Ilyarnayt

OPENING     Wednesday 3 June 2026 | 5 - 7 pm

EXHIBITION     3 - 27 June 2026 | 10 am - 5 pm

Presented in collaboration with Utopia Art Centre, this exhibition brings together the work of sisters Hazel Morton, Lucky Morton, Ruby Morton, Audrey Morton and Janice Clarke. Working across generations and homelands within the Alyawarr and Anmatyerr regions of Urapuntja (Utopia), these artists continue one of the most significant painting movements in contemporary First Nations art. Their works emerge from deep cultural knowledge, carrying stories that have been shared for generations through ceremony, song, body painting and oral tradition. As Sam Jampijinpa Mbitjana Dixon reflects, “We’re strong. We’ve been holding this country. We’ve been waiting a long time for that power to come back. Old people gave us that power a long time ago and now we’re making strong canvas here. This is our art story now.”

The stories represented throughout the exhibition speak to the richness and interconnectedness of life on Country, encompassing ancestral beings, bush foods, medicinal plants and seasonal knowledge. Featured within the paintings are narratives of Rainbow (Mpwelarr), Ilyarn and Ilyarnayt, Tharrkarr (Sweet Honey Grevillea), Yerramp (Honey Ant), alongside a variety of Alpeyt (flowers). These subjects are not simply visual motifs, but expressions of cultural responsibility and inherited knowledge systems tied to specific places within the landscape. Audrey Morton describes Ilyarnayt growing across the sandhills of Ngarwenyerra, recalling the intimate relationship between plant life, ancestral presence and memory: “Pretty flowers, yellow ones. Tyape likes them too. He living in there, inside those roots.” Such stories continue to be passed between generations, transforming canvas into a site of cultural transmission and continuity.

The exhibition also sits within the wider historical significance of the Utopia movement itself. From the CAAMA batik workshops of the late 1970s and 1980s emerged some of the most celebrated artists in Australian art history, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye, whose influence continues to resonate across family lines and throughout the region today. While Utopia artists achieved extraordinary artistic and commercial success, for decades many worked without the support of a community-owned art centre. Since opening in 2020, Utopia Art Centre has provided an ethical and community-led foundation for artists across sixteen homelands, creating a safe and empowering space for cultural maintenance, artistic practice and economic independence. As Joyce Pitjara Jones states, “We’re keeping our generations stronger, through knowledge on our land.”

Exhibition Dates: 3 May – 27 May 2026