The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

AUSTRALIA ADA BIRD PETYARRE, GLORIA PETYARRE & KATHLEEN PETYARRE KATHLEEN PETYARRE Mountain devil lizard 1992 Synthetic polymer paint on poly cotton 200x165cm Collection: The artist 106 Gloria Tamerre Petyarre was born c.1945, Kathleen Petyarre c.1940 and Ada Bird Petyarre c.1930, in the Northern Territory, Australia. Both Ada Bird Petyarre and Gloria Petyarre held their first solo exhibitions at Utopia Art, Sydney, in 1990 and 1991 respectively. Between 1977 and 1987 the three artists exhibited with other Utopia women artists in Australia and overseas. Since then they have frequently participated in group exhibitions including 'Time before Time', Austral Gallery, StLouis, United States, 1988; 'Utopia Batik', Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, 1989; in 1990 both Kathleen Petyarre and Ada Bird Petyarre exhibited in the Second Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, and 'Contemporary Aboriginal Art', touring the United States and Australia; Gloria Petyarre exhibited in 'Tagari Lia: My Family', Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, 1990; and in 1992 the three artists exhibited in 'Aboriginal Art - Utopia in the Desert', Nogizaki Arthall,Tokyo, Japan. Gloria Petyarre and Ada Bird Petyarre also exhibited at Utopia Art, Sydney in 1992. The three artists are represented in public and corporate collections in Australia and overseas including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Allen Allen and Hemsley, and the Robert Holmes a Court Collection. Gloria Petyarre's work is represented in Brisbane in the Queensland Art Gallery and Griffith University Art Collection. Ada Bird Petyarre's work is also represented in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The three artists live and work in the Northern Territory, Gloria Petyarre at Mulga Bore, Kathleen Petyarre at Utopia, and Ada Bird Petyarre at Akaye Soakage, Mulga Bore. The world of contemporary art and traditional Aboriginal culture are quite sep- arate entities. In recent years these three traditional Aboriginal women have come to the fore as contemporary artists.This is not to dismiss the enormous contribution their history brings to the work but rather highlights the emergence of a new generation of contemporary Aboriginal artists. The three women are sisters both in the European sense of the word and, significantly with their work, in the Aboriginal sense. Thus they share the same custodial responsibilities for their country. And they hold the same stories, dances and songs that preserve and sustain their world.Their paintings, then, are nourished by a common spiritual presence