2012 Catalogue - the churchie national emerging art prize

Commended
Genevieve Kemarr Loy
b.1982, Iylenty (Mosquito Bore), Utopia, NT
Language: Anmatyerr, Country: Atnangkere
In this painting, Genevieve Loy depicts the
green plant called Akwerlkerrmwerlkerr that
grows like a lawn alongside the road. It has
white flowers on top and bush turkeys like to
eat the seeds.
Genevieve is the granddaughter of Nancy
Petyarr, one of the famed Petyarr sisters. Her
father, Cowboy Loy Pwerl, also taught her to
paint.
Genevieve is a promising young artist to
recently emerge from Utopia in Central
Australia. As the daughter of senior elder
Cowboy Loy Pwerl, Genevieve paints The
Bush Turkey Dreaming (or Arwengerrp) story.
Her works show a mature grasp of colour,
design, and resolved aesthetic direction.
Her Bush Turkey Dreaming paintings combine
traditional meticulous dots and elegant wisps,
creating vibrant, pulsating, and richly textured
surfaces. These works represent Genevieve’s
own re-imaging of the Dreaming stories.
On a superficial level, her paintings depict the
tracks the bush turkey makes, as it searches
for seeds and other ‘tucker’ and makes its
way to the waterhole. Genevieve’s paintings
are characterised by a beautiful and careful
handling of paint, a harmonious sense of
colour and great control of the delicate spidery
marks that make their way across her canvas.
Loy has been included in numerous
exhibitions and prizes since 2007. In 2009
she participated in a two person show Making
their Mark: Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray and
Genevieve Kemarr Loy, at Lauraine Diggins
Fine Art in Melbourne, and appeared in An
Individual Perspective: From the Indigenous
Collection of Lauraine Diggins, at Deakin
University Gallery, Burwood, and which toured
to Geelong Gallery in 2010. She has been a
finalist in prestigious prize exhibitions including
the recent Metro Arts Award in Melbourne,
The 59th Blake Prize, National Art School
Gallery, Sydney (which toured nationally until
2011), and the Fisher’s Ghost Art Award,
Campbelltown Art Centre in Sydney, 2010.
— Naomi Evans
14 | the churchie national emerging art exhibition