Collection: Lily Karedada

Date of Birth : c.1937
Country : Kimberly
Language : Tjarintji / Woonambal

LILY KAREDADA WAS BORN IN THE BUSH, AROUND THE PRINCE REGENT RIVER IN THE EAST KIMBERLEY. HER BUSH NAME, MINDINDIL, MEANS BUBBLES, REFERRING TO THE TIME WHEN HER FATHER ‘FOUND’ HER SPIRIT COMING FROM THE WATER. HE PASSED AWAY WHEN SHE WAS VERY YOUNG. LILY PAINTS THE WANDJINA, THE CREATOR SPIRIT, WHICH SHE LEARNT TO PAINT BY HER MOTHER. HER OTHER TOTEMS ARE THE TURKEY, POSSUM AND WHITE COCKATOO.

Lily lives at Kulumbaru in the far north of the Kimberley with her husband, painter, Jack Karedada, they have 10 children. She paints both on bark and canvas and uses traditional ochres that are gathered from the land and creek beds and natural glue binders taken from the trees.

HER WANDJINA PAINTINGS ARE POWERFUL AS THE WANDJINA OR CREATOR SPIRIT ARE THEMSELVES.

Wandjina are found painted on many of the walls of caves, they created the elements, land land forms, plants and animals. Usually the Wandjina are depicted in a veil of dots representing the rain generated by the spirit, and the blood/water bond between man and nature.

Lily’s brother, the late Geoffrey Mangalamarra was the creator of the famous “Cyclone Tracy” balga, a public ceremony that had a great impact on the contemporary development of Kimberley art.

Lily is a respected and major artist of the Kimberley region, her work is collected both nationally and internationally by galleries, museums and private collectors.

COLLECTIONS

Artbank, Sydney.

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia.

Christensen Collection, held Museum of Victoria, Melbourne.

Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide.

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.

The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.

EXHIBITIONS

1981 Die kunst der Australischen Ureinwohner lebt, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Leipzig

1981 Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Dresden, Germany

1988 Karnta, Touring South-east Asia, [non selling Karnta show].

1990 Balance 1990: views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane.

1991 Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

1992 Broome Fringe Festival, Broome. Western Australia

1993 Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

1994 Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aboriginal Artists of Western Australia, [n.d. [folios of works and biographies], Aboriginal Education Resources Unit, Western Australia.

McCulloch, A., & McCulloch, S., 1994, The Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales.

Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Stanton, J., 1989, Painting the Country: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley Region, Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia. ©

1991, Aboriginal Women’s Exhibition, exhib. cat., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.