Janet Golder Kngwarreye | My Country, Painted from the Heart of Utopia

Janet Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1973 at Mulga Bore on the Utopia Homelands, roughly 240 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She is an Anmatyerre woman, and she comes from one of the most celebrated artistic families in Australian Aboriginal art.

Her grandmothers are Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle, both highly regarded Utopia artists. She is the great-granddaughter of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, widely considered the most significant female Aboriginal artist in Australian history. Her sister Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is an accomplished artist in her own right. Janet is married to Ronnie Bird, son of the renowned Ada Bird Petyarre. Painting is not something Janet came to. It is something she was born into.

She began painting in 1987, learning directly from the senior women in her family. Her subjects include Awelye, the women's ceremonial body paint designs passed down through generations of Anmatyerre women, Bush Yam Dreaming, Bush Medicine Leaves, and My Country, her most sought after and widely collected body of work.

My Country is Janet's vivid, bird's eye interpretation of the Utopian landscape. Rolling country, bush tucker, women's cultural practices and the colours of Central Australia after rain all appear in these works. What makes Janet's painting immediately recognisable is her extraordinary sense of colour, bold, layered, full of energy, combined with a technical fluency that comes from decades of painting. She works across dot work, brushstroke and nib work, often within the same canvas, building up a surface that rewards close looking.

Janet visits Adelaide regularly from the Northern Territory, and Art by Farquhar works with her directly whenever she is here. On occasion she has painted at our gallery, bringing that creative energy into the space in a way that is always something to witness. The works we carry from Janet are acquired directly through that relationship.

For collectors, Janet Golder Kngwarreye represents one of the most compelling opportunities in contemporary Aboriginal art. She carries one of the great artistic lineages in this country, she is actively producing exceptional work, and her paintings are finding their way into serious collections both in Australia and internationally.

Original paintings by Janet Golder Kngwarreye are available online at Art by Farquhar, with Certificate of Authenticity and worldwide shipping.