Collection: June Bird Petyarre

Date of Birth : c.1958
Country : Utopia, NT
Language : Anmatyerre / Alyawarreye

June Bird is a Utopian artist whose style strongly reflect that of her talented and famous mother, Ada Bird Petyarre. Like Gloria Petyarre, and the famed Emily Kame Kngwarreye, June Bird began her career in 1978 in batik print-making and moved to canvas and acrylic paints in the late 1980‘s.

She uses colour brilliantly to create contrast and movement to captivate the viewer. She features in the prestigious Robert Holmes a Court Collection in Perth, and continues to feature in many important art exhibitions throughout Australia.

Born at Waite River, Northern Territory, she moved with her family to the outstation at Mulga Bore, Utopia.

DREAMINGS

From her mother, Ada Bird (dec), she paints women’s ceremonial body designs and Mountain Devil Lizard which she shares these dreamtime stories with her sisters; Kathleen Petyarre, Gloria Petyarre, Myrtle Petyarre, Violet Petyarre, Nancy Petyarre and Jean Petyarre.

EXHIBITIONS

1985 The Second National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin.

1988 Aboriginal ‘Dot’ Painting, Melbourne, VIC

1989 Bloomfield Gallery, Sydney, NSW

1989 ‘Utopia Women’ Coventry Gallery, Sydney, NSW

1991 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1999 Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs, Northern Territory

1999 My Country, Powerful Expressions, Wollondilly Galerie, Germany

2004 Mbantua Gallery, USA Exhbitions: Portland, nashville, Knoxville, Hartford and Greenwich

2004 – 2006 Evolution of Utopia, Mbantua Gallery Cultural Museum, Alice Springs, NT

COLLECTIONS

Holmes a Court Collection, Perth

Mbantua Gallery Permanent Collection, Alice Springs

University of Queensland, Anthropology Museum, St Lucia, Qld

Private collections nationally and internationally.