Gloria Petyarre (1945 - 2021), also known as Gloria

Pitjara was born in Utopia, Northern Territory,

Australia. She was an Aboriginal Australian artist

from the Anmatyerre community, just north of Alice

Springs.

Her depiction of the Kurrajong bush medicine

leaves-with her layered, free-flowing, swirling

brushstrokes that scatter across the canvas-became

her iconic motif.

Her career took off when she won the coveted

'Wynne Prize for Landscape' at the New South Wales

Gallery in 1999. It was a triumph for Aboriginal art.

Gloria became the first Indigenous Australian artist

ever to win a major art prize at the Gallery of New

South Wales.