Jessie Pitjara Hunter

Artist: Jessie Pitjara Hunter

Skin Name: Pitjara (also known as Petyarre)

Language Group: Alyawarr

Region: Irrultja, Utopia, Northern Territory

Vendor: Utopian Aboriginal Art

Dreaming: Arawerr country, sugar bag body design, Awely (Body Paint)

Jessie Pitjara Hunter was born in 1957 at MacDonald Downs and is the sister of renowned artists Sandy, Annie and Susan Pitjara Hunter. She, along with her siblings, now live at Irrultja, on Utopia Community.

Like her sisters, Jessie’s main Dreaming is Awely or Women’s Business but she also paints Arawerr country and sugar bag body design.

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:

• Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands.
• Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
• The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
• The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.

Exhibitions:

• 1985 - The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
• 1989 - A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art]
• 1988-89 - Utopia Women's Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, 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 and Scotland.
• 2005 - Black Ink: Indigenous Prints from the Queensland Art Gallery Collection, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
• 2007 - A Brush with Art, Eastern Desert Art Songs, Prairie Hotel, Parachilna