Artists of Ampilatwatja

Twenty five years ago, heralding a new and fresh direction in Aboriginal painting, 20 artists from Ampilatwatja held their first sell-out exhibition.  Ampilatwatja (pronounced um-blood a-watch) sits on Alyawarr land, stretching north east of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), it is here that the artists map out the lands to reveal the contents of their country.

By 2003 the art centre was incorporated and the community were producing artwork reflecting life experience and bringing culture alive.

Forging forward, we look back and acknowledge Daisy Kemarre Moss, Lilly Kemarre Morton,  Colleen Ngwarraye Morton, Edie Kemarre Holmes, Michelle Pula Holmes, Lulu Pitjara Teece, founding members of the Artists of Ampilatwatja.  These important artists and elders, worked alongside the women living on Utopia, who in 1987 participated in A Picture Story – eighty-eight batik works on silk and A Summer Project – representing the women’s first works on canvas.  Both projects initiated by CAAMA and acquired by The Robert Holmes a Court Collection in mid 1988.

The beauty of the Artists of Ampilatwatja artwork emerges from a close association with the land, passed down through generations.

The Artists of Ampilatwatja have painted together for 25 years. ‘Our painting has no borders, just one country. Ampilatwatja is our place, Ampilatwatja is our country’.  Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonne