Tjungkara Ken Paintings

About Tjungkara Ken

Year of Birth

1969

Language

Pitjantjatjara

Family

Tjungkara Ken lives in Amata, South Australia, on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands.  She began painting in 1997 when Minymaku Arts was opened by the women of Amata and started painting professionally in 2008. There are many artists in Ken’s extended family, and Tjungkara works both as a solo artist and with family, as one of five sisters who have painted as Ken Sisters Collaborative. Her four sisters are Yaritji Young, Freda Brady, Sandra Ken and Maringka Tunkin.

Tjungkara says “I do paintings about my country. That’s ngura- rockholes and the land, the hills and big creek beds. Also, I do stories about the Seven Sisters and about country.” The Ken Sisters Collaborative painting of the Seven Sisters or Kungkarangkalpa Tjukurpa, was awarded the Wynne Prize in 2016.

Tjungkara Ken paints both her mother’s country, Wingellina, the ngintaka Dreaming, and her father’s Apara story. She said, “Now that I know how to do really good paintings, I paint with punu sticks and not a brush… When we do paintings it’s like looking down from the top, like looking from an aeroplane.”

‘I hold my father’s story, I hold my mother’s story… it doesn’t come out of paper or out of a book, it’s coming out of the ground here,’ said Tjungkara Ken in 2015.  ‘When the ancestors painted our tjukurpa, dreaming, on the caves and on their bodies, it was a celebration of our culture, a way of identifying people and places, and a way of continuing our stories.’

Career

Tjungkara was a finalist in the 2017 Archibald Prize and the 2019 Wynne Prize and is a repeat finalist in the Telstra Award (2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010). She has exhibited widely throughout Australia and her work is represented in collections including Artbank, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, QAGOMA, and significant private collections.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007  Tjulpuntjulpunga: Vistas of Wildflowers by Kaltjiti Artists, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide SA

2016  Our Mob, Adelaide SA

2017  APY Artists Survey Show, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne VIC

2017  Constellations, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin NT

2017  Desert Mob, Araluen Ar Centre, Alice Springs NT

2017  Continuing our Story, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin NT

2019  Women in Colour, Coo-ee Art Gallery, Sydney NSW

2019  Salon des Refuses, NAATSIA, Charles Darwin University Art Gallery, Darwin NT

2020  Anangu Artists: We Carry Story in our Hearts, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2021  Anangu Women Artists: Strength in Beauty, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2024  Gallery Collection, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA