Gloria was born c. 1945 at Atnangkere Soakage, Northern Territory. She lived in the traditional ways before moving to one of the established settlements, Utopia. Her language is Anmatyerre and her country is Atnangkere.
Gloria is one of seven sisters who are all acclaimed artists, including Kathleen Petyarre, Violet Petyarre and Ada Bird. Her Aunt is the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, the most celebrated painter of the Utopia Movement and Australia’s best known desert artist.
In the 1970s, Gloria was a founding member of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group. In the 1980s, Gloria made her first painting on canvas (for CAAMA’s Summer Project exhibition) and developed her unique style of depicting the stories and her understanding of the traditional country.
In 1990 she travelled to Ireland, London and India as a representative of the Utopia Women in the ‘Utopia – A picture Story’ exhibition and in 1995/96, she received a Full Fellowship Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of The Australia Council.
Gloria had her first solo exhibition in 1991 at the Australia Gallery in New York. In 1993, she executed a Mural for Kansas City Zoo, and in 1999, she won the prestigious Wynne Landscape Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Gloria Petyarre’s paintings are highly sort after by collectors and galleries throughout the world and she is regarded as one of Utopia’s most significant artists.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1991
• Australian Galleries, New York, USA
• Utopia Art Sydney
1993
• Awelye, Utopia Art Sydney
1994
• Utopia Art Sydney
1995
• Gloria Petyarre: On the Line, Utopia Art Sydney
1996
• Fire Works Gallery, Brisbane
1997
• Instant Pictures, Utopia Art Sydney
1998
• Gloria Petyarre, Campbelltown Art Gallery
1999
• Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• Gloria Petyarre New England Regional Art Museum
• Red Desert Gallery, Eumundi
• Redback Gallery, Brisbane
• Wildflowers, Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs
2002
• Leaves You Thinking, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney
1999 – 2000
• Raiki Wara. National Gallery of Victoria, Museum & Art Gallery of the N.T., Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of S.A.
1999
• Aboriginal Art – Australia Today, Cologne, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Aboriginal Art, IHK Würzburg, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Art Exchange International, London, UK, and North Shore Fine Art, Sydney
• Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs
• Spirit Country: Aboriginal Art from the Gantner Myer Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA
• Utopia: Tradition and Innovation. Recent work by the artists of Utopia, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
• Painting of the Australian Aborigines, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2000
• 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Canberra
• Art of the Aborigines, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Contemporary Paintings of Australian Aborigines, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Utopia Women, Red Desert Gallery, Eumundi and Sunshine Coast University, Noosa
2001
• The Unseen in Scene) , Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• De Beer´s Collection, Brookdale Galleries
• Desert Art, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy
• Seven Sisters Petyarre, Brisbane City Gallery
2001 – 2002
• Recounting the Essence of Life. Art from Australia. Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2001 – 2004
• Mythology & Reality. Palazzo Bricherasio Turin, Italy; AAM Utrecht, The Netherlands; Monash University Prato Centre, Italy; Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts, Israel; SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney; Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2002
• The Strength and the Light. Art from Australia, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Generations, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• Images and Identity, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Utopia Art Sydney
2003
• Big Country. Works from the Flinders University Art Museum collection, Flinders University City Gallery
• Art from Australia, Central and Federal State Library, Berlin, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Dreamtime, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2004
• Pictures from Utopia, Paintings of the Aborigines, Art Museum Bayreuth, Germany (in co-operation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
• Die inneren und die äußeren Dinge. Gallery Bamberg Villa Dessauer, Bamberg, Germany (in conjunction with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer)
2005
• Summer in the Desert, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
Selected Collections
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
• The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• Flinders University, Adelaide
• Campbelltown City Art Gallery
• Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
• Griffith University Collection
• Queensland University of Technology
• Supreme Court, Brisbane
• Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
• Westpac Gallery, New York
• Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, U.S.A
• Robert Holmes a Court Collection
• Wollongong University Collection
• Artbank, Sydney
• Macquarie Bank
• Singapore Art Museum
• British Museum, London