Kudditji Kngwarreye

c.1928 –

Region: Utopia, Pmara Jutunta (Ti-Tree) Northern Territory

Language: Eastern Anmatyerre

Kudditji Kngwarreye worked as a stockman as was the case with most aboriginal men who lived on pastoral leases in Central Australia.

He is related to the most prominent painter from Utopia, Emily Kame Kngwarreye(now deceased).

 Kudditji paints for local galleries in Alice Springs, including the Red Sand Gallery.  He depicts in his paintings Dreaming stories from around the Utopia area, such as ‘Emu Dreaming at Boundary Bore’.

Breaking out of this style after some years Kudditji’s work became looser and more ‘abstract’ and in 2003 he began to exhibit the extraordinary saturated colour paintings that have seen his reputation grow nationally and internationally. A sense of space can be felt in the ‘My Country’ paintings where massive blocks of stippled color are laid alongside each other.

2005: Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Danks Street, Sydney
2005: New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2005: Colours in Country, Art Mob, Hobart, Tasmania
2004: Waterhole Aboriginal Art, Sofitel Wentworth Hotel Exhibition, Sydney
2004: My Country, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2004: My Country, Japingka Gallery Perth
2003: New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1992: Tjukurrpa, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Basel
1991: Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1990: Art Dock, Contemporary Art from Australia, Noumea, New Caledonia