Name: Purlta PURLTA Maryanne Downs (DEC)
Language: Wangkajunga
Community: Kurnangki
Biography:
Purlta was born at Kurtal Jila [permanent waterhole], near Kururrungku (Billiluna). When I was a young girl I walked with my mother a long way to Paruku (Lake Gregory). After this when I was still young, I walked again with my parents to Louisa Downs Station.
When we go out bush we get all kinds of food. We get food for the kids like makaparla [bush banana]. We find a tree and sometimes we argue, “This is my tree”, “No it’s mine”. Sometimes we get yams. We used to dig for them ourselves, without our mother. We learnt how to ?nd any kind of food in the bush. My sister taught me to dig yam and to hunt goanna. When we were hungry away from our mother we looked around for food. We would find possum and sometimes at night, echidna or bandicoot.
Sometimes Jinny and her husband would dig a yam and leave it in the ground covered up. We would come behind and pick it up. We kids would share it then. We would eat it raw. Then those two would come back and they would look around for their yam. Jinny would call out, “Where’s my food?” She would look around but she couldn’t find that yam. Then she knew that we had eaten it. She called us the greedy ones. This happened when we were walking from Billiluna.
My sister taught me everything about hunting. We carried water in a coolamon on our heads. My mother taught me how to cook on the ?re. She was cheeky and used to hit me but sometimes I was naughty too.
I ?rst started painting at Karrayili Adult Education Centre. We sewed clothes and tried to write with the ?rst teacher. We started painting but we didn’t paint our country. We painted nothing at ?rst. We used mud sometimes to make pots. We also made coolamons and other things. Then everyone started painting. I started on cardboard. When I was looking around I was thinking, “what have I got to do?” I thought, “I could put something like a goanna or a billabong or jumu [soakwater]”. I have been painting at Mangkaja for a long time, now.
PAINTING THEMES:
Ngarrangkarni [Dreamtime] stories
Jilji [sandhills] in the Great Sandy Desert Kurta jila [permanent waterhole] Yutamaral jila
Palya jila
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2009 | Purlta Pink | Seva Frangos, Subiaco, WA |
2008 | Purlta Maryanne Downs | Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, VIC |
2008 | Wamulu and Marlu [Eagle & Kangaroo] | Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, VIC |
2006 | Maryanne Downs | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2009 | Mangkaja Artists 60x60 | Randell Lane Fine Art, WA |
2009 | Sharing Difference on Common Ground | Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth, WA and Kimberley Aboriginal Artists |
2009 | Celebrating Country: Kinship and Culture | Seymour College, Glen Osmond, SA |
2009 | Senior Artists from Fitzroy Crossing | Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
2009 | Mangkaja Survey Show | Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA |
2008 | Women on Country | Suzanne O’Connell, Brisbane, QLD |
2008 | Divas of the Desert | Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW |
2008 | Waterholes and Bush Tucker | Bridget McDonald Hampton Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
2008 | Marnintu Maparnana [Women Painting] | ReDot Gallery, Singapore |
2008 | Mangkaja Arts | A P Bond Art Dealer, Adelaide, SA |
2008 | Wet n’ Wild | Artkelch, Freiburg, Germany |
2008 | Wamulu and Marlu [Eagle and Kangaroo] | Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC |
2007 | X Marks the Spot | Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
2007 | Women Artists of Fitzroy Crossing | Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT |
2006 | Mona Chuguna & Cory Surprise | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2006 | Depth & Divergence | Cullity Gallery, UWA, Perth, WA |
2006 | Mangkaja Group Show | Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
2005 | Surprise; Cory & Friends | Red Dot Gallery, Singapore |
2005 | Too Much Good Work | Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT |
2005 | Mangkaja Group Show | Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT |
2005 | Colour?elds | Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT |
2005 | True Colours - Recent works from Fitzroy Crossing | Queensland College of Art Gallery, Grif?th University, QLD |
2005 | All About Art | Alcaston Gallery Melbourne, at Shapiro Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
2005 | Jiljijanka Marnin [Women from the Sandhills] | Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2004/05 | Colour Power: Aboriginal Art Post 1984 | National Gallery of Victoria |
2004 | Over the Top | Fremantle Art Centre, Perth, WA |
2004 | Wakartu Cory Surprise & Widgee Henry | Short St Gallery Broome, WA |
2004 | Ngurrara Canvas | Perth Concert Hall, Perth International Arts Festival, WA |
2004 | This is Still My Country: 10 years on | Perth International Arts Festival, Artplace, WA |
2003 | Fitzroy Fusion | Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT |
2003 | Martuwarra and Jila | Cullity Gallery, University of Western Australia |
2003 | Mangkaja Women | Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT |
