Current Category

Barbara Weir Paintings 

Barbara Weir was born circa 1945 on the Bundy River Station in the region of Utopia, Barbara Weir’s mother is Minnie Pwerle (passed away 2006), a very well known artist, and her father was an Irishman. Barbara belongs to the Anmatyerre / Alyawarre language group. Barbara was taken from her family and fostered out, but, in the 1960’s, Barbara returned to Utopia and stayed with her aunt, Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Barbara commenced painting with acrylics on canvas in 1989 and developed a sophisticated and contemporary painting style. (She also paints with ochres.) In 1994, Barbara Weir and other Aboriginal women travelled to Indonesia to learn batik techniques; then, in 1996, she travelled to Europe with her exhibitions of paintings.

Selected Exhibitions: 1995, 1997, 2003 Dacou Gallery, Adelaide; 1995 Davis Avenue Gallery, Melbourne; 1996, 2002 Framed Gallery Darwin; 1996 Gallery Woo Mang and Partners, Paris, France; 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne; 1996, 1997,1998.1999, 2000, 2002 Quadrivium Gallery, Sydney; 1996, 1997, 1998 Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane; 1997 Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; 1997 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; 1997 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; 1997 Barry Stern Gallery, Sydney; 1998 ARTEXPO New York, USA; 1998, 2001 Chapman Gallery, Canberra; 1998 Adelaide Festival Theatre, Adelaide; 1998 Exhibited extensively in Europe including; Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands; 1999, 2002 Japingka Gallery, Perth; 1999, 2000, 2001 Tandanya, Adelaide; 1999, 2000,2002 Gallery Savah, Sydney; 2000 ArtSauce, Singapore; 2000 Redback Art Gallery, Brisbane; AMP Building, Sydney; 2000 "Women’s Business", Chicago, USA; 2001 Mbantua Gallery, Alice Springs; 2002 Knut Grothe Galeri, Charlottlenlund, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2003 Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne; 2003 Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne.

Selected Collections: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane; Artbank; Queensland College of Art Griffith University; Ebes Collection-Workum, The Netherlands; University of Adelaide; AMP collection.

Source includes: Aboriginal Artists, dictionary of biographies by Janusz B. Kreczmanski and Margo Birnberg (This illustrated dictionary of 446 pages showing many photographs of artists and paintings is available from Doongal).