Awards
2010 – Finalist in the 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Collections held:
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney NSW
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane QLD
Robert Holmes à Court Collection, Perth WA
Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin NT
Spazio Pitti Arte in Florence, Italy
Conferentiecentrum Brussels, Belgium
Art Centre Meerzigt Zoetermeer, The Netherlands & Rotterdam the Netherlands
Vlaams Eurospeech, Scotland
Gladstone Regional Art Gallery QLD
Noosa Regional Gallery QLD
Art & Soul Gallery Nashville, Tennessee USA
The Cove Gallery Portland, Oregon USA
Select Exhibitions: Group Exhibitions:
1989 – Utopia – A Picture Story, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide;
The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick
1989 – Utopia Women’s Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, 1988-89, S. H. Ervin
Gallery, Sydney
1990 – ‘Utopia – A Picture Story,’ an exhibition of 88 works on silk from the Holmes a Court Collection
by Utopia artists which toured Eire and Scotland.
1990 – Balance 1990: views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane.
1991 – 8th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum & Art Gallery of the NT, Darwin NT
1991 – Australian Perspective, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW
1998 – Painting from Utopia and Balgo Hills, Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Germany
2005 – Artists of Utopia: Then and Now, Outback Alive, Canberra ACT
2006 – Desert Hues, The Gallery, Canberra ACT
Select Bibliography:
Brody, A., 1989, Utopia Women’s Paintings: The First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, 1988-89, exhib. cat., Heytesbury Holdings, Perth. (C)
Brody, A., 1990, Utopia: a Picture Story, 88 Silk Batiks from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Heytesbury Holdings Ltd, Perth. (C)
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW. (C)
1990, Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, exhib. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. (C)
Lucky has featured in many group exhibitions since beginning her artistic career in 1977. The oldest daughter of fellow Utopian artist Mary Morton Kemarre, Lucky participated in batik workshops that were held in Utopia from 1977 to 1987 with her mother and younger siblings. Her work is represented in the Holmes á Court Collection which was exhibited extensively within Australia and abroad.
Like most other batik artists living in Utopia, Lucky made the transition to painting in the summer of 1988-9 as part of CAAMA’s ‘The First works on Canvas, a Summer Project’. With a more adaptable and effortless medium, Lucky continued to paint with acrylics and has travelled both to Sydney and Melbourne for exhibitions featuring her work. Lucky has also worked briefly with wood sculpture.
When Lucky was growing up, she attended a bush school near Hatcher’s Creek which is North East of Utopia and spent her childhood years growing up around Kurrajong Camp in Utopia and MacDonnell Downs Station. For many years, Lucky has attended Bachelor College in Alice Springs which has seen her travel to Darwin and Tenant Creek for further education.
Lucky paints an extraordinary variety of stories which she says comes from two Countries. These countries are Ngkwarlerlaneme and Arnkawenyerr of which she belongs to. Lucky can also paint the ceremonial body paint designs belonging to these countries and also her mother’s country Antarrengeny.
