Elizabeth Leo Kemarre

Elizabeth Leo Kemarre was born in 1953 in Alice Springs. She is from the Anmatyerre tribe who are from the Utopia Region in Central Australia. She is from the camp called Ingkwelaye and her traditional country is the area around Coniston. As an adult she lived at Irrultja on Utopia Station with her partner and fellow artist Sandy Pitjara Hunter. She is the daughter in law of Molly Pwerle another well known Utopian artist who comes for a family of extremely talented and famous Utopian artists.,

Sadly in September 2011, Elizabeth Leo passed away. She began her career in the late 1980’s and was involved in the Batik project run by Centralian Aboriginal Art Media Association (CAAMA) in 1989 which put Utopian women artists on the map and shot artists like Emily Kame Kngwarreye to stardom. The project involved the women of Utopia producing silk batiks with traditional Aboriginal depictions and was later purchased in full by the Homes a Court Collection.

Like many other Utopian artists in the 1990’s she moved to acrylics and canvas to depict her art. Her artworks were striking depictions of the traditional elements and iconography of Aboriginal culture represented in a contemporary format with individual flare. Central Art has a good example of her Bush Tucker Seeds painting, in this particular artwork, painted in 2009, Elizabeth uses a fine delicate dotting technique to depict an aerial view of the bush tucker seeds which can be found in the Spinifex, sand plains and hills in the Utopia region in Central Australia. Through the generations Aboriginal women are taught an intimate knowledge of these particular locations. Some seeds are gathered and grounded into flour and paste to make damper, which is a form of bush “bread”.

As a sign of respect and in keeping with traditional Aboriginal customs Central Art has removed Elizabeth’s photograph. Traditionally Aboriginal people would not use the name of someone who has passed away in case it kept their spirit from passing on. Given the difficulties in promoting Elizabeth’s artworks without using her name, Central Art has continued to use her name.