Malpiya Davey, also known as Irpintiri Davey, is an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Isl ...

artist from Pukatja, South Australia. She is best known for her ceramic artworks, but she also does painting, printmaking and

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

. Davey works for Ernabella Arts, the community arts co-operative in Pukatja. Ernabella Arts opened a ceramic studio in 2003, and Malpiya has since become one of its most prolific artists. She specialises in ceramic

sgraffito ''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive laye ...

. Malpiya is

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 va ...

. Her parents’

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

is to the west of Pukatja between Watarru and Iltur, close to the border with

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. She decorates the ceramic with glazed or painted designs. Her designs depict various traditional bush foods from her family's country, such as ' (desert raisins), ' (quandong) and ' (wild figs). These are the subject of many of her sgraffito pieces. Malpiya's ceramic work has been shown in several major

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

around Australia, including at Flinders University, Cudgegong Gallery, Strathnairn Homestead Gallery, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. It was also featured twice at the annual Desert Mob exhibition in Alice Springs, in 2003 and 2004. Examples are held in the permanent collections of the Grafton Regional Gallery in New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and 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 ...

. The

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

also contains examples of Malpiya's screen prints.

References

External links

Malpiya Davey
at ''Prints and Printmaking'' Living people Artists from South Australia Pitjantjatjara people Australian ceramicists Australian painters Australian printmakers Australian weavers Women textile artists Women printmakers Australian women painters Australian women ceramicists Australian Aboriginal artists Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-artist-stub