The region of Utopia, 290km northeast of Alice Springs is home to the Alyawarre and Anmatyerre people and is well known for its contemporary art movement.

The groundbreaking Eastern Anmatyerre artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (1910-1996), now often described as “Australia's most famous artist”, is the first Australian artist to be accorded a solo retrospective at London's Tate Modern. One of Kngwarreye’s main subjects was Awelye.

Called “performance-based knowledge” by anthropologists, Awelye encompasses music, song, dance, ceremony, storytelling, knowledge, education, entertainment, maintenance of Country, artistic expression and expression of family and personal relations. Kngwarreye's work also fostered a continuing legacy of Utopia's women painters. As art writers and gallerists, Everywhen Art's Susan McCulloch and Emily McCulloch Childs have had a 30+-year working relationship with Utopia's artists, visiting their Country and documenting their lives and art over several generations.

The exhibition AWELYE features paintings by 13 leading next generation artists of Utopia. Their work, like that of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, resonates with vibrancy and colour as they sing the strength and beauty of Awelye into painted form.

In their talk Everywhen's curators Susan McCulloch & Emily McCulloch Childs will explore the concept of Awelye, detail the lives and works of the exhibiting artists and present a mini art parade of newly arrived works featuring Janet Golder Kngwarreye's exciting new series - Alhalkere Country - the country she shares with both her late grandfather Kudditji Kngwarreye and Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Exhibition dates: November 8-30. Fridays-Sundays weekly

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