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Espace Paul Riquet, Béziers.
· 1998 1998 National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria; Primary Colours: Blue, Annandale Galleries, Sydney; Women Painters of the Desert, Fire-Works Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Queensland; nineteen ninety eight, Utopia Art Sydney; Propositions Australiennes, Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Galerie Luc Queyrel, Paris.
· 1999 Utopia: Ancient Cultures New Forms, Art Gallery of Western Australia; Ab Op, Utopia Art Sydney; Petyarre Dreaming, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne; Crossroads: Millennium Portfolio of Australian Aboriginal Artists, Sherman Galleries, Sydney; Arts d'Australie, Paris Amsler - Bastille, Paris.
&midot; 2000 Encore, Utopia Art Sydney; The Australian Drawing Biennale, Drill Hall Gallery, The Australian National University, ACT.; Melbourne ArtFair
· 2000 Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne.; 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award
· 2000 (Reconciliation Prize), Old Parliament House, Canberra; Lines, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane; Landscape, Utopia Art Sydney; Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Espace Mezzo - Avenue des Champs-Elysées, Paris; Arts d'Australie, Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Salon Pharmagora, Paris; Arts d'Australie, Arts d'Australie - Stéphane Jacob / Pavillon Kleber, Paris.
· 2001 Museum, Utopia Art Sydney.; Dreamtime: the Dark and the Light, Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Vienna; Desert Flowering:Aborignal Art from Private Collections, Manawatu Gallery, New Zealand.; Seven Sisters Petyarre, Brisbane City Gallery; 8th International Works on Paper Fair, Byron Kennedy Hall, Fox Studios Australia, Sydney;
· 2001 Utopia Art Sydney; Arts d'Australie Stéphane Jacob / Equation-Transparence, Paris.
· 2002 Crossroads: the Millenium Portfolio of Australian Aboriginal Prints, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.
· 2005 Cicada Trading at Illayda Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey ; Cicada Trading in Milan, Italy ; Cicada Trading at Emily's, Clear Lake, Houston, USA ; Cicada Trading at New York Affordable Art Fair, New York, USA. Exhibited with the Australian Aboriginal Fine Art Gallery of New York.
· 2006 Cicada Trading at Big 5 Exhibition, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Cicada Trading Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia ; Cicada Trading MiArt 06, Milan Art Fair, Milan, Italy. Exhibited under the Australian Pavilion ; Cicada Trading at 3rd Annual Clear Lake Exhibition of Aboriginal Paintings, Houston, USA ; Cicada Trading in Paris, France ; Cicada Trading Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia ; Cicada Trading in Milan, Italy ; Cicada Trading in Abu Dhabi, UAE ; Cicada Trading at the Bahrain Arts Society, the Kingdom of Bahrain ; Cicada Trading in Abu Dhabi, UAE
· 2007 Cicada Trading in Abu Dhabi, UAE ; Cicada Trading Canterbury, UK ; Cicada Trading Paris, France ; Cicada Trading in Houston, USA

Last Updated - Nov 3, 2021