Anna Price Petyarre / My Country (APP38)

Anna Price Petyarre is a highly regarded Eastern Anmatyerre artist from the Utopia region of Central Australia. Born around 1965, Anna grew up surrounded by a remarkable generation of Utopia artists and developed a strong connection to painting from an early age.

Anna is the daughter of the late artist Glory Ngale who was among the Utopia women working with batik during the development of the region’s contemporary art movement. Through her grandfather, Anna is also related to celebrated Utopia artists Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kudditji Kngwarreye.

Anna has painted since childhood and was exposed to the batik techniques that became an important early medium for the women of Utopia. She began establishing her professional painting career during the 1990s, translating her cultural knowledge and the fluid linear qualities associated with batik into acrylic painting on canvas and linen.

Her subjects include Bush Yam, Yam Seed Dreaming, Awelye or Women’s Ceremony and ceremonial body paint designs, as well as paintings relating to her ancestral Country around Atneltyeye, or Boundary Bore. Her work also depicts the sandhills, riverbeds, flood plains, waterholes and important sites that shape this Central Australian landscape.

Over the course of her career, Anna has developed several distinctive styles. Her earlier works are often characterised by vibrant colour and densely layered linear designs, while later paintings became increasingly refined and minimal. She is particularly recognised for her intricate black and white compositions, in which thousands of finely placed dots create sweeping lines, shifting sandhills and meandering river systems viewed almost from above. Small areas of colour are sometimes introduced to identify significant places or food-gathering areas within Country.

This extraordinary attention to detail gives Anna’s paintings both movement and depth. Even in her most restrained works, the repeated lines and finely controlled dotting create the impression of a vast landscape extending beyond the canvas. Her ability to move between intricate ceremonial imagery, richly coloured Yam Seed paintings and sophisticated representations of Country has established Anna Price Petyarre as one of the most recognised contemporary artists to emerge from Utopia.

SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2021 – Finalist, Calleen Art Award, Cowra Regional Art Gallery, NSW
• 2014 – Artist in Residence, Ayers Rock Resort, Yulara, NT
• 1998 – Finalist, 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

• Artbank, Sydney
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
• Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
• Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts, Switzerland

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

• 2024 – Black + White, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2023 – Emily & Others | Geniuses from Utopia, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2022 – Nations – Utopia 2022, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2022 – Connection: Songlines from Australia’s First Peoples, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
• 2022 – Colour POP, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2022 – Palya – a tribute to Steve Ariston, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2021 – Mid-Winter Mofo, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2020 – Pointillism Perfection, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2020 – Top 20, Art Mob, Hobart
• 2019 – defining tradition | black + white, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2019 – International Women’s Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2019 – Spring Collection, Brenda Colahan Fine Art, Sydney
• 2017 – Intricate Expressions, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2015 – Sixteen Artists – 16 x 2, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2014 – Desert Song, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2013 – Desert Rouges, Histoires Aborigenes Gallery / Galerie Art Diaphragme, Auxerre, France
• 2012 – Desert Gold, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2012 – Little Gems, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2012 – Black and White, Muk Muk Gallery, Alice Springs
• 2011 – Wet Paint, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• 2011 – In Black and White, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2009 – Anna Petyarre, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
• 2009 – Utopia 09, Neo Gallery, Brisbane
• 2009 – Grand Opening, Aboriginal Dreamtime Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
• 2008 – Anna Petyarre, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2008 – Three Petyarres, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2008 – Australian Aboriginal Art, Alice Sundown Aboriginal Art, Darwin
• 2007 – Journeys and Dreams, Gecko Gallery, Broome
• 2007 – Utopia and Beyond 2007 – Aboriginal Desert Art from East to West, Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney
• 2007 – Women of Utopia, Addison Road Gallery, Sydney
• 2006 – Anna Petyarre, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2005 – Yam Dreaming – Atnwelarre, Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs

In My Country, Anna Price Petyarre depicts her homelands around Atneltyeye, or Boundary Bore, in the Utopia region of Central Australia. Viewed from above, the painting maps layers of Country, including sandhills, riverbeds, waterholes, pathways and culturally significant sites.

Fine lines of dotting create the contours and movement of the landscape, while circular forms represent waterholes, gathering places and important ceremonial sites. Pathways weave between these places, reflecting the connections that exist across Country and the journeys made by women as they travel, gather bush foods and participate in ceremony.

These culturally significant sites are also connected to Women’s Ceremony and Women’s Business. Women gather at particular places across Country for ceremony, where cultural knowledge, Law and stories are passed from older women to younger generations. Waterholes are especially important gathering places in the dry Central Australian landscape, providing water and supporting the bush foods collected during extended periods spent on Country.

Against the dark ground, Anna’s intricate dotting creates a strong sense of depth, movement and rhythm across the surface. Some works are rendered predominantly in black and white, while others incorporate carefully placed areas of colour to highlight pathways, sites and features within the landscape. Through My Country, Anna presents both a physical and cultural map of her homelands, expressing the enduring relationship between Country, ceremony and community.