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.

Initially, she concentrated on the Bush Turkey or Bush Hen Dreaming story that she inherited from her grandfather. These paintings further evolved and she began work on bolder, more abstract style around motifs such as Sandhills, Awaelye/Body Painting and Bush Medicine Leaves. Abie depicts the leaf of the antywerleny (Acacia tenuissima), a type of wattle. The leaves of the antywerleny are traditionally crushed and mixed with animal fat to create a medicinal ointment or soaked in water to make a medicinal wash. She notes that this bush medicine continues to be made and used by the people of her Country today.

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.