Violet Petyarre Biography and CV
View Violet Petyarre paintings
An Eastern Anmatyere woman born in 1942, Violet and her sisters Kathleen, Gloria, Ada Bird, Nancy, Myrtle and Jean Petyarre all shared the experience of training in the batik technique with Susie Bryce, a crafts instructor, and Yipati, a Pitjantjatjara artist from Ernabella in 1977. They were subsequently were part of the batik group run so well by Jenny Green and Julia Murray from 1978 to 1988.
Violet Petyarre is the elder sister of Gloria Petyarre; Gloria often refers to Violet for intimate details of the many plants involved in their ceremonial life.
In April 1989, Violet and all of her sisters were commissioned by Delmore Gallery to paint on linen. The resulting paintings were highly sought after.
Like her sister, the Mountain devil lizard is the main Dreaming that Violet paints, creating her own distinctive interpretation of this unique desert animal.
In her earlier artworks, Violet's body painting (awelye) series portrayed a more structured composition and strikingly simplistic form. More recently, Violet has continued her artistic experimentation through the introduction of bold new colours, giving her celebrated works a bright new contemporary lustre and appeal.
Violet Petyarre has established herself as a significant figure of the Utopian and Australian contemporary art movements.
Violet took part in the Summer project in 1988/89 at the S.H. Ervin Gallery in Sydney, a world tour of Ireland, Scotland, the USA (Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, Oregon, St. Louis, Missouri) and The Art Gallery of NSW in 1990, with the Holmes a Court Collection.
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Holmes á Court, Perth
Artbank
Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Adelaide Festival Centre Trust Collection, Adelaide, South Australia
The Adelaide University Art Collection, Adelaide, SA, Australia
The Australian Embassy Collection, Jakarta, Indonesia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2002 Solo Exhibition, Fire-works Gallery, Brisbane, Qld.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Utopia: the artists of Delmore Downs, Yaama Ganu Gallery, Moree
2016 Utopia Sisters - The Petyarre Women, Delmore Gallery with RedSea Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
2003 Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Songlines Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1996 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1996 Gallerie Australis, Adelaide
1990 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
1990 James Ford Bell Museum, University of Minnesota, USA
1989 S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1989 Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1989 Orange Regional Gallery
1989 Tandanya, Adelaide
SCHOLARSHIPS
1998 Australian Delegate, “Belonging to Mother Earth” - Indigenous Wisdom and Healing Conference, Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.A.
