Abie Kemarre Loy

Abie demonstrates through her painting a fascinating portrayal of the country in which she lives. She has a wonderful, liberated style that is constantly evolving and an astonishing ability with colour.

Regions: Utopia

DOB: c1972

Place of Birth: Utopia Station, NT

Languages: Eastern Anmatyerre

Art Centre: Gallery Gondwana Studio

Abie Loy Kemarre developed her fine skills as an artist at an early age working closely with her famous grandmother Kathleen Petyarre. Kathleen taught Abie the techniques to create paintings where the delicate dotting created a moving surface of colour that highlighted the structure of her paintings. Abie concentrated on the Bush Hen Dreaming story that she had inherited from her grandfather.

Abie Loy Kemarre is related to a number of the famous Utopia artists including Gloria Petyarre, Ada Bird Petyarre and Emily Kngwarreye. Born in 1972, Abie Loy Kemarre belongs to the Eastern Anmatyerre language group and identifies with her traditional country at Iylenty or Mosquito Bore.

Abie Loy’s Bush Hen Dreaming paintings further evolved and she began work on bolder, more abstract style around motifs of Sandhills and Body Painting. The expertise shown in her work brought her critical acclaim. Abie Loy Kemarre has been exhibiting for thirty years both within Australia and internationally.

Abie Loy Kemarre’s work is held in Australian public collections including National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, and Adelaide University Art Collection. She is represented in major private collections including Kelton Foundation, Levi-Kaplan Collection, Kerry Stokes Collection, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission Collection and Festival of Arts Foundation Collection. A selection of paintings by Abie Loy Kemarre is available from Japingka Gallery, where collectors can buy Aboriginal art online with certainty of quality, authenticity and provenance of art works. Aboriginal art status – Highly regarded artist.

Abie Kemarre Loy was born in 1972 at Utopia Station approximately 250 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She lives with her husband Terry Rumble at Iylenty (Mosquito Bore) near Utopia Station along with her family including Margaret Loy and her grandmother, who is world renowned artist Kathleen Petyarre. Abie is the eldest of five children. She has one sister, Genevive, a promising painter in her own right, and three brothers. Abie’s language group is Anmatyerre, she speaks Eastern Anmatyerre. Abie spends her time between Adelaide in South Australia, Mosquito Bore and Lake Nash.

Abie began painting in 1994 under the tutelage of her grandmother, Kathleen Petyarre. It was grandmother who taught Abie the techniques to create paintings where the delicate dotting created a moving surface of colour that highlighted the structure of her paintings. Her work evolved and became bolder with a more abstract style, bringing her critical acclaim.

Abie Loy Kemarre has custodial rights of the Bush Hen Dreaming story (that she had inherited from her grandfather), which she depicts as a metonymic device in her Bush Hen Dreaming and associated Sand-hills and Body Painting series of works. Other works that she has rights to paint include Bush Medicine Leaf Dreaming (father’s story), Emu Dreaming story (Grandfather’s story) and the Body Paint Designs that include the Awelye (Women’s Business) designs.

Abie demonstrates through her painting a fascinating portrayal of the country in which she lives. She has a wonderful, liberated style that is constantly evolving and an astonishing ability with colour. Each painting for Abie is an exploration of both the styles that have been passed down to her from her immediate family and of her own vision. Through her powerful and beautiful paintings, Abie is able to convey to the viewer the sensitivity and strength she derives from her Dreaming… and her Country…

As well as work in acrylic, Abie has also work with batik and limited edition printing.

You can download Abie Kemarre CV here...

For more extensive information about this artist contact us at fineart@gallerygondwana.com.au