Lindsay Bird Biography
Lindsay Bird Mpetyane was born circa 1935 at Mulga Bore near Utopia, Northern Territory. He is a respected elder and tribal leader of the Anmatyerre tribe and worked as a shepherd and stockman for many years.
Lindsay, along with a number of women at Utopia, was introduced to painting in 1977, when Yipati, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Ernabella and Suzie Bryce, a craft instructor, taught them how to paint on silk batik. Later, Jenny Green and Julia Murray would supply materials, training and encouragement.
With up to 80 members at a time, the Utopia Women's Batik Group became an essential source of inspiration for the artists, and its tremendous success both in Australia and overseas led to another successful project introduced in 1988, in which the artists were to paint on primed, stretched canvas. Lindsay, and many of the women, took to the new medium with ease and enthusiasm, finding it more exciting to work with than the silk and batik techniques they had hitherto used. Lindsay was the only male to participate in the important Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) community projects which resulted in the works being exhibited at the S.H.Erwin Gallery in Sydney and several other notable galleries across Australia. It was the beginning of the Utopian Art Movement, and it was impressive enough to gain international attention with 'Utopia – A Picture Story, 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court Collection', which toured throughout Australia and then onto Scotland and Ireland in 1990.
As a senior law man, Lindsay can depict many themes of men’s law in his paintings. His Dreamings include ‘Çharpa’ (Honey Ant), Bush Plum, Men’s Ceremony, Yam Dreaming and Snake Dreaming. Lindsay's artworks are often large and imposing with a distinctive boldness of colour selection and harmonious design.
Lindsay lives a traditional lifestyle with his wife Mavis and their three daughters, maintaining strong links with their land values and ceremony.
COLLECTIONS
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The National Museum of Australia
Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Royal Hibernian Academy Dublin Ireland
Art Bank Sydney
Winchester Regional Airport Collection USA
Parliament House Canberra
Australian Art Gallery
Art Gallery of South Australia
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
National Gallery of Victoria
Museum of Contemporary Art
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Kluge-Ruhe Collection University Virginia USA
SOLO EXHIBTIONS
1991 Utopia Art, Sydney
1989 Syme, Dodson Gallery, Sydney
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 Art Gallery Kunsthuys, the Netherlands1998 Dreamings Exhibition, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy
1998 Dreamings Exhibition, Vlaams - Europeesch, Brussels, Belgium
1994 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia
1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra, ACT
1990 Contemporary Art from the Holmes a Court Collection, Harvard University of Minnesota, Lake Oswego Centre for Arts, USA
1990 Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK
1990 Utopia-A Picture Story, an exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes'a'Court Collection, which toured Eire & Scotland
1988 Utopia Women's Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
EXHIBITION OF BATIK SILKS
1988 Time Before Time, Austral Gallery, St Louis, USA
1988 Painting and Batik from the Desert, Utopia Art, Sydney, NSW
1988 Utopia Batik, Craft Council Gallery, Canberra, ACT
1988 Utopia Batik, Queensland Museum, Brisbane, QLD
1987 Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
1987 Darwin Museum Gallery, Darwin, NT
1987 Yirrkala Community Centre, Northern Territory
1987 Jogyakarta Fine Art Academy, Indonesia
1987 Sydney Expo, Craft Council Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1987 The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
1986 Craft Council Gallery, Canberra, ACT
1986 Bundaberg Art Gallery, Queensland
1986 The Araluen Centre, Springs Craft Festival, Alice Springs, NT
1985 Black Women in Focus, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide, SA
1985 Burnie Gallery, Tasmania
1985 Tasmanian Craft Gallery, Hobart, TAS
1984 Craft Council Gallery, Canberra, ACT
1984 Queensland University Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
1984 Fireworks Gallery, Adelaide, SA
1984 Sydney Craft Expo, Sydney, NSW
1984 Darwin Craft Council Gallery, Darwin, NT
1984 The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
1983 Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, SA
1983 Alice Springs Craft Council, Alice Springs, NT
1982 Sydney Craft Expo, Sydney, NSW
1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games Exhibition, Brisbane, QLD
1981 Floating Forests of Silks - Utopia Batik from the Desert, Adelaide Festival Centre, SA
1980 Artworks, Alice Springs, NT
