Utopia: the Genius of Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Emily Kngwarreye is one of the most important abstract painters of the 20th century and one of the most significant artists that Australia has ever produced. Emily was born into Australia's Aboriginal community, an Indigenous people that has inhabited the Australian continent for about fifty thousand years, long before the federation of the Australian nation. Throughout their history, Aboriginal people have used various forms of dynamic artistic expression, including body marking and sand paintings, to reflect their unique perception of the world. Although Aboriginal art has often been classified as tribal or primitive art, Emily's strikingly modern and beautifully innovative works were created in an environment far away from the influence of the Western Art tradition. Her works have been featured in more than 100 exhibitions over the last decade and they are housed in collections around the world. In 1997, Emily's works were exhibited at the Venice Biennale and visitors from all over the world were deeply impressed by the richness of her art. As modern art, Emily's works transcend the Aboriginal art genre and now, more than ten years after her passing, they are highly acclaimed and recognized throughout the world. Emily first began working on canvas in her late seventies and she produced between three thousand to four thousand works in the eight years prior to her death. This exhibition gathers over 100 selected works from her oeuvre and it is the first major retrospective exhibition of Emily's works ever held outside Australia. Emily's genius was nurtured in the Australian outback and her world provides a wealth of inspiration. We hope that this exhibition will be an opportunity for visitors to learn more about the extraordinary legacy of Emily's innovative combination of Aboriginal tradition and modern art.