Willie Kew Paintings

Luurn Willie Kew was born about 1930 at the Kingfisher (Luurn) Dreaming site at Nyirla Rockhole, in the Great Sandy Desert near Well 38 (Wartuparni) on the Canning Stock Route. Willie Kew’s Dreaming and his own bush name identify him with the mythic Kingfisher that brought the people to Nyirla Rockhole in his beak. Willie Kew frequently depicts this site in his paintings. Other sites important to the artist are Warnta and Lipuru on the Canning Stock Route. When he was a small boy Willie Kew walked from Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route all the way to Well 2 with his relatives.

Willie Kew says: “My country Well 33, Canning Stock Route, my country Wardabunni (Well 38), my country Nyirla, Warnta, Lipuru. My father had two wives his name was Jampitjin. My daddy, my granny she bin pass away at Pomely Rockhole, that’s my country.”

I bin go to Wardabunni Jila and Nyirla, that’s my country, I bin go there when I was a little boy. My father mother, mother’s uncle took me there, this is my country where I was born at Pomely Rockhole. All people now passed away. When I was a little boy I came all the way to Number 2 Well country, Number 3 Well where we camped.”

Luurn Willie Kew travelled with other Aboriginal families in the late 1940s to the cattle station country along the edge of the Fitzrroy valley. He worked as a stockman in the area, and eventually settled at Wangkatjungka Community, with his wife Biddee Baadjo. Willie Kew began painting in 1994.

Aboriginal Art Status

Established artist.

Group Exhibitions

1995    Australian Embassy, Paris
1998    Ngurrara Canvas, touring exhibition
1999    Indigenart, Perth WA
2001    NATSIAA Telstra Award, collaborative canvas, Darwin NT
2001    Native Title Business – Noosa Regional Gallery NSW
2002    Michel Sourgnes Fine Arts, Brisbane QLD
2003    Artists of Wangkatjungka – Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2003    Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2003    Big Country – Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs NT
2003    Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
2004    Tali and Jila – Waterholes and Sandhills, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2004    Wangkatjungka Country, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney NSW
2004    Artists of Wangkatjungka – Stories of Country, Raintree Gallery, Darwin NT
2005    Artists of Wangkatjungka, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney NSW
2005    Yirmpurr – Recent Paintings from Wangkatjungka, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2005    Wangkatjungka Artists, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney NSW
2005    Wangkatjungka, Ladner and Fell Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2005    Wangkatjungka Artists: Stories from The Great Sandy Desert, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
2006    Wangkatjungka Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
2006    Wangkatjungka- Artists of the Great Sandy Desert, Art Mob, Hobart TAS
2006    Wangkatjungka Group Exhibition, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT
2007    Wangkatjungka – Mapping Country, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2008    Wangkatjungka Artists: Canning Stock Route, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2013    Landmarks and Law Grounds: Men’s Paintings, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria
Ian and Sue Bernadt Collection
Kerry Stokes Collection