Betty Campbell

Betty Campbell is a Pitjantjatjara artist and senior cultural leader from Mimili on the Anangu 
Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in north-west South Australia. Born at Everard 
Park Station, she grew up within a strong cultural and familial environment shaped by 
station life and ceremonial practice. Campbell is a respected Elder in her community and is 
widely recognised for her leadership in inma (ceremony), where she sings, dances, and 
transmits women’s ancestral knowledge across generations. 
Campbell’s painting practice emerges directly from this ceremonial authority. Her works 
depict women’s stories that are danced and painted but not spoken, drawing on embodied 
knowledge held through song, movement, and repetition. Although she began painting later 
in life, her approach is assured and intuitive, marked by expressive mark-making and 
rhythmic compositions that reflect the performative and cyclical nature of inma. Her 
paintings translate lived ceremonial experience into visual form, asserting women’s cultural 
presence through abstraction and gesture. 

In recent years, Campbell’s work has gained increasing recognition through exhibitions in 
Australia and internationally. She has been selected as a finalist in major Australian art 
prizes, including the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Telstra 
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of 
the Northern Territory. Her work has been presented in exhibitions in Belgium and across 
Australia, reflecting growing institutional and curatorial interest. 
Her works are held in public and private collections, including the Art Gallery of South 
Australia (Adelaide), Fondation Opale (Crans Montana, Switzerland), and the Kaplan–Levi 
Collection (Seattle, US). 

Selected Solo Exhibitions 
2024 Minymaku Inma (Women’s Dance), Outstation Gallery, Darwin 

Selected Group Exhibitions 
2026 Mimili Maku, 8 Hele Gallery, Alice Springs 
2026 Ngura Pulka, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 
2025 Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 
2025 unturu-unturu (blossom), Outstation Gallery, Darwin 
2025 Pakani – coming up, Aboriginal Signature Gallery Brussels, Belgium 
2025 Rising Stars, Outstation Gallery, Darwin 
2024 Inma, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery Brussels, Belgium 
2024 Women’s Story, Short St Gallery, Broome 
2024 Betty Campbell at Melbourne Art Fair, blackartprojects, Melbourne 
2023 Desertmob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs 
2023 Unfolding, Short St Gallery, Broome 
2023  Tjungu, APY Gallery, Sydney 
2023 itjanu – flourishing, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery Brussels, Belgium  
2023 Rising Stars, Outstation Gallery, Darwin 

Selected Prizes & Awards 
2026 Finalist, Hadley Prize, Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart 
2026 Finalist, Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Sales, Sydney 
2024 Finalist, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, MAGNT, Darwin 
2024 Finalist, Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Ravenswood School 
2024 Finalist, Bayside Painting Prize, Bayside Gallery 
2023 Finalist, Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize, Bendigo Art Gallery 
2023 Finalist, Fisher’s Ghost Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre 
2023 Finalist, Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery 
2023  Finalist, Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 
2023 Finalist, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, MAGNT, Darwin 

Collections 
Art Gallery of South Australia, Fondation Opale, Kaplan Levi Collection, Macquarie Bank 
Art Collection