Kathy Ramsey

Ngarrangarni /Totem: Crow

Kathy Ramsey is one of Warmun Art Centre’s most prolific emerging artists carrying on the legacy of her artistic family. The daughter of artists Rammey and Mona Ramsey, and the granddaughter of the late Timmy Timms, Kathy began painting in 2013, yet has already been included in numerous group exhibitions and private collections across Australia and internationally. Most recently she has been selected for Revealed, a biennial art event celebrating emerging Aboriginal artists in Western Australia.

Of her work Kathy says, “I only started painting in 2013. I like to join in and to be sharing a part of my Country. My mother and my grandfather always told us what this place means, what the names are, and all those Ngarranggarni (Dreaming) stories. Now, with all this painting, I’ll be the one to tell them to my kids. I’m the mother of three sons, but I lost my oldest son in 2008. He was really strong in corroborree and culture, but my other sons, they carry it on too. They went to school in Warmun, and I worked in the childcare centre and cleaning and bits like that. Now I’m painting all the time. I just paint what my old people told me about our Country – because they are the ones who know the history of our Country, the Country we’re still connected to today. Our Country really knows us, and it owns us.”

Kathy paints her ancestral Country around Bow River, incorporating rich Ngarranggarni stories with recent histories of station life.

Kathy’s cultural tradition and knowledge extend beyond her painting practice to include her role as a dancer of ceremony, specifically the Marnem, Marnem Dililib Benuwarrnji (Fire, Fire Burning Bright) Joonba and Waanga.

In her artwork she shares aspects of her Country − the meaning of place and their associated stories which have been passed down to her by her mother (Mona Ramsey), father (Rammey Ramsey) and grandfathers (Paddy Bedford and Timmy Timms Snr). Kathy is a prolific artist whose paintings develop new approaches and interpretations of both ancestral and contemporary stories, building on the tradition of strong practices emerging from Warmun Art Centre.

Recent exhibitions include Warlbowinj and Jumulunj (River Wallaby and Boab Tree) – Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, 2016; Warmun Then and Now, Berndt Museum, The University of Western Australia, 2015; Revealed, Perth Cultural Centre and Gallery Central, Perth, 2015; and Warmun Aboriginal Art, Art Images Gallery, Adelaide, 2014.

Themes
Bow River Station Country

Group Exhibitions
2017 When The Sky Fell: Legacies of the 1967 Referendum – Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth
2017 Spiritual essence of the Earth with Warmun artists – Aboriginal Signature Estrangin gallery, Brussels
2017 Art of the Gija People – Nancy Server Gallery, Canberra
2017 For the Women – Tandanya, Adelaide
2016 Warlbowinj and Jumulunj (River Wallaby and Boab Tree) – Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2016 Family Connections, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
2016 Warlbowinj and Jumulunj (River Wallaby and Boab Tree) – Paul Johnstone Gallery. Darwin
2015 Warmun Then and Now – Berndt Museum – The University of Western Australia
2014 Warmun Aboriginal Art – Art Images Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2014 Warmun: Gija Contemporary Art of Western Australia – Harvey Art Projects, USA
2014 Transitions, Short St Gallery, Broome WA

Awards
2017 John Fries Award Finalist
2015 REVEALED – Fremantle Arts Centre WA