Abie Loy Kemarre
Updated: Sep 21, 2019
Abie Loy Kemarre has established herself as an exciting and dynamic artist who dramatically
entered the indigenous art world following her early success in Europe and the USA.
Born in 1972, Abie is an Eastern Anmatyerre speaker from Utopia, Northern Territory. She is
the eldest daughter of Margaret Loy and father, Ray Loy Pwerle. Abie grew up inspired by
her surrounding family of artists; mother Margaret, and her grandmother world-renown
artist, Kathleen Petyarre. Her family tree of artists includes Kathleen’s sisters Gloria, Violet,
Myrtle, Ada Bird, Jeannie and Nancy.
Abie was a young girl learning the stories and watching her family members convert the
traditional stories into contemporary paint on canvas. You can safely say Abie had grown up with a paint brush in her hand, but it wasn’t till the early 1990’s that she began her own
paintings in her own right. Today her paintings are extremely highly sort after and no other indigenous artist coming out of the remote communities of central Australia is so finely tuned to the Australian Aboriginal Art world.
RedRock Artbank director, Mem, first met Abie through her grandmother, Kathleen and
recalls, “The moment I set my eyes on Abie’s paintings I had fallen in love. The skill, colour balance and intricate detail hypnotised me. Today I have one of the largest and finest collections of her work in Australia.”
Abie’s paintings depict ancestral Dreamings which are passed down from generation to generation. Her Dreaming represented in her paintings is ancestral Country. Her most collectable paintings depict a special bush leaf (leaves) closely associated with the women. The leaves, also known as Bush Medicine, can be used to cure a number of illnesses including colds, headaches and wounds. Made into a paste, they are rubbed into the affected part of the body to deliver a natural cure.
Abie’s paintings display strength in both traditional artistic form as well as beauty from her
unique world, captured in dazzling colours and motifs in her magnificent paintings. Selected
examples are now available as stunning wall art through RedRock Artbank.
