ANNA PITJARA WAS TAUGHT TO PAINT AT UTOPIA BY HER COUSIN GLORIA PETYARRE, SHE IS ALSO KNOWN AS ANNA PRICE PETYARRE AND IS THE NIECE OF THE LATE EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE. ANNA IS A VERSATILE ARTIST AND HER UNIQUE STYLE HAVE MADE HER A POPULAR AND VERY COLLECTABLE ABORIGINAL ARTIST INTERNATIONALLY.

Anna lives at Mulga Bore, near the general store with her husband Colin, an outstation at Utopia, approx 220 Km from Alice Springs. They have two daughters and a son, she is also has five grandchildren.

As a traditional Aboriginal women Anna is involved in sacred ceremonies and paints aspects of Aboriginal women’s body paint connected to those ceremonies. Her plant totem, The Bush Yam, has been a staple food for the Aboriginal people of the desert for countless years. The Bush Yam’s seeds are gathered by the women of Utopia and ground to make flour for damper.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2002 Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne.

2002 Galerie Le Temps du Reve, France;

2002 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, N.S.W.

2001 “Women’s Business”, Australian Exhibition Centre, Chicago, USA;

2001 Japingka Gallery, Perth, Western Australia

2001 Raintree Aboriginal Art Gallery, Darwin, N.T.

2000 Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia

2000 Dacou (in association with AMP), Sydney, N.S.W.

1999 Tandanya, Adelaide, South Australia

1999 BMG Art, Adelaide, South Australia

1998 Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney

1997 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria

1997 Dacou Gallery, Adelaide, South Australia 1996 “Utopia Dreaming”, Soho Gallery, Sydney;

AWARDS:

1998 Selected entrant for the 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Award, Darwin

COLLECTIONS:

Art Bank (Sydney)

Art Gallery of South Australia

Powerhouse Museum (Sydney)

Museum & Art Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory

Homes a Court Gallery , Western Australia

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Queensland Art Gallery

The Kerry Stokes Collection

Anthropology Art Museum Perth;

Private and corporate collections in USA, Singapore, Ireland, India, Poland, Denmark and France.