Skin Name: Tamerre

Language: Anmatyerre

Region: Utopia

Gloria Tamerre Petyarre was born in c.1945 at Atnangkere Soakage, Northern Territory.

In the 1970s, Gloria Petyarre was a founding member of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group. With wonderful confidence, she merged the traditional iconography of the Anmatyerre onto the new medium of silk.

A very innovative and dynamic artist, she exerted a great influence on others in the group. In the early 1980s Gloria Tamerre Petyarre made her first painting on canvas (for CAAMA’s Summer Project exhibition) and soon developed her unique style of depicting the stories and her understanding of the traditional country.

In 1995/96, she received a Full Fellowship Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of The Australia Council.

Collections:

• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane
• Art Gallery of N.S.W., Sydney
• Flinders University, Adelaide
• Griffith University Collection
• Gold Coast City Art Gallery
• Queensland University of Technology
• Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• Supreme Court, Brisbane
• Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
• Westpac Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
• Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, U.S.A.
• Robert Holmes a Court Collection
• Wollongong University Collection
• Artbank, Sydney
• Macquarie Bank
• Singapore Art Museum
• British Museum, London, U.K

Exhibitions:

• 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Utopia Art Sydney
• 1988 Bloomfield Gallery, Sydney
• 1998 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
• 1989 Austral Gallery, St Louis, U.S.A.
• 1989 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
• 1990 Tandanya, Adelaide
• 1990 “Utopia”, exhibited in Ireland, U.K., India
• 1990 Orange Regional Gallery
• 1990 Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
• 1991, 1996 S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
• 1991 Meat Market Gallery, Melbourne
• 1991, 1994, 1995, Art Gallery of N.S.W.
• 1991 Australia Galleries, New York, U.S.A.
• 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
• 1992 Robert Homes a Court Collection, Bangkok, Thailand
• Gallery Rai,Tokyo, Japan
• 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002 Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne
• 1992 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• 1993 Myra Morgan Gallery, Kansas, U.S.A.
• 1993 Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane
• 1993 Austral Gallery, St Louis, U.S.A.
• 1993 Australian Embassy, Paris, France
• 1995 National Gallery of Australia – Canberra Museum of Art, Gifu, Japan
• 1995 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• 1995 Mitchell Galleries, State Library of N.S.W.
• 1995 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
• 1996 Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
• 1996, 2000 Old Parliament House, Canberra
• 1996, 1999 Sherman Galleries, Sydney
• 1996 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
• 1997 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
• 1997 Australian Galleries, Sydney
• 1998 Annandale Galleries, Sydney
• 1999 Art Gallery of Western Australia
• 1999 Embassy of Australia, Washington, U.S.A.
• 1999 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, U.S.A.
• 2000 Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
• 2000 Australian National University, Canberra
• 2001 Brisbane City Gallery
• 2001 Manawatu Gallery, New Zealand
• 2001 Kunst der Gegenwart, Vienna, Austria
• 2001 “Icons of Australian Aboriginal Art”, Singapore
• 2002 Singapore Art Museum
• 2002 Light Square Gallery, Adelaide
• 2002, 2003 National Gallery of Victoria at Federation Square, Melbourne
• 2002, 2003 Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne
• 2003 Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne

Awards:

• 1999 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of N.S.W.
• 1993 Tapestry for Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Vic
• 1993 Mural for Kansas City Zoo, U.S.A.
• 1994 Tapestry Commission for the Law Courts, Brisbane, Qld

Source: Kreczmanski, Janusz B & Birnberg, Margo (eds.): Aboriginal Artists: Dictionary of Biographies: Central Desert, Western Desert & Kimberley Region (JB Publishing Australia, Marleston, 2004)