Susan Hunter Petyarre / Awelye and Alpeyt (19322)

Susan Hunter Petyarre was born c.1966 into the Alyawarre tribe in Utopia, approx. 275 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Her country is Atwengerrp.

Susan is a member of one of the most renowned painting families in Australia. Her aunt was Minnie Pwerle and her great-aunt was Emily Kame Kngwarreye, two of our most celebrated artists. Her mother, artist Molly Pwerle, was Minnie’s sister. Susan’s older sisters, Annie Hunter Petyarre and Jessie Hunter Petyarre and her older brother, Sandy Hunter Petyarre are all accomplished artists. Susan resides with her extended family at the outstation of Irrultja on Utopia and lives a traditional way of life spending all her time in the bush.

Susan has featured in many group exhibitions since beginning her artistic career in the late 1980’s. She participated in batik workshops that were held in Utopia with her mother and older siblings. Like most other batik artists living in Utopia, Susan made the transition to painting in the summer of 1988-9 as part of CAAMA’s “The First works on Canvas, a Summer Project”. Her work is represented in the Holmes a Court Collection which was exhibited extensively within Australia and abroad.

Susan has gained a following for her fine painting technique and the care and pride she takes in her work, producing intricate and sensitive paintings that relate to the traditional culture of her Alyawarre heritage.

EXHIBITIONS
• 2020 Pwerle Gallery x Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute ‘Atnwengerrp – Our Apmere, Our Place’, Adelaide
• 2018 Mercedes Me x Pwerle Gallery Art Exhibition, Melbourne
• 2018 Pwerle Gallery ‘Utopia exhibition of four generations’, Adelaide
• 2010 ‘Fresh from Utopia’, DACOU Melbourne, Melbourne
• 2010 ‘Desert Art from Utopia’, presented by DACOU & Southern Health, Monash Hospital, Clayton, VIC
• 2009 Group exhibition, DACOU Broome, Broome, WA
• 2009 ‘Utopia’, group exhibition, DACOU Melbourne
• 2008 Utopia Discoveries Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• 2008 EWB Elements traveling group exhibition to major cities in Australia
• 2007 Standing on Ceremony, Tandanya Cultural Institute, Adelaide
• 2007 ‘Eastern Desert Dreaming-Artists from Utopia’, GalleryG, Brisbane
• 2007 ‘Desert Diversity’, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 ‘Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert’, Simmer on the Bay Gallery, Sydney
• 2006 ‘Utopia’, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• 2006 Senior Women of Utopia’, GalleryG, Brisbane
• 2004 ‘Bilderwelten in Utopia’, Holzschnitte und Gemaelde vom Aborigines, Staedtisches Kunstmuseum Spendhaus Reutlingen, Kunstmuseum Bayreuth, Germany (in cooperation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer)
• 1999 ‘Australie – Art, Arts d’Australie’, Stephane Jacob / J.L. Amsler – Bastille, Paris
• 1999 ‘Aboriginal Art – Australien Now’, Deutsche Welle, Koln, Germany (in co-operation with the Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer)
• 1997 ‘Geschichtenbilder’, Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer, Germany
• 1991 92,93,94,96 – Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, NT
• 1990 Utopia – A Picture Story, an exhibition of 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court Collection by Utopia artists toured Ireland & Scotland
• 89-91 Utopia – A Picture Story, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
• 1989 Utopia Women’s Paintings -the First Works on Canvas – A Summer Project, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
• 1989 Design Warehouse Sydney, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Sydney
• 1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne Design Warehouse. Sydney

COLLECTIONS
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth

This painting represents Awelye (Women’s Ceremonial Body Paint) and the Wild Flowers (Alpeyt) of the acacia plant.

The linear designs in this artwork illustrate Awelye. The women apply the body paint designs onto their breasts, arms and thighs singing as each woman takes their turn to be ‘painted up’. Their songs relate to the dreaming stories of ancestral travel and other totemic plants, animals and natural forces. Awelye demonstrates respect for the land. In performing these ceremonies they ensure well-being and happiness within their communities. The roundels depict the waterholes around which the women perform ceremony, and the U shapes represent the women.

The Wild Flowers are from the acacia plant. The Indigenous women from the Utopia region collect the flowers as well as the seeds, leaves and pods from the acacia plant for both traditional bush medicine and food.