Marietta Bray has established herself as a significant artist with a distinctive style. The content of her works focuses on her family’s traditional country of Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) and she presents both the iconography and the Dreamtime stories of this region with accuracy and passion, with an obvious determination to carry on the legacy of her Elders. Her works are strong, neat with great attention to detail.
Marietta was encouraged to paint by her Uncle, the late Jack Britten who until he passed away in July 2002 was Traditional Custodian of Purnululu and a wonderful teacher of ochre technique. She is the daughter of the late Shirley Bray who was a Traditional Elder of this beautiful region of the East Kimberley of Western Australia, now listed as a World Heritage site. Marietta’s mother was well educated, an interpreter and linguist, and has passed the stories and knowledge of her country to her daughter.
Marietta favours the thick bush ochre medium, and paints the country of her heritage with particular attention to colour and form. She has participated in many group exhibitions with Senior Ochre Artists over the last ten years. Marietta paints both for the Warmun Art Centre and as an Independent Artist.
Selected Exhibitions
2007
Greetings from Turkey Creek, Mary Place Gallery
Ten Warmun Works, Father John Therry School
2006
Warmun Art Centre Presents, Mary Place Gallery
2005
Across the Border, Raft Artspace, Darwin
New Work from Warmun, Gadfly Gallery, Perth
Snapshots from Turkey Creek, photography exhibition, Melbourne
Warmun Group Show, Framed Gallery, Darwin
Women from Warmun, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2004
Jack Britten & the Third Generation of Artists from Warmun, Span Galleries, Melbourne
The Next Generation – Balgo and Warmun, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
Tibet meets Warmun, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
2003
East Kimberley Show, Short Street Gallery, Broome
2002
Garmerrun: All Our Country, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
2001
Short on size, Short Street Gallery, Broome
Grammar School Art Exhibition, Perth
Selected Collections
FTB Group Collection, Sydney
Laverty Collection, Sydney