Freda Price Pwerle

Freda Price Pwerle is a successful Utopia painter working in the fine dot tradition of that region. Freda was born in 1984 at the Utopia Homelands in Central Australia, north-east of Alice Springs. Freda is from a family of artists, being the daughter of well-known Utopia artist Anna Price Petyarre, the niece of Delvine Petyarre and the sister of Naomi Price Pwerle. Her grandmother was artist Glory Ngale and Freda is also related to the famous late artists Kudditji Kngwarreye and Emily Kame Kngwarreye, through her grandparents. Freda learned her painting skills and stories from her mother and family.

Freda continues the tradition of using fine dot work to represent country at Utopia, showing the undulating sandhills and formations of dry river beds that mark this landscape. The paintings are graphic representations, sometimes rendered in black and white, sometimes in colour, that reveal the important sites and locations scattered across the landscape. They also include references to women’s ceremonial life that is performed to keep the country, and the people belonging to it, healthy and to pass on traditional knowledge to the younger generations.

In this way, the paintings continue the tradition of Anmatyerre women at Utopia who maintain the ceremonies and activities that are focused on maintaining the resources of the land. These include ceremonies for bush foods, for bush medicines and for the general health of the people and their country.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2026 Vistas, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2025 At the Gallery, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2024 Small Bites, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA