Born:
1937
Language Group: Anmatyerre
Country: Ahalpere, Utopia Region
Born in 1937, Gladdy Kemarre lives at the outstation of
Camel Camp, Utopia. She paints her
Dreaming - Bush Plum - as well as Bush Men which are very interesting hunting
and family scenes which she describes as ‘olden times - these things my
mother told me’.
Her career in painting began in the late 70s when the
Utopia Women's Batik Group was formed. Under the expert guidance of CAAMA and
Rodney Gooch the first major communal project - a series of eighty eight works
entitled Utopia - A Picture Story was launched onto the Australian and
international stage. The Holmes a
Court Collection sponsored these art projects from Utopia projects which toured
Australia and worldwide.
This was followed by the first foray into acrylic paint
on canvas in the summer of 1988-9 as part of CAAMA's "The First works
on Canvas, a Summer Project". This first body of paintings was
exhibited - and enthusiastically received at the SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney. Gladdy Kemarre has continued to use this
medium to express her Dreamings and since 1985, has held many exhibitions in
Australia, Belgium and Germany.
Having
painted now for numerous years, Gladdy is a fine dot artist with a quiet yet
humorous spirit. Though her
ability to speak English is not fluent, she is fun to converse with and always
has an intelligible glint in her eyes.
Gladdy usually resides with her close relatives Kathleen Ngale, Polly
Ngale and Angeline Ngale in Utopia.
The art of painting is a very social practise for Gladdy and the women
of her community. Gladdy rarely
paints anything other than the Anwekety Story (conkerberry or bush plum),
whereby fine dot work represents the sweet black conkerberry.
Her work is held in a many private and public collections
throughout Australia.
Solo Exhibitions
(selected)
2007 Gladdy Kemarre: The First Solo Exhibition,
The Mossenson Galleries, Collingwood, VIC
Selected
Exhibitions (selected)
1985 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, NT
1986 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, NT
1989-91 - Utopia – a Picture Story, Tandanya National Aboriginal
Cultural Institute, Adelaide; The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; The Crawford
Municipal Art Gallery, Cork; Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick; Meat
Market Gallery, Melbourne
1991 - Alraluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
1992 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
1993 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
1994 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
1996 - Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs
1996 - Nangara: The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition from the Ebes
Collection, Brugge, Belgium.
1996 - Voices of the Earth: Paintings, Photography and Sculpture from
Aboriginal Australia, Seoul, South Korea, Calcutta, India
1997 - Exposition collective, arts d’Australie, Arts D’Australie
Equation Transparence, Bruxelles
1998 - Utopia and Balgo Hills, Gallery Bahr, Speyer, Holland
2000 - Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen,
Germany
2001 - Group
exhibition, Arts d’Australie, Paris, France
2001-2 - "Land of Diversity", The Northern
Territory, Hogarth Galleries, Paddington, NSW
2002, 2002, 2004 - Aboriginal Art exhibition, Gallery Bahr, Speyer
2004 - Bilderwelten in Utopia: Holzschnitte und Gemaelde vom Aborigines, Staedtisches
Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen, Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Germany
2006 - Desert Art – Seeing in a Different Way,
Woodworks Gallery, Bungendore, NSW
2006 - Women of Utopia, Addison Road Gallery,
Marrickville, NSW
2006 - Senior Women of Utopia, Gallery G, Brisbane
2007 - Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the
Bay, Sydney.
2007 - Art Melbourne, Royal Exhibition
Building, Carlton, VIC
2008 - From the Desert to the Sea, Yurlunggar Art, Brisbane
2008 - Emily
and Her Legacy, Hillside Gallery, Tokyo with Coo-ee Art Sydney in conjunction
with the landmark retrospective Utopia – the Genius of Emily Kngwarreye at the
National Art Centre, Tokyo, Japan
Collections
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands
National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National
Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art
Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Museum
and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Flinders University
Collection, Adelaide, South Australia
Powerhouse
Museum, Sydney
Holmes
à Court Collection, Perth
Kerry Stokes Collection,
Perth
Nangara Collection, Melbourne
Artbank
Mbantua
Gallery Permanent Collection, Alice Springs
Awards / Grants/
Commissions
2008 Finalist, The
Alice Prize, Araluen Cultural Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2009 Finalist, Wynne
Prize, Archibald, Art Gallery of NSW
Bibliography
Ric
Spencer, ‘Desert Colours and Bird on a Wire’, The West Australian ‘Weekend Extra’, 9 December 2006
‘Utopian
Spirits Soaring’, Fremantle Herald
Mid-Week, Vol.2 No.47, Tuesday 28 November, 2006, p.47
Birnberg,
Margo and Kreczmanski, Janus B., Aboriginal
Artists: Dictionary of Biographies; Western Desert, Central Desert and
Kimberley Region, J.B. Publishing Australia, Marleston SA, 2004
Aboriginal Art,
An Immemorial Fountain of Youth, Museé Olympic, Lausanne, 2001
The Unseen in
Scene,
Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Kulturabteilung Bayer, Leverkusen, Bayer
Australia, Sydney, Speyer 2000
Meeuwsen, Franca, Aboriginal Kunst, de verhalen vertellen, Zwolle 2000
Nangara: The
Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition from the Ebes Collection, The Aboriginal
Gallery of Dreamings, Melbourne 1996
Voices of the
Earth: Paintings, Photography and Sculpture from Aboriginal Australia, Gabrielle
Pizzi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, 1996
Michael
Boulter, The Art of Utopia: A New
Direction in Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Craftsman House, 1991
Brody,
Anne Marie. Utopia - A Picture Story; 88
Silk Batiks from The Robert Holmes à Court Collection, Perth 1990
Brody,
Anne Marie, Utopia Women's Paintings: the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project,
1988-89, Perth, 1989
