In this series, we introduce the nine artists behind Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, on view at The Phillips Collection June 2–September 9, 2018.

Installation view of works by Regina Pilawuk Wilson in Marking the Infinite. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

REGINA PILAWUK WILSON
Born 1948, Daly River, Northern Territory
Lives and works in Peppimenarti, Northern Territory
(Ngan’gikurrungurr/Australian)

In 1973, Regina Pilawuk Wilson left the Catholic mission where she had lived since childhood and, along with her husband Harold, established the Aboriginal community of Peppimenarti. A gifted fiber artist, Wilson began painting in 2002 after attending a workshop in Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory. Her largescale works immediately received acclaim at such prestigious events as the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. Wilson’s work is in major public collections—the British Museum, London; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, among others—and has been featured in important international exhibitions of Aboriginal art.

Installation view of works by Nonggirrnga Marawili in Marking the Infinite.

Nonggirrnga Marawili’s early works primarily represented the motifs of her husband’s clan, the Djapu. Recently, however, she has focused on the designs of her own Madarrpa clan. Her patterns echo sacred Madarrpa iconography, but she renders them in expressionistic, personal ways out of respect for the prohibitions of Yolngu Law, according to which only certain people can hold a proprietary claim to paint these designs. She explains: “This Yirritja painting I’m doing is coming from the heart and mind, but it’s not the sacred Madarrpa painting. It’s just an ordinary fire, not the Madarrpa fire: tongues of fire, fire burning backwards. This is just my thinking. No one told me to do this pattern. I did this on my own. When the elders see it they will let me know what they think.”

These works are on view in Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia through September 9, 2018.

In this series, we introduce the nine artists behind Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, on view at The Phillips Collection June 2–September 9, 2018.

Installation view of works by Carlene West in Marking the Infinite. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

CARLENE WEST
Born c. 1944, Tjitjiti, Western Australia
Lives and works in Tjuntjunjtara, Western Australia
(Pitjantjatjara/Australian)

Carlene West was born in the sand hills on the western edge of Tjitjiti, a vast salt lake in Spinifex country. In 1959, West and her family left the desert to escape the British government’s nuclear testing at Maralinga, moving to a mission at Cundeelee. With her husband, Fred Grant, she was influential in the Spinifex people’s push to return to country and reclaim their Native Title from the state; the Spinifex people returned to live in Tjuntjuntjara in the 1980s, and in 2009 were able to relocate through the bush back to Tjitjiti. West began painting in 1997, and her acclaimed later works have been acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the British Museum, London.