2002 | Group Show | Flinders Lane Gallery Melbourne, VIC |
2002 | Recent works from Mangkaja Arts | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2002 | Short on Size | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2001 | Mangkaja Arts 10 years on | Mangkaja Arts |
2001 | 10 year anniversary Show | Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, SA |
2001 | Ngurrara Canvas | National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT |
2001 | Past modern, Australia Square | Short St Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
2001 | Fitzroy Women | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2001 | Short on Size | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2000 | Short on Size | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
2000 | Past modern, Australia Square | Short St Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
2000 | Noumea-Paci?que 2000 | Biennale D’Art Contemporain de Noumea |
1999 | Ngurrara | Japingka Gallery, Perth, WA |
1999 | Short On Size | Short St Gallery, Broome, WA |
1998 | Group Show | Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London |
1997 | Group Show | Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
1997 | 14th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award | Department Arts and Museums, Darwin, NT |
1996 | Group exhibition | Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
1996 | 13th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award | Department Arts and Museums, Darwin, NT |
1995 | Kimberley art | Melbourne, VIC |
1995 | Group Show | Australian Perspectives Gallery, Brisbane, QLD |
1994 | Ngajakura Ngurrara Minyarti [This is My Country] | Perth, Festival of Perth Exhibition, Artplace, WA |
1993 | Mangkaja Women | Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, WA |
1993 | Images of Power | National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC |
1992 | Group Exhibition | Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW |
1992 | 9th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres StraitIslander Art Award | Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory |
1991 | Karrayili | Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, SA |
PUBLIC ART:
2008: Fitzroy Valley Education Centre – panels project
AWARDS:
1997: Works on Paper Prize, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
COLLECTIONS: Art Gallery of NSW National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Australia Charles Darwin University, NT Murdoch University
Fitzroy Crossing High School
Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth
PUBLICATIONS/FILMS:
2009 | Kimberley Aboriginal Artists Sharing Difference on Common Ground |
2007 | FORM and the National Museum of Australia The Canning Stock Route Project |
2006 | Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC) NEW LEGEND: A Story of Law and Culture and the Fight for Self-Determination in the Kimberley |
2006 | Berndt Museum of Anthropology, WA Book of Days |
2005 | Exhibition Catalogue: Red Dot Gallery, Singapore Surprise; Cory and Friends |
2004 | National Gallery of Victoria Colour Power: Aboriginal art post 1984 |
2003 | New Yorker Magazine, 28/08/2003 The Painted Desert: The fate of an Aboriginal Masterpiece |
2003 | Exhibition Catalogue: Cullity Gallery UWA Perth / Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Martuwarra and Jila [River and Desert] |
2003 | Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Perth, WA |
2002 | Exhibition Catalogue The Art of Place: The Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award |
2002 | Exhibition Catalogue Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art / Marrawarra and Jila entry / Ngurrara Canvas 1 entry |
2001 | Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide Painting Up Big, The Ngurrara Canvas, Kaltja Now |
PUBLICATIONS/FILMS:
2000 | IATSIS Canberra, ACT Karrayili: The history of Karrayili Adult Education Centre |
2000 | Oxford University Press ANU Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art & Culture / Ngurrara Entry |
2000 | Exhibition Catalogue, Heritage Commision Art of Place 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award |
1998 | Video Documentary, SBS Television Jila Painted Waters of the Great Sandy Desert |
1996 | Exhibition Catalogue Minyarti Wangki Ngajukura Ngurrarajangka [This is the word from my country] |
1994 | Exhibition Catalogue Ngajakura Ngurrara Minyarti [This Is My Country] |
1993 | Exhibition Catalogue, Fremantle Art Centre, WA Mangkaja Women |
1991 | Art Gallery Of New South Wales Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition Catalogue |
1991 | Exhibition catalogue, Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide Karrayili: Ten Years On |
Status: Stock Hand-carved/Painted Boab Boab nuts are synonymous with the Kimberley region. Many artists start their careers carving and painting boabs for sale as gifts, decorations and for sharing stories before moving onto painting on Read more…
Jungkut Billabong “This is next to Tarpu Jila this billabong. When raining time this place fills up with ngapa (water) every year I come back here and camp in the Jilji and go hunting and Read more…
