Cowboy Louie Pwerle Biography and CV
View Cowboy Louie Pwerle's Paintings
Born in 1941 at the sheep yard camp on Old MacDonald Downs Station in central Australia, Cowboy Louie Pwerle is an Eastern Anmatyerre man. He is also an excellent stockman, as are all the men in his family. He lives up to his name by wearing cowboy shirts, boots and Akubra hats. Cowboy has always had a strong relationship with the Holt family, as did his father before him, having known Jessie Chalmers and her family (Don Holt’s mother), who also grew up on Old MacDonald Downs Station.
Cowboy now lives close to his Country at Mosquito Bore on Utopia, a former pastoral lease returned to its traditional owners in 1978. He also spends time at Boundary Bore (Atneltyeye) on the western boundary of Utopia and Soakage Bore (Atnarare), south-east of Lyentye. He lives there with his two wives, and his sisters Carol and Elizabeth Kngwarreye. Cowboy is the younger brother of Louie Pwerle (now deceased), who was also a well known artist, and custodian of a selection of Dreaming sites over the same area of land. His sites and animals are lesser in significance than Louie's, but more varied. Cowboy was encouraged to begin painting by Louie and in some cases would depict certain stories under his authority. This happened in particular with some later works, where Louie gave Cowboy permission to paint about men’s initiation ceremonies, which Louie was in charge of.
However, predominantly, Cowboy depicts the nesting places of the Bush Hen (or Bush Turkey) and the bird’s travels whilst searching for food, mating and tending to its chicks. In his Dreaming, the Bush Hen roams the land leaving tracks between and by the soakages (places of water) in Atnwengerrp land on Utopia. In his paintings, these tracks are represented as dotted lines, and the soakages are depicted as geometric circles. Whilst Cowboy depicts the Bush Hen’s journey and his ceremonial duties ensure the bird’s continuity, the bird is also an excellent food source so its proximity to the soakages (and therefore, people) would ensure easy hunting. Cowboy also paints the Emu (Ankerr) Tucker Dreaming and Lizard (Arlewatyerr) Dreaming.
Cowboy Louie Pwerle's intricate artworks have great movement and depth, evoking the contours and colours of his Country. His works are storytelling maps, with place and movement depicted in great detail. Cowboy has continued to pass on his stories to his grandson, as his father and brother passed onto him.
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of VictoriaMuseum of Victoria, Melbourne
The Coventry Collection, Sydney
The Holt Collection
Art Gallery of South Australia
Benalla Art Gallery
Stichting Sint-Jan, Brugge, Netherlands
The Casama Group, Melbourne
Major private collectors in Australia and internationally
EXHIBITIONS
2017 The Golden Age of Utopia, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2016 Camel Camp & Beyond, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2015 Aboriginal art, Wimbledon Fine Arts, London
2014 Dot Code: Desert Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2014 Indigenous Group Show, Without Pier Art Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2012 Belongings, Australasian Arts Projects, Singapore
2011 Aboriginal Art from Utopia, Without Pier Art Gallery, Melbourne
2010 Aboriginal Artists UK Spring Show, London
2010 Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2010 59th Blake Prize, National Art School Gallery, Sydney,NSW
2010 The Utopia Story, Australasian Arts Project, Singapore
2009 An Individual Perspective: From the Collection of Lauraine Diggins, Deakin University Art Gallery, Burwood, VIC
2009 Blake Prize, The Blake Society, National Art School Gallery, Sydney (finalist)
2008 Power of Place, Paintings and Sculpture from the Eastern Desert, Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc, Adelaide
2008 Annual Collectors’ Exhibition, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, VIC
2008 Sydney Art & Antiques Fair 2008, Sydney NSW
2008 Moscow World Fine Art Fair, Manege, Moscow, Russia
2008 Impulse to Paint: The Artists of Iylenty, Utopia, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne
2007 Eastern Desert Dreaming, Artists from Utopia, GalleryG, Brisbane
2007 Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the Bay, Sydney
2007 ArtParis 2007, Grand Palais, Paris FRANCE
2007 Visions of Utopia, Cooee Aboriginal Art, Sydney NSW
2007 Memory As Landscape, Masterpiece @ IXL, Hobart TAS
2007 Utopia Today, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, VIC
2006 ArtParis 2006, Grand Palais, Paris FRANCE
1997 William Mora Gallery
1993 Aptos Cruz Gallery, Adelaide
1993 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1992 Aptos Cruz Gallery, Adelaide
1992 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1992 Aptoz Cruz Gallery, Adelaide
1991 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1991 Eastern Desert Art, Brisbane
1990 Deutscher Gallery, Melbourne
AWARDS
2012 Finalist, Blake Art Prize
2009 Finalist, Blake Art Prize
2008 Finalist, Albany Art Prize
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Johnson, V., 1994, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales.
