Born at Atnangkere Soakage, Northern territory, in the 1970’s, Gloria Petyarre was a founding member of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group. With wonderful confidence, she merged the traditional iconography of the Anmatyerre onto the new medium of silk. A very innovative and dynamic artist, she exerted a great influence on others in the group. In the early 1980’s, Gloria Petyarre made her first painting on canvas (for CAAMA’s Summer Project exhibition) and soon developed her unique style of depicting the stories and her understanding of the traditional country. In 1995\96, she received a Full Fellowship Grant from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council.
