Annie Pitjara Hunter

Artist: Annie Pitjara Hunter

Skin Name: Pitjara (also know as Petyarre)

Language Group: Alyawarr

Region: Irrultja, Utopia, Northern Territory

Vendor: Utopian Aboriginal Art

Dreaming: Awely (Women's Business), Bush Tucker, Bush Plum (Arnwekety)

Annie Pitjara Hunter, sister to artists Susan, Jessie and Sandy Pitjara Hunter is becoming well known for the fine execution of her interpretation of Women's Business. Like her sisters Annie is concerned with Awely and all it symbolises during the deeply spiritual women's ceremonies. Over the last few years she has participated in several group exhibitions throughout Australia.

Pitjara Hunter's have been collected since the beginning of the Utopia art movement when batik was first introduced to the women in 1977. Her batik was selected for Utopia- A Picture Story an exhibition from the Holmes a Court Collection which toured extensively nationally and overseas. Her paintings were also featured in the significant exhibition “Utopia Women’s Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project” (1988-89). Annie Pitjara Hunter’s work is represented at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and in the Holmes a Court collection in Perth.

Born on MacDonald Downs in 1964 to Johnny Ngwarrai Hunter and Molly Bula Hunter, Annie now lives at Irrultja with her sisters.

Bibliography:

• Brody, A., 1989, Utopia Women's Paintings: the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, 1988-89, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings, Perth. ©
• Brody, A., 1990, Utopia: a Picture Story, 88 Silk Batiks from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth. ©
• Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria.

Collections:

• The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth

Exhibitions:

• 1989 - Alcoota, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
• 1989 - A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne Design Warehouse Sydney
• 1989 - Utopia Women's Paintings - the First Works on Canvas
• 1988-89 - A Summer Project, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
• 1990 - 'Utopia - A Picture Story,' an exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes a Court Collection by Utopia artists which toured Eire & Scotland
• 2006 - Utopia, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 - Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the Bay, Sydney
• 2007 - Standing on Ceremony, Tandanya Cultural Institute, Adelaide
• 2007 - Eastern Desert Dreaming, Artists from Utopia, GalleryG, Brisbane
• 2008 - Power of Place, Tandanya: National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc., Adelaide