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SENIOR WARLPIRI CUSTODIAN

 

Sadly, in December 2006, Lorna Fencer passed away peacefully Katherine, N.T. Her legacy and art will live on. Lorna was a Senior Warlpiri Custodian, and therefore was brought up a painter yet she only started painting on canvas in 1986. Lorna was born circa 1925 at Yartula Yartula. Nearby is land inherited by Lorna, Yumurrpa located south of the Granites Mine Area in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory.  Lorna is among a small group of women who collectively produced the first paintings at Lajamanu.

Lorna Fencer along with other Warlpiri people was forcibly relocated  to Lajamanu along Hookers Creek, where a government settlement had been established. This country is the traditional land of the Gurindji Aboriginal people. Despite relocation, Lorna Fencer retained her cultural identity through ceremony, story telling and painting her art.

From Dreaming stories taught to her involving the travels of the Napurrula and Nakamarra skin (or kinship) and some Dreamings from her father’s country of Wapuurtarli, Lorna depicts the bush foods of her country.

Although the region in which Lorna painted in was best know for it's dot work, Lorna broke through barriers and and stereotypes. Her art is fresh and vibrant. Lorna paints with generous amounts of paint and creates a thick texture on the surface. Her work is contemporary, yet does not lose touch of its tribal background.

Lorna Fencer has exhibited in some of the most important Gallery's in Australia, and her works were sold by top collectors all over the world, especially in the U.S.A. where she had exhibited in Washington and New York.

 

Very Important public and private collections:

The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, Western Australia

Christensen Collection (housed at Museum of Victoria)

Museum & Art Galleries of the N.T, Darwin

National Gallery of Victoria

Perth Museum

Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra

Artbank, Sydney

Laverty Collection, Sydney

Margaret Carnegie Collection

 

Bibliography:

McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 62

Johnson, Vivien, Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert-A Biographical Dictionary. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1994. Page 133

McCulloch, Susan. Contemporary Aboriginal Art - A guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture. Allen & Unwin NSW. 1999. Page 93.

 

PAINTINGS CURRENTLY IN STOCK

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