Janet Golder Kngwarreye / Women’s Dreaming (JG153)

Janet Golder Kngwarreye was born on 15 November 1973 at Mulga Bore on the Utopia Homelands, northeast of Alice Springs. An Anmatyerre artist, Janet’s Country is Alhalkere, also known as Boundary Bore, within the Utopia region of Central Australia. Country, women’s ceremony and the knowledge associated with its plants, food and water lie at the heart of her paintings.

Janet comes from one of Utopia’s remarkable artistic families. She is the daughter of Margaret Golder and Sammy Pitjara, and her grandmothers include renowned Utopia artists Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle. Greeny Purvis was her uncle, while her younger sister Belinda Golder Kngwarreye has also become an accomplished artist. Janet is married to Ronnie Bird Jungala, whose mother was celebrated artist Ada Bird Petyarre.

Growing up surrounded by painters, Janet learned through watching and working alongside the senior artists of her family. She has spoken particularly of learning to paint from Polly Ngale and Kudditji Kngwarreye, with Polly continually encouraging her to paint. Janet grew up during the flourishing of the Utopia batik movement in the 1980s, when many of the region’s senior women were working with silk before the wider transition to acrylic painting on canvas. This environment gave Janet an early understanding of Country, ceremony, pattern and the patient layering of marks that would become fundamental to her own work.

While Janet inherited important stories and cultural knowledge from her family, she has developed a painting language recognisably her own. Her compositions can be extraordinarily intricate, bringing together fine dotting, linear work, broad painted forms and densely patterned areas. Some are rendered almost entirely in black and white, while others combine these graphic elements with vibrant layers of blue, turquoise, purple, green, pink and orange.

Janet paints a number of stories belonging to her Country and family, including Awelye, Women’s Ceremony and ceremonial body-paint designs; Bush Yam and Bush Yam Leaf; Bush Medicine; Ntyerrm, associated with the bean and seeds of the dogwood tree; Arnkerrthe, Mountain Devil Lizard; and broader paintings of Alhalkere and her Country. Her recent My Country, My Father’s Country and Alhalkere Country paintings draw many of these elements together, incorporating bush foods, flowers, water sources, ceremonial places and features of the desert landscape into complex aerial interpretations of Country. Janet is recognised as a custodian of Bush Yam knowledge within her community.

Rather than depicting Country as a series of separate subjects, Janet’s paintings reveal how these elements are interconnected. Water, plants, food, ceremony, ancestral knowledge and the pathways travelled through Country become part of a single richly layered composition. This is particularly evident in her large Women’s Dreaming and My Country works, where many individual areas of pattern and imagery flow together across the canvas.

The artistic knowledge Janet received has also continued into another generation. Janet has spoken of learning alongside her sister Belinda and of subsequently teaching Katrina Bird Golder and Rochelle Bird Mbitjana, continuing the artistic lineage associated with Alhalkere.

Janet’s work has been exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally. In 2019 she represented Australia at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a Bush Yam Dreaming from that year was acquired by the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. Her work has also been selected for major public and cultural projects, including the immersive exhibition Connection: Songlines from Australia’s First Peoples at the National Museum of Australia in 2022.

In 2019 Coles commissioned Janet’s painting My Country for permanent display at its Alice Springs supermarket. The work expresses her relationship with her traditional homelands and the knowledge of Country required to find water and bush foods. Earlier, Janet’s art featured in the graphics for the 2014 Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards in Darwin, where she also transformed a black Smeg FAB28 refrigerator with her Bush Leaves design.

Today, Janet Golder Kngwarreye is recognised for a distinctive contemporary painting style that remains deeply grounded in Alhalkere, women’s cultural knowledge and the stories passed down through her family. Through her richly layered works, she continues to celebrate the enduring connections between Country, ceremony and generations of women.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS, PUBLIC PROJECTS AND RECOGNITION

• 2026 – Past | Present | Future, Everywhen Art, Shoreham, VIC
• 2025 – Awelye: The Legacy of Utopia, Everywhen Art, Shoreham, VIC
• 2025–2026 – Summer Highlights, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2024 – How We Paint: Eight Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2023 – Celebrating Country | Women Artists of Art Mob, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
• 2023 – Synergy 2023, Everywhen Art, Shoreham, VIC
• 2022 – Connection: Songlines from Australia’s First Peoples, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT
• 2022 – Synergy 2022: First Nations Artists from around Australia, Everywhen Art, Shoreham, VIC
• 2021 – Twenty, Mitchell Fine Art, Brisbane, QLD
• 2021 – Top 20 2021, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
• 2020 – Sounds of Summer, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2020 – 60 by 60: Small Paintings, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2020 – Central Focus, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
• 2020 – Cup of Joy: New Works from Rising Stars, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2019 – International Folk Art Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
• 2019 – Bush Yam Dreaming acquired by the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
• 2019 – My Country, commissioned for Coles, Alice Springs, NT
• 2019 – Landscape Colours, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2018 – Painting on Country: Utopia Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
• 2014 – Artwork featured in the Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards, Darwin, NT; Bush Leaves design painted on a Smeg FAB28 refrigerator
• 2002–2004 – Mbantua Gallery exhibitions in Tennessee and Oregon, USA

In her Women’s Dreaming paintings, Janet Golder Kngwarreye brings together the women’s stories, ceremonies and cultural knowledge connected to her Country. Rather than representing one single place or event, the painting unfolds as a richly layered view of Country, filled with plants, seeds, bush foods, water sources, ceremonial markings and pathways travelled by the women.

Flowing lines and intricately patterned areas refer to Awelye, the women’s ceremonies and ceremonial body-paint designs passed between generations. During Awelye, women come together to paint their bodies, sing, dance and honour the ancestral stories belonging to their Country. Through ceremony, cultural knowledge is taught and maintained, and the continuing health of the land, its plants, animals and people is acknowledged.

Throughout the composition Janet includes imagery associated with bush tucker and the women’s knowledge of gathering food and medicine. Among these are references to Atnwelarre, the pencil yam, its trailing plant, flowers and seeds. The yam grows beneath the ground and has long been an important food source in Central Australia. Janet is recognised as a custodian of Bush Yam knowledge within her community.

Concentric circles can represent waterholes, rock holes, soakages, ceremonial grounds and other significant places, while U-shaped forms represent women seated together. Leaf, flower, fruit and seed-like forms speak of the abundance of Country and the detailed knowledge required to locate food, water and medicine in the desert landscape. Janet has explained that Country may provide plentiful food and animals, but people must understand its Dreaming stories to know where these resources can be found.

The different areas flow into one another without a clear beginning or end, expressing Country as a living and interconnected whole. In some paintings Janet uses a dramatic black-and-white palette that emphasises the extraordinary complexity of her line work. In others, she introduces rich layers of colour, ranging from deep blues, turquoise, green and purple to pink, ochre, orange, rust and red. These changing palettes give each painting its own character while Janet’s distinctive combination of fine line work, dotting and densely patterned forms remains immediately recognisable.

Through these works, Janet celebrates the enduring relationship between women, ceremony and Country, and the knowledge that continues to be carried, practised and passed on.