A senior member of the Anmatyerre language group, Emily Kame Kngwarreye began to paint on canvas in her late seventies, after decades of ritual artistic activity. Her work received immediate attention from critics, collectors, and fellow artists alike and she was represented posthumously in the 1997 Venice Biennial.

Unlike most desert painters at the time, she did not use stylized representations of animal tracks or concentric circles in her designs, but employed richly layered brushstrokes or dabs throughout her abstract compositions. Her free handling of paint using various implements, a keen sense of color, and dynamic compositions earned her international fame. Kngwarreye was prodigiously creative, and it is estimated that she executed around three thousand works in an eight-year period. She stated,"Whole lot, that's whole lot...That's what I paint, whole lot."

Activist, Singer, Ceremonial Leader

Utopia Station

Bush workshop on Batik, Utopia Station, Australia (1977)

skin group aunt of Gloria Tamerre Petyarre skin group aunt of Kathleen Petyarre skin group aunt of Ada Bird Petyarre skin group aunt of Myrtle Petyarre skin group aunt of Violet Petyarre skin group great-grandmother of Abie Loy Kemarre

Participant, Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy (1997) Australian Artists Creative Fellowship, Australia Council, Canberra, Australia (1992) Artist-in-Residence, The Robert Holmes a' Court Foundation, Adelaide, Australia (1989)

Floating Forests of Silk, Adelaide Festival Center, Adelaide, Australia (1981)

Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters

Emily Kame Kngwarreye: Solo Exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, Australia (1996)

Utopia Station (died at)