Lucky Kngwarrey Morton
About
Skin: Kngwarreye(also spelt Ngwarrai)
Language Group: Alyawarr
Region: Rocket Range, Utopia, Northern Territory
Dreaming: Honey Ant (Yerramp), Rainbow (Mpwelarr), Wild Flowers
Lucky's Story
Lucky Kngwarrey Morton was born in 1949 on MacDonald Downs and is the daughter of artist and senior boss woman Mary Kemarre Morton and Billy Stockman Morton (both deceased). Lucky speaks Alyawarr and lives with her large family on the northern end of Utopia community 250km east of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Lucky spent her childhood years growing up at MacDonald Downs and around Kurrajong Camp at Utopia.
Lucky Kngwarrey's career in painting began in the late 70s when the Utopia Women's Batik Group was formed. Under the expert guidance of CAAMA and Rodney Gooch the first major communal project - a series of eighty eight works entitled Utopia - A Picture Story was launched onto the Australian and international stage. The Holmes a Court Collection sponsored these art projects from Utopia projects which toured Australia and worldwide. This was followed by the first foray into acrylic on canvas in the summer of 1988-9 as part of CAAMA's The First works on Canvas, a Summer Project. This first body of paintings was exhibited - and enthusiastically received - at the SH Ervin Gallery in Sydney. Lucky has continued to use this medium to express her Dreamings and has exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney in the past few years.
Lucky Morton paints Rainbow (Mpwelarr) Dreaming,Honey Ant (Yerramp) Dreaming and Wild Flowers (Alpeyt) as well as figurative stories of life on Utopia.
Collections
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
Mbantua Gallery Private Collection, Alice Springs
The Australian Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy
Art Centre Meerzigt, Zoetermeer, the Netherlands
Gladstone Regional Art Gallery
Perc Tucker Regional Gallery;
Noosa Regional Gallery;
Art and Soul Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
The Cove Gallery, Portland, Oregon USA
Exhibitions
1989 - Utopia Women’s Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1990 - Utopia- A Picture Story, an exhibition of 88 works on Silk from the Holmes a Court; Collection by Utopia artists that toured Eire and Scotland,
1990 - Balance 1990: views, visions, influences QAG, Brisbane,,
1991 - The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin,
1991 - Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,
1998 - Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy and Vlaams Eurospeech, Conferentiecentrum, Brussels, Belgium,
1998 - Exhibition in Art Centre Meerzigt, Zoetermeer, the Netherlands,
1998 - Art Gallery Culture Store, Rotterdam, the Nerherlands,
2002-05 - Regional Galleries Association of Queensland Tour
2002-2005 -Native Title Business - Contemporary Indigenous Art, a national travelling exhibition
2007 - Patterns of Power, Art from the Eastern Desert, Simmer on the Bay Gallery, Sydney
2007 - Eastern Desert Dreaming, Artists from Utopia, GalleryG, Brisbane
2007 - Desert Song, Brush with Art Festival, Prairie Hotel, Parachilna, SA
2008 - Power of Place, Paintings and Sculpture from the Eastern Desert, Tandanya: National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Inc., Adelaide.
2008 - From the Desert to the Sea, Yurlunggar Art, Brisbane
Awards
2010 - Finalist in the 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award
Artworks
A collection of Lucky’s artworks below.