Mary Oliver

Born:                  1964     

Skin:                   Ampetyane

Language:          Arrernte

Country:             Williams Well

Community:       Santa Teresa, NT

Mary's mother was relocated from Arltunga mission to Santa Teresa Mission (now Ltyentye Apurte Community). Mary was born and grew up at Ltyentye Apurte but went to school in Alice Springs and in Melbourne. After completing high school in Alice Springs she returned to Ltyentye Apurte to work at the bank. In 1989 Mary was employed at Keringke Arts as one of the first artists, and also as the trainee bookkeeper.

Her artwork at this time started with stencil painting and lino printing before moving into silk painting, where she learnt by watching other artists at work. Through her involvement since in many workshops and exhibitions Mary has produced a solid body of work which is highly identifiable within the Keringke or Eastern Arrernte style. Her unique use of colour has reflected many of the environmental and social factors that affect her daily life, and currently Mary is finding her way back from a more muted colour palette through the spectrum of earth tones and towards the wilder and stronger colours of her country.

Keringke Arts: The artist uses pattern, colour, shape and design to create vibrant paintings that depict their sense of country, culture and self. Various painters have developed this style of painting at Keringke Arts over a twenty-year period, notable for intricate detail and high colour. The shapes and designs may have features common to ancient rock art and petroglyph designs found throughout the traditional country of Eastern Arrernte. Other motifs reflect sand and body painting designs. Still others may reflect the stories and songs recounting the adventures of the ancestors who first travelled across the vast land making the earth as we know it today. In its contemporary form these designs on the canvas may not be attributed to any particular thing, holding the energy and vitality of the artist's particular creative experience. The Eastern Arrernte cultural identity includes a dreaming, a skin name, a place, as well as family name, language, and community. These things are not necessarily reflected in the design or outcome of each painting.

Solo Exhibitions

2007 Solo Exhibition, Desart Gallery, Alice Springs

Group Exhibitions

2001 Putting in the Colour: Silks from the Centre, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne Vic.

2001 Atyenhenge Atherre Kenhe Apmere (from the grandfather and grandson's country)

2001 Coomalie Cultural Centre, Batchelor College, Batchelor, NT

2000 Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

2000 St Kevins College Exhibition, Melbourne, Vic

1999 Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1999 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT

1999 "Untelhentye" Design - Rainbow Serpent Gallery, Fox Studios Sydney, NSW

1999 Keringke Solo Exhibition, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1998 Keringke Arts, National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Sydney NSW

1998 Designs of the Desert, Hogarth Galleries Aboriginal Arts Centre, Sydney NSW

1998 Keringke Arts: Kaleidoscope, Framed Gallery, Darwin

1998 Keringke Arts: Colour and Light, Gondwana II. Alice Springs NT

1997 Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1997 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT. (entryi ncluded in National travelling exhibition 1997-98)

1996 Alice Craft Acquisition, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs

1996 National fringe 96, Inbarendi Fringe Gallery, Adelaide SA

1996 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra ACT

1996 Anwernekenhe Tyepetye - Telling Our Story, Rainbow Serpent Gallery, Sydney NSW

1996 Arm Load of Art Exhibition, Woods St Gallery, Darwin NT

1996 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1995 National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT

1995 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen ARt Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1995 Northern Territory Art Award, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1994 Central Australian Aboriginal Art & Craft Exhibition, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1994 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Parliament House, Canberra ACT

1993 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1992 Atyelpe, Te Taumata Gallery, Auckland New Zealand

1990 Mbwellare, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

1989 Australian Craft Show, Sydney Show Ground, Sydney NSW

Collections

ARALUEN CENTRE FOR THE ARTS, ALICE SPRINGS

QUEENSLAND ARTS GALLERY, BRISBANE, QLD

THE FELTON FOUNDATION, SANTA MONICA, USA

Bibliography

1999 Keringke: Contemporary Eastern Arrernte Art Awards

1998 Artwork reproduced under licence as calender and diaries by Community Aid Abroad Trading

1997 Artwork reproduced under licence as calender and diaries by Community Aid Abroad Trading

1996 Artwork reproduced under licence as calender and diaries by Community Aid Abroad Trading.

1996 Artwork reproduced under licence as greeting cards by Community Aid Abroad Trading