Dinny Kemarre Kunoth

Dinny Kunoth Kemarre was born in 1954 at Utopia, central Australia when it was still operating as a cattle station. As a young man growing up on the Utopia he became an extremely skilful stockman and worked on many of the local cattle stations mustering, branding and droving cattle. 

Later in the 1970s when Utopia became an Aboriginal freehold property he began honing his artistic skills sculpting and painting. Together with his wife Josie Petyarre he started sculpting naive figures of animals and birds which he still does today. A keen football fan Dinny then began sculpturing football figures in the 90s. In 2016 a host of these figures representing all the heroes of every team went on display at Parliament House in Canberra to celebrate Reconciliation Week. 

Dinny's naive paintings of bush football and horse racing tell a vivid story of contemporary life in the Indigenous homelands of outback central Australia. The stockman Dinny Kunoth enjoys the annual Harts Range Race meeting where local jockeys test their skills on the track. His paintings of these unique bush race meetings are atmospheric, quirky and amusing as are his depictions of bush football matches. 

AFL football is extremely popular in the NT and Utopia and each community emulates an AFL team. Competition AFL Football is played throughout the country for over 6 months a year. 

The teams are named after and wear the uniform/colours of the AFL's teams. Some of the local teams include the Soapy Bore Crows, Irrultja Port Power, Apungalingum Eagles, the Mulga Bore Magpies, Arlparra Dockers and Arnkawenyerr Swans. Exhibitions celebrating these paintings have been held in Melbourne and at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Collections:

• Artbank
• Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia, WA
• Gold Coast City Art Collection, QLD
• City of Perth Collection, Perth, WA
• Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA