A Summer Project

A Summer Project from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection is the first major collection of paintings from Utopia and the Sandover region in Central Australia. Painted between 1988‒89, it includes eighty-one paintings was first exhibited at the SH Ervin Gallery in Gadigal Nura / Sydney in 1989. This landmark group exhibition includes Emily Kam Kngwarray’s first canvas, Emu woman 1988–89, which was reproduced on the cover of the exhibition catalogue.

The paintings in this collection show ceremonial scenes, including women’s awely, and representations of everyday life–gathering together with family, hunting bush animals, and collecting bush foods. The paintings reflect complex relationships between this group of Anmatyerr and Alyawarr artists and their culture and Country.

Including the Summer Project in the Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition highlights a particular point in the genesis of Kngwarray’s artistic practices. It positions her alongside other artists from the region including those who are, like Kngwarray, from Alhalker Country, as well as others from neighbouring communities and places.

This is the first time this collection has been displayed in its entirety since 1989.