Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre is an Anmatyerre artist, born in 1965 at Utopia, 270 km northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The success of many artists from this region reflects the strong cultural practices and innovative artistic styles that are a feature of the Utopia Homelands.

In her paintings, Bernadine incorporates traditional iconography along with realistic elements. The themes depicted are primarily bush medicines, yam dreaming, and body painting. As a bush woman, she is familiar with her land and its abundance of bush tucker species, as well as medicinal plants and native fauna. These are the stories that she has inherited, along with important women’s stories, all of which form the basis of her paintings.

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre is married to Stephen Martin Pitjara, the brother of well-known artist Anna Price Pitjara. Bernadine divides her time between Alice Springs and Adelaide, where she spends much of her time with her husband and two children.