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Gracie Morton
Gracie Pwerl Morton was born in 1956 at Utopia Station, located
approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern
Territory. She descends from an artistic family; her mother Myrtle
Petyarre and auntie Gloria Petyarre are both well-known indigenous
artists. Her family’s traditional country Alhalkere is associated with
Mosquito Bore, which is where Gracie, her husband and two children
currently reside. Although Mosquito Bore is a small community
comprising of 6-7 houses, it is home to many famous Aboriginal artists
including Gloria Petyarre, Ronnie Price Mpetyarre [d. 2006], Louis
Pwerle and Rita Ngale.
In the early 1980’s Gracie began working in ‘Batik’ [method of waxing
and then dying material] and was a member of the Utopia Women, a
foundational group of indigenous women artists who exhibited both
locally and internationally. In 1989, funded by the Government Arts
Program and supported by CAAMA 88, Utopia Women created A Picture Story
- a major artwork which was later acquired by Holmes a Court and
exhibited at the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.
Similar to many Utopia Women artists, in the late 1980’s Gracie began
to create works on canvas. Her earlier works were typical of ‘Utopia
Art’, extensive line-work which depicted body paint designs and
traditional symbolism. Gracie’s progression from Batik into Acrylics
has spurred her artistic development, in both painterly skills and
image context. Currently, her works infer a distinctly minimalism
style- delicate dotting of traditional ochre colors move while
blanketing the canvas.
EXHIBITIONS:
1985-86.1
| Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia | 1989
| Utopia Women’s Paintings. The First Works on Canvas. A Summer Project, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney. Australia. | 1989-91
| Utopia – A Picture Story. Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural
Institute, Adelaide. Australia. The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin,
Cork, Limerick Ireland and Meat Market Gallery. Melbourne. Australia. | | 1989-92 | Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs. Australia | 1989-93
| 8th National Aboriginal Art Awards, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. Australia | | 1992-94-96 | Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia | 1998
| Utopia and Balgo Hills, Aboriginal Art Galerie Baehr, Speyer, Germany Culture Store, Art Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florenz. Italy. Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne. | 1999
| Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, Canberra Australia Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs. Australia. | | 1999 | Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs, Australia. | 1999, 2002
| My Country – Journey of our Ancestors, Cairns, Australia Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen, Germany | 2000
| Mosquito Bore – The Art of the Minimalist, Cairns, Australia.
Ancient Earth Indigenous Art Gallery, [Solo Exhibition], Cairns, Australia. | 2001
| Alliance Francaise de Canberra, Canberra, Australia The Unseen in Scene, Staedfische Galerie Wolfsburg. Germany. | 2001-02
| Recounting the Essence of Life; Art from Australia. Kunstforum HDZ, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany. | 2002
| Land is Life, Art from Australia. Jagdschloss Granitz, Binz, Ruegen, Germany | | 2002 | Kult (o) urnacht, Aboriginal Art Galerie Baer, Seyer, Germany | | 2000-2006 | redrock gallery, Melbourne. Australia. |
COLLECTIONS:
• Beher-Sammiung Collection, Germany
• Privatsammlungen, Germany
• Reimers-Stiftung, Deidesheim, Germany
• Robert Holmes a Court-Sammung, Perth, Australia
• Slaughter and May International Law, London, England
• Mem Aziz Collection, Melbourne, Australia.
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