BETT GALLERY HOBART - Aboriginal Art

Abie Loy Kemarre (born c.1972-)
Country: Lyentye (Mosquito Bore) Utopia, Northern Territory
Language: Eastern Anmatyerre

A w e l y e
2 to 31 March 2007 

Awelye refers to the ceremonial world of women, or women’s business, and includes women’s ceremonial body designs. It also might refer to a particular ceremony and the designs songs and dances associated with it.  Awelye was used as a title for many of Emily Kngwarreye’s paintings, also conveying the meaning of “the whole lot”, summing up Aboriginal artists’ understanding of painting as a reflection of the interconnectedness of all things, rather than individual representations of particular things.

“Abie Loy is closely related to a host of famous and extraordinary women painters - Gloria Pitjara, Ada Bird Petyarre, and the late Emily Kngwarreye.  Her Grandmother is Kathleen Petyarre. Yet, her painting has not come to public attention because of these famous connections, but because she is simply the most talented and exciting young contemporary Indigenous artist to emerge for some years.

“Born in February 1972, the young Eastern Anmatyerre girl grew up in remote Utopia, almost 300 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, where she observed her older women relatives at work on their art.  Their efforts were to prove an international success story. 

“Under the formidable influence of her Grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre, Abie Loy’s talent has blossomed.  She is a highly disciplined artist, working and re-working ideas many times until she is satisfied with the outcome.  She possess a strong technical command of all aspects of painting, including line, intrinsic form and surface quality, use of colour, and overall balance of composition - but she is also willing to experiment with all these elements to extent permitted by Eastern Anmatyerre law, of which she is deeply observant.”

Dr Christine Nicholls, A New Star Rises in Utopia
Australian Art review March/June 2004

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Dreampower, Art of Contemporary Aboriginal Australia, David Cossey, Museum Art International, 1997, pp. 26,27,28

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