Carlene West (born c. 1945) is a

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...

Indigenous artist from

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

southern desert region. Her paintings are included in the collection of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Her work has been exhibited across Australia as well as internationally.

Life

Carlene West was born in Spinifex country at Tjitjiti which names a vast salt lake and is a sacred place for which she holds custodial responsibility. In 1959, West and her parents were forced off their land by British nuclear testing at Maralinga. The family moved to the mission of Cundeelee where West met her husband Fred Grant, who is also a notable Indigenous artist. The couple became central in the movement for Spinifex people's return to country. As part of The Spinifex Art Project (est. 1997), West's work was used as evidence in their Native Title claim as document of the Spinifex's connection to the land. In 2009 West and Grant were able to return to Tjitjiti. West continues to be a practising artist and currently resides in Tjuntjunjtara, Western Australia.

Work

West began painting in 1997, working with acrylic paint on large sheets of canvas. Throughout her career West has focused on depicting her birthplace of Tjitjiti. Her early work was done in the style typical of the Western Desert region, reminiscent of the artists of

Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative ...

. In 2012 West's work changed radically as result of her encounter with

Alzheimers Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

. She began depicting Tjitjiti in a gestural fashion, using black, red, and cream to paint voids on the canvas traced with trails of fine dotting. This style is characteristic of her recent work.

Selected exhibitions

* 2016–2019 ''Marking the Infinite'' – United States: New Orleans LA, Miami FL, Scottsdale AZ, Reno NV, Washington DC, Canada: Vancouver BC

Represented in public collections

* National Gallery of Victoria * Art Gallery of New South Wales * National Gallery of Australia * The British Museum

External links

The Spinifex Art Project

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Carlene Living people Australian women artists Australian Aboriginal artists Year of birth missing (living people)