aboriginal artist: Glady Kemarre

View artworks by Glady Kemarre

Born in 1937 and sadly passed away in 2016, Glady Kemarre (also spelt Gladys and Gladdy) lived at the outstation of Camel Camp, Utopia. She painted her Dreaming – Bush Plum – as well as Bush Men which are very interesting hunting and family scenes which she described 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 a number of exhibitions in Australia, Belgium and Germany.
Her work is held in a many private and public collections throughout Australia.
Selected Exhibitions
• 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
• 2001 – Exposition collective, arts d’Australie, Arts D’Australie Equation Transparence, Paris
• 2001-02 – Land of Diversity, The Northern Territory, Hogarth Galleries, Paddington
• 2002, 2002, 2004 – Aboriginal Art exhibition, Gallery Bahr, Speyer
• 2006 – Senior Women of Utopia, GalleryG, Brisbane
• 2007 Gladdy Kemarre: The First Solo Exhibition, The Mossenson Galleries, Collingwood, VIC

• 2007 – Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the Bay, Sydney.
• 2008 – From the Desert to the Sea, Yurlunggar Art, Brisbane
• 2009 – East-West, Prairie Hotel, Parachilna, South Australia
• 2009 – Aboriginal art in Korea, Gong Pyeong Art Space, Seoul, Korea
• 2010 – Desert Icons,
• 2011 – Utopian Aboriginal Art, Without Pier Art Gallery, Melbourne
• 2012 – Belongings, Australasian Arts Projects, Singapore
• 2013 – Brush with Art Festival, Prairie Hotel, Parachilna, South Australia
• 2014 – Landscape of our Dreaming, Red Poles, Mclaren Vale, South Australia
• 2014 – Senior Women from Camel Camp,Utopia London
• 2015 – Aboriginal-Artists, Wimbledon Fine Art, London
2015 – Finalist – 32nd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award

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