Lily Lion Kngwarreye

Lily Lion Kngwarreye was born in 1964 and comes from Utopia Community in Central Australia. She is from the Kngwarreye skin group and is an Alyawarre speaker. Lily like many other women from Utopia became involved in art in the 1970’s and 1980’s through various community workshop and events.

She was first involved in the batik art programs as a young woman with the likes of Gloria Petyarre and Emily Kame Kngwarreye. The women were involved in creating Dreaming scenes and transferring these onto silk batiks. Lily’s depicted Rainbows and Honey Grevillea and used traditional motifs throughout her design. These silk batiks, a total of 88 in the collection were exhibited around Australia and through Eire and Scotland. They were so much of a success that the whole collection was later acquired by the Holmes a Court Collection.

In the late 1980’s after another community project, Lily began using canvas and acrylic paints. Like most artists this was just the medium to create an explosion of creativity. Her paintings are held in several collections as well as being involved in various exhibitions including an entrant in the 8th and 10th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibitions in 1991 and 1993.

Central Art was excited to hold another one of her bush scenes although not typical of her usual work which involves fine dotting and delicate brush strokes. In a style typical of naive art, Lily depicted a local football match held at Utopia Community. Australian Rules Football is a massive event in most remote communities throughout Central Australia. It is a way of families to come together not only to watch and cheer for their local teams but also a way to get together with extended families who have not seen each other in many months.

In most of her artworks Lily’s paintings share the Dreamtime Stories of the Ilyarnayt flower (Acacia flower). This particular Dreaming belongs to the Ngkawarlerlarnem and Arnkawenyerr countries. Other Dreaming which belong to this country which she depicts are Mpwelarr (Rainbow), Ilyarn & Ilyarnayt (Acacia Flowers), Tharrkarr (Sweet Honey Grevillea), Yerramp (Honey Ant) and Alpeyt (Flowers).