1980s - 1990s
The 1980s and early 1990s were marked by enormous social, economic, and political upheaval. The decade witnessed epoch-defining events, the AIDS crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the launch of the World Wide Web, the Gulf War, a major economic recession and the landmark High Court Mabo native title ruling. As always, artists were at the forefront of exploring these critical debates; postcolonialism and multiculturalism, cultural identity, race and gender politics and ecological concerns, and Australian provincialism underscored much artistic production.
For Australian First Nations peoples, the 1990s offered hopes of greater self determination. In 1990 the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was established as a national representative body, which led to the implementation and support of art enterprises in remote communities which fostered new ways of representing traditional cultural knowledge and practices. As a result, contemporary Aboriginal art began to carve its own cultural identity nationally and internationally, with major commercial and institutional exhibitions showcasing artists from regional and remote communities across Australia.
Two key figures to gain significant recognition at this time; Queenie McKenzie, a Gija woman from the East Kimberley who, encouraged by her friend artist Rover Thomas, began painting in the late 1980s. Her paintings mapped Country, blending landscape with her Dreamings, historical events and episodes from her life. Emily Kame Kngwarrey, an Alhalkere woman of the Eastern Anmatyerre group from the Central Desert, also started painting in the late 1980s. She enthralled audiences with her bold gestural paintings, an entirely contemporary aesthetic, but one that was deeply embedded in her life as a senior lore woman. Although both artists only painted for a short period of time, they were trailblazers as the first female painters to emerge from an art movement dominated by men. Their work paved the way for many younger Aboriginal women living in remote areas to take up artistic careers.
In 1997, Emily Kame Kngwarrey along with Yvonne Koolmatrie, a Ngarrindjeri weaver, and Waanyi artist, Judy Watson, represented Australia at the Venice Biennale. This was the first exhibition of Australian First Nations artists and the third time female artists were the focus of the exhibition since Australia began participating in 1954. As the century closed, artists such as Judy Watson brought a focus to urban-based Aboriginal artists who explore postcolonial and identity politics, now firmly cemented at the forefront of contemporary art practice in Australia. As the century concluded, the landscape of the art world, its opportunities and recognition of women artists had drastically changed. However, systemic biases continued to curtail women artists’ representation in exhibitions, galleries and collections as it does to this day. While the cultural landscape changes, new obstacles become apparent. As evidenced across the gallery walls here, we reveal what has always existed, extraordinary art produced by women artists—it’s simply a matter of looking.