Biography:
Kwementyaye Ungwanaka (dec) was born in Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, in 1946, later moving to the Hermannsburg Mission with her family, where she attended the mission school. Ungwanaka is a founding member of the Hermannsburg Potters, and was greatly influenced by the legacy of her late husband - the Lutheran pastor and senior law man Nahasson Ungwanaka. Remembering the old mission days where the people at Hermannsburg first used clay for non-ceremonial purposes, Pastor Ungwanaka himself was working with Joseph Rontji in the 1970s, creating small figurines and firing in Raku. It was Pastor Ungwanaka's dying wish in 1990 that pottery be reintroduced to the local people. It was then that Pastor Ungwanaka invited accomplished potter and ceramics tutor Naomi Sharp to the Country, and a series of training programs where established through the then Northern Territory Open College.
After the passing of her husband, Kwementyaye Ungwanaka learned the craft of hand-coiled pottery from Naomi Sharp, when the program was initially held at Ntjartnama outstation, near Ntaria. Ungwanaka is now a senior member of the group, never missing a days work. Her work is known for her painting style: quirky and irreverent, and her electrifying depictions of the Western MacDonnell landscape, with its associated fish and honey ant Dreamings.
Ungwanaka has participated in over eighty exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Her works are held in most major public and private collections.
In 2010 Ungwanaka accompanied Judith Inkamala to China to showcase their po ery to ceramic ar sts for the collabora ve
exhibi on Meou Art: Exhibi on of Australian Indigenous Art in Shanghai, China
Group Exhibitions:
1993 7th Torres Strait Island Festival of the Arts, Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia 1993 Central Australian Arts & Crafts Exhibition, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1993 Continuity, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-op, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 1994 City Hall, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
1994 Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America 1994 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1994 Birds in My Country, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
1994 Ntaria – Our Country Our People, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 1994 Watercolours of Namatjira’s Country – The Hermannsburg Artists 1938 to1978, The Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, South Australia, Australia
1994 The Art of Place Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
1994 Namatjira Ilakakeye, Tandanya Kaurna Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 1995 The Hermannsburg Potters, Hogarth Galleries Aboriginal Art Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1995 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition 1995, The Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1995 Pottery of the Hermannsburg Potters, St. Andrews Catholic Church, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1996 Nurna Urrknga Arrkana Mpaaramalanga – We’re Having Fun Working With Clay, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1996 Ampinye – Place, Tandanya Kaurna Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
1996 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1996 Lyaarta Nurna Urrknga Mpaarama – Now We Are Working With Clay Retrospective, Museum & Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Northern Territory, Australia
1997 Arrenhe – That One Now, Tandanya Kaurna Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
1997 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1998 Arnanjapera Nunaka – Our World, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1998 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1998 Hermannsburg Potters, National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1999 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
1999 All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1999 Awelye, DESART Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2000 Hermannsburg Potters: Aranda Artists of Central Australia, New Parliament House, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2000 Unveiling the QUT Art Collection, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2000 Women’s Work – Our Imagination in the Bowls, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2000 This Earth For Us, Commonwealth Institute, London, England
2000 Hermannsburg Pots, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2001 Pmara Nunakana Larkama – Our Sparkling Country, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2001 Nunaka Pmara Mara Inthorra – Our Beautiful Country, DESART Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2001 Pots, Prints and Paintings, Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
2002 Nanah Etatha Nunaka – This is Our Life, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2002 Pmara Nunakana – Our Country, Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
2002 Pmara Nunaka, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia
2002 Hermannsburg Potters, Thornquest Gallery, Southport, Queensland, Australia
2002 Seeing the Centre: The Art of Albert Namatjira, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
