Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarreye

Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarreye is a significant artist from Utopia living at Mosquito Bore, approximately 250 kilometers north east of Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

Elizabeth is one of the custodians of her country. Elizabeth is the daughter of the late artist Nancy Petyarre, and also the granddaughter of one of the most revered Utopian artists, Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Elizabeth depicts the movement of the pencil yam seeds (kame) as they are thrown into the wind to be reharvested.

Elizabeth paints some of the yam seeds larger than others indicating a plumpness if there has been rain.  She also employs colour to depict the yam seeds and leaves that have dried out and those that are still supple. The yam itself is a small long potato and is cooked on an open fire. The yam holds both a nutritional value as well as a spiritual significance.  

Elizabeth Kunoth highlights the power that the Aborigines confer on the seeds of the bush. In this work, it is the seeds of the sweet potato that was found in sacred territory - maintained by her grandmother, that she illustrates.

Between pearls and embroidery, her minimalist work symbolizes both a vegetable and an animal force. The movement which she creates by the alternation of bronze and silver colors, gives rise to various interpretations.

The technique emphasizes the tactile aspect of the canvas, evoking for example the wind in the bush, the coat of a moving animal or a surface covered with stingray. Elizabeth Kunoth comes to stretch each point to give them an orientation and establish relief to her canvas by superimposing the dotted lines. It thus creates an optical dimension for the spectator who watches his work. Her work is part of the Aboriginal tradition to the extent that she maps her territory. Elizabeth Kunoth's works are aerial representations of sacred lands. It blurs the tracks by covering the paths taken by the ancestors with droplets.

Elizabeth was a finalist in the 2013 Blake Prize, a finalist in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Wynne prize for landscape painting in 2008 & 2010, and in 2008 she won the coveted Churchie Award.