Media Release, 11/09/09

MEDIA RELEASE
Friday, 11th September, 2009

Discovery of new genius Desert Artist

Yesterday Tim Jennings, the general manager of Mbantua Gallery and Cultural Museum in Alice Springs announced what he termed as "yet another artist genius from Utopia'.


“The Soakages exhibition we have on display is a milestone for Australian art. The work is done by senior Anmatyerre woman Lena Pwerle of Utopia in Central Australia and is something extremely special. We've had just a few limited releases of this new style this year and the public reaction has been astounding. I haven't seen anything like this since Minnie Pwerle and Emily Kame Kngwarreye came onto the scene, both from Utopia as well. Simply put, she is yet another artist genius from Utopia", says Mr Jennings.

The exhibition houses the largest collection of Lena Pwerle’s new Soakage paintings from Utopia in Central Australia in her first solo exhibition, held at Mbantua Gallery in Alice Springs. "Her works have been described as ‘unashamedly modern’ where emotionally charged circles of colour fuse together with the cultural significance of soakages that sustained the aboriginal people in years gone by", says the Gallery's curator, Dale Jennings."Lena has been working on this collection since October 2008 and will visit the exhibition for the first time this morning, which opened on Wednesday and will run until 23rd September. Lena will be working on a 120x90cm painting inside the Gallery at this time as well to enhance the feel of the exhibition and talk with visitors. She is looking forward to arriving", says Miss Jennings.

The largest painting that Lena has captivated the essence of these soakages in is an astounding 540x270cm called Big Soakage Country. The gallery has chosen to keep this painting in Collection at this stage.

The soakages that Lena paints can be found all across Central Australia, and yesterday Lena told Mbantua that you can still find water in some of them.“We been get ‘em kwaty (water) under the caves long time ago. Big rock near Apungalingum, there’s a proper big one there. We been get ‘em billy can and come back for kwaty (water). We been get ‘em Anaty (desert yam) and Tyape Antyematy (witchetty grub) there too. Near that hill at Apungalingum; there’s sill kwaty there, under the caves”, says Lena Pwerle.