2003 Hermannsburg Potters in Paint, Thornquest Gallery, Southport, Queensland, Australia 2003 Message Sticks, Sydney Opera House, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2003 Indigenous Ceramic Art Survey, Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2003 Namatjira Country, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2003 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2005 Aranda Landscapes 2005, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2005 Arrkutja Wurra, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2005 Hermannsburg Pottery, Painting Exhibition, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
2005 The Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2006 Pmara Nurnaka Etata – Our Land is Alive, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2006 Melbourne Art Fair, represented by Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2006 Iltja nurnaka Urrkaapuma - From Our Hands, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2006 Hermannsburg Potters, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2006 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2006 Naïve Art – Tales from the Bush, Gallery, Gondwana, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2007 The Women’s Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2007 Classic Ceramics and Oil Paintings, Bandigan Art Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Hermannsburg Potters 2011 - Stories from Clay, Australia
2007 Hermannsburg Life, Craft Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2007 24th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
2007 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2007 Indigenous Ceramics, SoFa Chicago, United States of America
2008 Nanah Etatha Nuka – This is our Life, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2009 Iltja Nunaka Orkapurna Ntari – Hand-made from Hermannsburg, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2010 Themes of the Central Desert: New ceramics by the Hermannsburg Potters, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2011 Desert Mob 2011, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2011 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2012 Desert Mob 2012, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia 2012 Hermannsburg Potters 2012. All Things Clay, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2013 Air Born, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin, Victoria, Australia
2013 The Hermannsburg Potters – New Hand-built Pots & Sculpture, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2014 Hermannsburg Potters – New Marks, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2015 Our Land is Alive – Hermannsburg Potters for Kids, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Provenance Does Matter - The Collectors' Exhibition, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Pmara – Country, Home, Map, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2016 Provenance Does Matter – Living with Contemporary Art II, Alcaston Gallery at Gallery 369, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
2016 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2016 Ltharta, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2017 Clay Stories, Sabbia Gallery, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
2017 Time and Tide, Alcaston Gallery, Victoria. Australia
2017 Desert Mob, Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Australia.
2017 Irna :Trees, Alcaston Gallery, Paddington, New South Wales. Australia.
2017 Clay Stories, Seppeltsfield, South Australia. Australia.
2018 Clay Stories, (two year travelling exhibition) Araluen Arts Centre. Northern territory. Australia
2018 'Lurpa- Seasons' Bett Gallery, Hobart Tasmania, Australia
2018 Desert Mob, Araluen Alice Springs , Northern Territory, Australia
2018 Tarnanthi, Adelaide, South Australia
2018 Ramaramaka 'Generation Big Pot Project Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia
2019 Pmere Nuka- Our Country' Turner Galleries, Perth, Western Australia
2019 Hermnannsburg Potters, Bett Gallery, Hobart Tasmania, Australia
2019 Desert Mob, Araluen, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
2019 Jam Factory Group Show, Adelaide, South Australia
2019 Looking Back Moving Forward' Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, Australia
Major Commissions:
1994 Mural for the Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
1996 Relief tile murals for main entrance and throughout the Alice Springs Desert Park, Northern Territory,
Australia Collections:
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Collection, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, South Australia,
Australia National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland,
Australia Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton, Victoria,
Australia Queensland Institute of Technology of Technology, Queensland, Australia Northern Territory & Outback Centre, Sydney, New South Wales.
Publications:
1999 McCulloch, Sue., Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Allen & Unwin
2000 Issacs, Jennifer., Hermannsburg Potters: Aranda Artists of Central Australia, Craftsman House
2006 The Jukurrpa Diary, IAD Press
2015 Buttler, Elisha., ‘Make – Hermannsburg Potters’, NGV Gallery Magazine, pp. 48-52. 2015 Davidson, Helen., ‘Aussie Rules and Aboriginal art: meet the Hermannsburg potters at work’, The Guardian
2015 Sibenaler, David., ‘Art of AFL’, Herald Sun, 9 June, p. 8.
2015 Bennett, Sally, ‘Footy’s Feats of Clay’, Herald Sun, 19 September , p.2.
2016 Flanagan, Martin., ‘Possibilities – in black and white’, The Age, 5 March, p. 51.
2016 Stern, Melissa., ‘Aboriginal Women in Australia Celebrate Their Football Heroes with Pottery’, Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Art and its Discontents
