Gracie Pwerle Morton(Circa1956-2024) was born and lived all her life at a station in Utopia. The daughter of well known artist Myrtle Petyarre, she began her career as a batik artist in the 1970's with the Utopia Women's Batik Group before transferring her designs onto canvas in the late 1980's. In the works of Gracie Pwerel Morton one can readily see that the great strength and dynamism of the Utopian women artists that continues across the generations. Gracie's delicate dotting and colour variation uses an aerial perspective to portray the seasonal changes of the Amwekety - the Bush Plum, a plant of great significance to the women of Gracie's traditional country, Mosquito Bore.
She always lived a traditional lifestyle, spending her early years collecting bush foods and living off the land. This was the way of life for central desert families throughout generations. Her education involved living and surviving in a desert environment just as her mother had done. Her style of painting is distinctively minimalist: she used a very delicate dotting technique and traditional colours, which derive from the colours of natural ochres.
Gracie has received worldwide recognition for her very fine works, and was included at an early stage of her career in the Robert Holmes à Court Collection - one of the most prestigious private collections in Australia.
Exhibitions
1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
1989 S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1989-91 Tandanya, Adelaide
1998 2002 Aboriginal Art Gallery Baehr, Speyer, Germany
1998 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne
1999 Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
1999 Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs
1999 Alliance Francaise de Canberra and the French Embassy, Canberra
1999, 2000 Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns
2000 "Kunst der Aborigines", Leverkusen, Germany
2001 Staedtische Galerie, Wolfsburg, Germany
2000 Cairns, Queensland
2002 "Land is Life Art from Australia", Jagdschloss Granitz, Binz, Reugen, Germany
1998, 2000, 2003 Chapel off Chapel Gallery, Melbourne
Collections
Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
Beher Collection, Germany
Slaughter and May International Law Collection, London, U.K.