Awely-Awely, Kwaty, Ilpay Ilkwa, (Lightning, Water, Big River)
Rita Kemarr Beasley & Topsy Kemarre Beasley
26 Apr
2025
2025
17 May
2025
This exhibition, Awely-Awely,Kwaty, Ilpay Ilkwa, (Lightning,Water, Big River), showcases the work of two remarkable artists, Topsy Kemarre Beasley, and her younger sister Rita Kemarr Beasley. Not surprisingly, the sisters have a great deal in common in terms of their life experiences, cultural practices, and knowledge of and profound connections with Country. And yet, the facture and work of Topsy and Rita could not be more different for each sister brings an unmistakably individual approach to the art of painting Country.
Whereas Rita works quickly to apply and overlay thick, viscous patches of paint with gestural brushstrokes that reveal the rapidity and physicality of her process, Topsy gradually builds her paintings by slowly applying layer upon layer of thinly diluted paint so that the finished work reverberates with the echoes of its making. And, whereas Rita’s manipulation of the paint, her energetic pushing, dragging and shoving of the acrylic across the picture plane ensures that form emerges from that which sits absolutely on the surface of the canvas, Topsy works her layers of paint into the weave of the canvas so that form emerges as much from that which resides within, as upon the canvas. These very different approaches partly account for the distinctive painterliness of each sister’s body of work.
Rita paints freely without any use of a prescribed method. Her liberal application of luscious swathes of colour animates a spatial dimension that is both expansive and intimate. Sometimes a horizon line may appear, other times not. The landscape might be viewed from high above and simultaneously from below: are we looking up to a night sky that is bursting with stars, or are we looking down on a landscape that is bursting with wildflowers? These dramatic shifts in perspective challenge what we think we are seeing and they disorient our sense of space so that space (and time) is simultaneously compressed and stretched.
Waterholes, creeks and rock formations are frequently depicted, and even houses and cars from her community of Wutunugurra (Epenarra) sometimes make an appearance. While some of these features may not be immediately discernible, there can be no mistaking the legibility of the trees that are a regular feature of Rita’s work. Across the road from Rita’s home in Wutunugurra (or, Wetelempngarre) is a relatively mature boab tree, the one and only boab in the community. With its lustrous, pearlescent, swollen trunk, that tree has been in Rita’s sight line since its seed was planted some 50 years ago.
Whereas Rita paints over the entire canvas to offer expansive, panoramic views of the landscape – she rarely focuses on a single feature or explicit detail- Topsy will very often frame a particular view for the observer. Whether it be frog holes, swamps, waterholes, rockholes or the Frew River that flows through Iytwelepwenty (Davenport Ranges) and around Wutunugurra where Topsy once lived, that framing gives emphasis to those features and amplifies their significance.
Topsy’s latest body of work reads very much as a bush library. Her canvases are rich with foods for here there is evidence of plenitude, abundance and fulfillment. Kanga berries in various stages of ripening, bush seeds, witchetty grubs and the frogs buried in their holes speak to a cornucopia of nourishment and showcase the fecundity of the local flora and fauna. And, alongside these foods are depictions of preparation as women crush and grind seeds to make damper bread.
Topsy and Rita are two extraordinary women. Aged around 97, Topsy continues to paint on a daily basis at the Barkly Regional Arts Centre in Tennant Creek. 207 kilometers away in Wutunugurra, and at the age of around 74, Rita takes a short daily walk from her home to the Art Centre where she continues to revel in the art of painting. Their determination to paint their land is not only indicative of their dedication and commitment to their land, but equally reveals that painting is an integral part of their being. As Wayne Eager so eloquently said of Rita, “it is as if the landscape appears to breathe through her”. The same is true of her older sister Topsy.
Installation View
Artworks
Artist Profile/s
Rita Kemarr Beasley
Lives
Rita Kemarr Beasley is an Alyawarr artist from the communityof Wutunugurra (Epenarra). Known for her energetic and expressive style Rita creates loose and evocative depictions of Country using large blocks of colour in a palette inspired by her Country. She builds layers and layers of paint when she works, dotting laboriously over a section of canvas only to paint over it again in a new colour. While sometimes her paintings are finished with her first few strokes, more often Rita's intuitive process means her paintings can go through many evolutions, forming and re-forming, until the work reaches a state of completion she is satisfied with. Watching her paint, a viewer will see many apparently promising paintings appear and then be covered over, the final product often being entirely different from where she first began. The topography of thick marks and ridges of paint on the finished canvas is the only remaining evidence of the hidden paintings underneath.
