Emily & Women of Utpoia
"They have a vitality, a dynamism, a beauty, depth and complexity that sets them apart." The Times
Gallery Boomerang is honored to present “Emily & Women Of Utopia”, an exhibition that marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Emily Kam Kngwarray, the internationally acclaimed Australian First Nations artist whose work has been the focus of numerous major museum exhibitions of late, including a retrospective at the Tate Modern, London; the National Gallery of Australia; the National Museum of Art, Osaka; the Fondacion Opale in Lens, Switzerland; and included in a landmark exhibition at the National Gallery,Washington, DC.
The works in the Gallery Boomerang exhibition explore ancient stories from central
Australia, brought alive with modern materials: acrylic paint on linen or simple
wooden sculptures naively carved and painted. They are graphically rendered in
either black-and-white or ablaze with vivid or more nuanced color, the colors of the
Australian bush. Ceremonial body painting designs, a mother emu tending her
chicks, the intricate story of the Anwekety, bush plum or conkerberry, a dazzling
tale of the sugar bag, native honey-bee hives full of glorious nectar, a camp scene
life before the white men arrived -- these themes and more are depicted, relived, in
our current exhibition “Emily and Women of Utopia”.
