Hazel Kngwarreye Morton

Artist: Hazel Kngwarreye Morton

Skin Name: Kngwarreye (also known as Ngwarrai)

Language Group: Alyawarr

Region: Utopia, Northern Territory

Vendor: Utopian Aboriginal Art

Dreaming: Wild Flowers (Alpeyt), Women's Ceremony (Awely), Rainbow (Mpwelarr)

Hazel Kngwarreye Morton was born in 1963 into a large artistic family. Her mother Kathleen Kamara Morton was wife number two to Billy (Stockman) Pitjara Morton, a renowned sculptor and painter.

Like many artists in this region, including her sisters, Hazel was introduced firstly to batik –making and was involved in the important Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) community projects which resulted in Utopia - A Picture Story, 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court which toured throughout Australia. Her first foray into painting with acrylic on canvas began when CAAMA initiated Utopia Women’s Paintings the first works on canvas – A Summer Project.

Since then Hazel has been painting and her works have been exhibited here and overseas.

Her subjects include Wild Flowers (Alpeyt), Women's Ceremony (Awely), narrative camp scenes, Rainbow (Mpwelarr) Dreaming, and Ilyarn (plant) and Ilyarnayt (grub found in the Ilyarn). She has developed her style into a very fine pattern of dot work and symbols.

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. ©
• 1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. ©
• 1991, Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
• 1994, Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2 I Shall Never Become a Whiteman, exhib. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. ©

Collections:

• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
• The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.

Exhibitions:

• 2007 - A Brush with Art, Eastern Desert Art Songs, Prairie Hotel, Parachilna
• 2005 - From little things, big things grow, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• 1994 - Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, I shall never become a Whiteman, 5th Havana Biennial, Cuba, & Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 1993/4 - ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark.
• 1991 - The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 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 and Scotland.
• 1989 - Utopia Women's Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, 1988-89, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney.