When Emily Kame Kngwarreye began her era-defining painting career in 1988, she was joined by dozens of women, many of whom also belonged to Anmatyerre Country. In the decades since, appreciation for the art of those other female artists has steadily grown. Today, several of the Anmatyerre women who painted shoulder to shoulder with Kngwarreye are considered significant artists in their own right.

Emily and Friends brings together important paintings by three such artists, the sisters Poly, Kathleen and Angelina Ngal, alongside a quintessential work by Kngwarreye, all drawn directly from the private collection of Delmore Gallery, which commissioned thousands of paintings by the Utopia women from 1989 to 2012 and is widely considered the premier provenance for works from the region. This private trove contains works that Don and Janet Holt held back from sale at the time of creation due to their aesthetic appeal and distinctiveness.

The vivid, varied desert seasons of the Utopia region are on thrilling display in these works. Poly Ngal’s virtuosic layering of red, orange and yellow dots conjures images of Utopia at its scorching summer peak, while Angelina Pwerle Ngal’s pointillist flurries of blue and green and Kathleen Ngal’s fluid mark-making in blue, purple and white celebrate replenished water holes and the crisp nights of winter.

All three Ngal women paint the anwekety (bush plum) Dreaming, for which they have custodial responsibility. However, like Kngwarreye, their art draws synergistic inspiration from the seasonal dimensions of Country, expanding our understanding of the anwekety Dreaming to encompass the broader landscape within which the bush plum grows.

Emily and Friends includes two large-scale works, one each by Poly and Kathleen, which showcase these increasingly sought-after artists at the peak of their powers, alongside smaller paintings of exceptional quality. A shimmering work by the youngest sister, Angelina, is a splendid example of her internationally celebrated style. A compelling ode to the fertility of the land, painted by Kngwarreye in March 1993, anchors the exhibition.

Viewed together, the works of Emily and Friends encapsulate the energy and diversity of one of the most important paintings movements in contemporary Australian Indigenous art.