Polly Gnale
DOB: 1940
LANGUAGE: Anmatyere
COMMUNITY: Utopia
Polly Ngale belongs to the oldest living generation of Utopia women and is considered one of the most accomplished painters to have worked there during the past twenty years. Polly’s artistic career began in the late 1970s when, like many of the women in Utopia, she began working with silk batik before venturing into works on canvas.
She is one of the most senior custodians of her country Aparra, in the heart of Utopia. She shares this country and the Bush Plum (Arnwetky) Dreaming with her sisters Kathleen Ngale and Angeline Pwerle Ngale. Like Kathleen, Polly creates her paintings by building up layers of colour to create a multi-dimensional image. The two have often collaborated and painted together.
Many of Polly’s paintings depict the bush plum and its bright yellow seeds, in its various stages of ripening, or the land’s topography in varying shades of red, orange and yellow to reflect the changing colours of the seasons. Other works depict designs associated with Awelye, Women’s business and ceremonial law.
Polly’s work has been exhibited extensively both in Australia and overseas.
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
- The World Bank, Washington
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- The Holt Collection
- Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton VIC
2021 Calleen Art Award, Cowra Art Gallery – Finalist
2003 20th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019 Polly Ngale – Arnwetky, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 Mid-Winter Mofo, Art Mob, Hobart
2021 Top Ten Artists 2020, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Polly Ngale & Kathleen Ngale: Bush Plum Dreaming, Japingka Gallery, Perth
2020 Colours of Spring, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Top Ten – Our Most Popular Artists 2019, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Summer Show & Art Parade, Salt, Queenscliff, VIC
2019 International Women’s Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Defining Tradition | the colourists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2018 Painting on Country – Utopia Artists, Japingka Gallery, Perth
2018 Indigenous Australia: Masterworks from the National Gallery of Australia, me Collectors Room, Berlin
2018 Beyond the Veil, Olsen Gruin, New York
2018 Art Paris Art Fair, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Grand-Palais, Paris
2015 Sixteen Artists 16 x 2, Japingka Gallery, Perth
2014 Parcours des Mondes, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Paris
2014 Dot Code: Desert Artists, Japingka Gallery, Perth
2012 Lineart, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Gent, Belgium
2011 Thinking outside the square, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2010 Stories from the Centre, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2010 Spring, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2010 Parcours Nomad’s en Australie, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Paris
2010 Parcours des Mondes, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Paris
2009 Utopia – Bush Plum & Other delicacies, Honey Ant Gallery, Noosa
2009 Utopia – Bush Plum & Other delicacies, Honey Ant Gallery, Noosa
2009 Size Matters, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2009 JGM Gallery, London
2008 Utopia Revisited, NG Art Gallery, Sydney
2008 Emily Kame Kngwarreye and her Legacy: Visions of Utopia that Penetrate the Soul of the Eastern Desert, Art Front Gallery Hillside Forum, Tokyo
2008 Dreamings the Land, Outback Aboriginal Art, Caulfield, VIC
2007 Visions of Utopia, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney
2007 Journeys and Dreams, Gecko Gallery, Broome
2007 Journeys and Dreams, Gecko Gallery, Broome
2007 Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Paris
2005 Neville Keating Gallery, London
2002 Two Sisters: Kathleen and Polly Ngale, Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne.
2000 Arts d’Australie Stephane Jacob / Espace Mezzo – Avenue des Champs-Elysees, Paris
1992 Modern Art Ancient Icon, The World Bank, Washington
1990 Utopia A Picture Story, batik from the Holmes A Court Collection by Utopia artists which toured Ireland and Scotland
1990 Art of the Eastern Desert, Eastern Desert Art, Brisbane
1989 Utopia Women’s Paintings, A Summer Project, The First Works on Canvas, S.H. Ervin Gallery Sydney
1989 Aboriginal Art from Utopia, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne