My Grandmother's Country
Teresa Purla
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About Artwork
Code: EDA-TP3114/24
Artist: Teresa Purla
Region: Atnwengerrp, Central Australia
Medium: Polymer acrylic on Belgian linen
Size: 90cm x 90cm
Teresa’s current paintings have an underlying influence from the series that her mother created around My Mother’s Country. This series reflects the strong familial ties to Anmatyerre culture of the Utopia region. The influence of Grandmother Minnie Pwerle is seen more in the stories and ceremonies of Atnwengerp country, rather than in the famous Awelye body painting gestures so closely associated with Minnie’s style. The artwork is all about Womens Business: Cermeony, Dance, learning the lore.
Artist Information
Teresa Purla (also known as Pula and Pwerle)
Born in 1963, third generation Anmatyerre artist Teresa Purla is daughter of artist Barbara Weir (deceased) and granddaughter of Minnie Pwerle (deceased) - two of Australia’s most internationally revered contemporary Indigenous artists.
Throughout her formative years Teresa had observed her mother and grandmother paint often alongside the great Emily Kngwarreye Kame. With encouragement from her mother and aunties she began painting in her twenties.
"I was inspired to start painting in the 1990s with my mother after spending years at my homelands of Utopia, where I witnessed and took part in ceremonies and was taught my dreamings. I was surrounded at that time by artists such as my mother Barbara Weir and my aunty Gloria Petyarre." Teresa Purla
Her paintings are characterised by dots representing dancing tracks imprinted in the sand by the women during Awely ceremonies and other totems and imagery of women’s summer ceremonies. Some works are heavily detailed and depict minute dancing tracks and storylines, others are multi layered in the ochres and earth colours of her land.
Teresa’s paintings have been widely exhibited nationally, as well as featuring in several European countries including a highly successful joint exhibition with Minnie Pwerle entitled Grandmother and Granddaughter.
Teresa Purla and her partner are now permanently based on her grandmother’s country of Atnerrwerrp in the Utopia region, NT - the physical and spiritual heart of her homeland, the ideal environment in which to paint.
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Ethical Trade Details
Eastern Desert Art is a member of the Indigenous Art Code of Conduct and the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia and sells directly to collectors and galleries nationally and internationally.
To demonstrate provenance, artworks are sold with an Indigenous Australian Art Commercial Code of Conduct Certificate. These Certificates provide the purchaser with information on the artist, the story of their painting (when permitted by the artist under cultural law) and photographs of the artists with their paintings. The artworks are painted on prepared Belgian linen using polymer acrylics.
The local Alyawarre and Anmatyerre artists prepare and work on their paintings at the Eastern Desert art shed located on our property adjacent to Utopia.
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