Artist: Madeline Curley & Carolanne Ken | Title: Seven Sisters & Minma Malilu | Year: 2022 | Medium: acrylic on linen | Dimensions: 100 x 202 cm
PROVENANCE
This is Aboriginal Art, NT Cat No. TIAA-CKMC202201
Artist Profiles
COMMUNITY/REGION
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, SA
LANGUAGE
Pitjantjatjara
BIOGRAPHY
Madeline Curley, born in 1976, is a self-taught artist from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and the daughter of acclaimed artist Imitjala Curley. Madeline has developed a distinctive style known for its fluid and sweeping motion, focusing on the Seven Sisters Dreaming story. She often illustrates the part of the story where the sisters traverse the land, fleeing from the man Nyiru. Her canvases feature roundels representing waterholes and rock-holes where the sisters rested, with finely dotted winding lines symbolizing the paths they walked. In 2019, one of her paintings was projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House as part of the Badu Gili project (meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the Gadigal people).
Carolanne Ken, born in 1971, is also from the APY Lands, residing in Fregon. Carolanne began working at Kaltjiti Arts in 2004, initially assisting in studio management before transitioning to painting full-time. Her art revolves around the Minyma Malilu Dreaming story, passed down to her by her maternal grandmother. This narrative tells of Malilu, an ancestral woman who travelled the land searching for her daughter who had run away with the ‘wrong man’. When she found the couple, she dug out a cave with her piti (coolamon) to create a big wiltja (shelter). The roundels and emanating arcs in her work symbolise Malilu's cave and the paths that she, and other women of the community, would walk to access it.
REFERENCES
APY Gallery. (n.d.). Madeline Curley - Artist Profile. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://www.apygallery.com/pages/madeline-curley
Kate Owen Gallery. (n.d.). Madeline Curley - Artist Biography. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://www.kateowengallery.com/artists/Mad1072/Madeline-Curley.htm
This is Aboriginal Art. (n.d.). Carolanne Ken - Artist Profile. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://thisisaboriginalart.com.au/artists/109-carolanne-ken/?srsltid=AfmBOorU8uts4SxnNF86O8q259lgdrj_C7h7cnlCc9iDQSkmPuU1ZVhf
PROVENANCE
This is Aboriginal Art, NT Cat No. TIAA-CKMC202201
Artist Profiles
COMMUNITY/REGION
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, SA
LANGUAGE
Pitjantjatjara
BIOGRAPHY
Madeline Curley, born in 1976, is a self-taught artist from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands and the daughter of acclaimed artist Imitjala Curley. Madeline has developed a distinctive style known for its fluid and sweeping motion, focusing on the Seven Sisters Dreaming story. She often illustrates the part of the story where the sisters traverse the land, fleeing from the man Nyiru. Her canvases feature roundels representing waterholes and rock-holes where the sisters rested, with finely dotted winding lines symbolizing the paths they walked. In 2019, one of her paintings was projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House as part of the Badu Gili project (meaning ‘water light’ in the language of the traditional owners of Bennelong Point, the Gadigal people).
Carolanne Ken, born in 1971, is also from the APY Lands, residing in Fregon. Carolanne began working at Kaltjiti Arts in 2004, initially assisting in studio management before transitioning to painting full-time. Her art revolves around the Minyma Malilu Dreaming story, passed down to her by her maternal grandmother. This narrative tells of Malilu, an ancestral woman who travelled the land searching for her daughter who had run away with the ‘wrong man’. When she found the couple, she dug out a cave with her piti (coolamon) to create a big wiltja (shelter). The roundels and emanating arcs in her work symbolise Malilu's cave and the paths that she, and other women of the community, would walk to access it.
REFERENCES
APY Gallery. (n.d.). Madeline Curley - Artist Profile. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://www.apygallery.com/pages/madeline-curley
Kate Owen Gallery. (n.d.). Madeline Curley - Artist Biography. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://www.kateowengallery.com/artists/Mad1072/Madeline-Curley.htm
This is Aboriginal Art. (n.d.). Carolanne Ken - Artist Profile. Retrieved September 22, 2024, from https://thisisaboriginalart.com.au/artists/109-carolanne-ken/?srsltid=AfmBOorU8uts4SxnNF86O8q259lgdrj_C7h7cnlCc9iDQSkmPuU1ZVhf