Rita's work frequently depicts sturdy trees whose thick white trunks stand starkly against her richly coloured backgrounds. These bright eucalypts flourish in the landscape surrounding Wutunugurra and feature in varied forms in the works of many of the Epenarra artists.
Rita was born at Nurrett (Hatches Creek) in Iytwelepwenty (Davenport Ranges), circa 1951. Their mother was Nellie Ngwarrey Beasley and their father, Tommy Pula Beasley (Blind Tommy), was a rainmaker.
At some point prior to 1958, when Tommy and Nellie were first named in the census of Epenarra Station, they and their growing family (they would eventually have nine children in total) walked the 80 or so kilometres from Nurrett (Hatches Creek) to Epenarra Station. During those ration days, the family undertook a variety of work at the station, including cleaning and housekeeping, collecting wood and as station hands. Rita has vivid memories of rounding up cattle on the station horses as well as working as housekeepers.
Rita has remained in the Wutunugurra community for her entire life. She began painting infrequently in the early 2000s, when outreach programmes first brought art workshops to the Wutunugurra community. In 2012, Barkly Regional Arts established a permanent art studio in Wutunugurra and since then Rita has been painting on an almost daily basis alongside two of her sisters, Jessie Kemarr Peterson, Jessie Kemarr Beasley & Topsy Kemarre Beasley. Rita has had a vision impairment in one eye since birth, and at first painted under the guidance of her sisters. However, her natural fluency with materials and colours has continued to develop into a confident and entirely individual approach to painting.
Group Exhibitions
2025 Four Art Centres from the Barkly - Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre, Katherine.
2024 Reclaimed: Art From Barkly - Cooee Art Leven, Sydney.
2024 Barkly Groundswell - cbOne Gallery, Melbourne.
2024 Barkly Artists - Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.
2024 Rita and Julie - Coconut Studios, Darwin.
2023 All that glitters... poetics of the Barkly - Coconut Studios, Darwin
2023 All Around Wutunugurra - Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek
2022 National Emerging Artist Prize, Finalist Exhibition - Micheal Reid Art Bar, Sydney
2022 Alpeyt Mwerrangker: Good Blossoms - Cooee Redfern2022 Desert Mob - Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2022 Salon de Refuges - Salon Art Projects, Darwin
2022 Art on Country: Works from the Barkly - Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek
2022 Barkly Artists - Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2009 Barkly Showcase - Tarnarthi Festival, Adelaide
2009 Mwerrangker art from the Silver Bullets - Birrung Gallery, Sydney
2009 Epenarra Exhibition - Bleeding Heart Gallery, Brisbane
Awards
2022 Finalist, National Emerging Artist Prize
Topsy Kemarre Beasley
Lives
Topsy Kemarre Beasley was born at Nurrett (Hatches Creek) in Iytwelepwenty(Davenport Ranges) circa 1928. Their mother was Nellie Ngwarrey Beasley and their father, Tommy Pula Beasley (Blind Tommy), was a rainmaker. Topsy has strong memories as a child of hunting, gathering and living on her father’s Country between Alekarenge (Ali Curung), Elkedra, Imangara (Murray Downs), Nurrett (Hatches Creek), Owairtilla (Canteen Creek) and Wutunugurra (Epenarra).
At some point prior to 1958, when Tommy and Nellie were first named in the census of Epenarra Station, they and their growing family (they would eventually have nine children in total) walked the 80 or so kilometres from Nurrett (Hatches Creek) to Epenarra Station. During those ration days, the family undertook a variety of work at the station, including cleaning and housekeeping, collecting wood and as station hands. Topsy has vivid memories of rounding up cattle on the station horses as well as working as housekeepers.
She began painting in Wutunugurra but many years ago she moved to Tennant Creek where she now lives. She is currently the most senior artist served by Barkly Regional Arts and continues to paint her intuitive and heavily textural painting style which she uses to depict a wide range of subjects, often focusing on particular species of flora and fauna. Topsy's' choice of subject has had significant influence on younger members of the Epenarra artists collective, many of whom have followed her lead in using art as a vessel for multigenerational knowledge sharing.
Group Exhibitions
2024 Reclaimed: Art From Barkly - Cooee Art Leven, Sydney.
2024 Barkly Groundswell - cbOne Gallery, Melbourne.
2024 Desert Mob Exhibition - Araluen Gallery, Alice Springs
2023 Fire Tracks - June Marriott Gallery, Alice Springs
2019 Easter Exhibition 2019 - Barkly Regional Arts Galler