Abie Loy Kemarre

Abie Loy Kemarre is related to a number of the famous Utopia artists including Gloria Petyarre, Ada Bird Petyarre and Emily Kngwarreye. Born in 1972, she belongs to the Eastern Anmatyerre language group and identifies with her traditional country at Iylenty or Mosquito Bore.

Abie developed her fine skills as an artist at an early age working closely with her famous grandmother Kathleen Petyarre. Kathleen taught her the techniques to create paintings where the delicate dotting created a moving surface of colour that highlighted the structure of her paintings. Abie concentrated on the Bush Hen Dreaming story that she had inherited from her grandfather.

Abie’s Bush Hen Dreaming paintings further evolved and she began work on bolder, more abstract style around motifs of Sandhills, Body Painting and Bush Medicine Leaves. The expertise shown in her work brought her critical acclaim. She has been exhibiting for thirty years both within Australia and internationally.

Her work is held in Australian public collections including National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, and Adelaide University Art Collection. She is represented in major private collections including: Kelton Foundation, Levi-Kaplan Collection, Kerry Stokes Collection, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission Collection and Festival of Arts Foundation Collection.