Artist

Yaritji Young is a Pitjantjatjara woman born in the bush near the creek at Ernabella in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands of far north South Australia. Young now resides at Amata, and is a senior law woman committed to fostering law and culture in the community. Her works are drawn from the Tjala (Honey Ant) Dreaming.

A talented multidisciplinary artist, Yaritji Young has been painting at Tjala Arts since late 2000, and has also exhibited with the Tjanpi Desert Weavers across the years. In 2004, she was a finalist in the 29th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award and the 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Both paintings and weaved objects by the artist are held in public collections in Australia.

Young was a finalist in the 2013 30th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and the 2016 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

Alongside her sisters Tjungkara Ken, Sandra Ken, Maringka Tunkin and Freda Brady, Yaritji Young won the illustrious Wynne Prize for landscape at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney in 2016. The winning painting depicts the Seven Sisters story, a story about family protecting and teaching each other as women are chased by a bad man but continue to be protected by their elder sisters. 

In 2017, Yaritji Young featured in the exhibition Artists of the APY Lands at Alcaston, a significant survey exhibition of paintings and masterly ceramics by artists from across the APY Lands of far north South Australia, highlighting the diversity of individual emerging and senior artists currently working at APY Lands art centres.

Alcaston Gallery was thrilled to present Young’s first solo exhibition Walytapitiku Laina – Family Lines from 7-25 March 2017, which was a sell-out exhibition.

© The Artist, Tjala Arts and Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne 2018

Solo Exhibitions:

2017     Walytapitiku Laina – Family Lines, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2000     Irititja Munu Kuwaritja Tjukurpa (Stories from the past and present), Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

2003     Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

2004     Looking after country: Manta Atunymankunytja, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

2009     Kuru Alala – Eyes Open, National Touring Exhibition, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

2010     Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

2010     Tjala Men and Tjanpi Desert Weavers - Watiku tjukurpa pulka mulapa, munu Minymaku tjanpi; exhibition tjungu kupu (The men’s stories are very strong with the women’s tjanpi; a strong exhibition), Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

2011     Western APY Lands – Pro Community, ARTKelch, Leipzig, Germany

2011     Tjala Artists. Anangu maruku mulapa – This is our real way, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

2013     Heartland – Contemporary Art from South Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

2014     Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

2016     33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

2016     Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

2016     Nganampa Kililpil – Our Stars, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery, Gymea, New South Wales, Australia

2017     Artists of the APY Lands, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Awards:

2004     Finalist, 29th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award

2004     Finalist, 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

2013     Finalist, 30th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards

2016     Finalist, 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards

2016     Winner (Tjala Arts Collaborative), Wynne Prize

2017     Finalist, 34th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards

2017     Finalist, Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia