__NOTOC__
Mabel Juli (born 1931) is a contemporary artist from the
East Kimberley in
Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
.
Early life
Juli was born in 1931
[ or 1932][ at Five Mile, near Moola Boola Station. Her traditional name is Wiringoon and her traditional country is Barlinyin, also known as Springvale, south of Warmun.]
Career
Juli commenced painting in the 1980s after observing and being encouraged by artists Rover Thomas
Rover Thomas Joolama (1926 – 11 April 1998), commonly known as simply Rover Thomas, was a Wangkajunga and Kukatja Aboriginal Australian artist.
Early life
Rover Thomas was born in 1925 near Gunawaggii, at Well 33 on the Canning Stock Rout ...
and Queenie McKenzie. She reports that she "started thinking about my country, I gave it a try." She is best known for her striking black and white paintings of ''Garnkiny doo Wardel'' (Moon and Star) based on the Ngarranggarni story passed down from her parents, but focussing on Ngarranggarniny which is when the Dreaming ancestors laid down and became the landscape of the East Kimberley in Western Australia. An innovator, she also extended the range of use of traditional colours of the Gija palette to include pink, purple and green.
Juli continues to work at the Warmun Art Centre
Warmun (also known as Turkey Creek or Warmun Community) is a township and locality in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, located on the Great Northern Highway, northeast of Perth, Western Australia. The closest populated town is Halls ...
. Her art is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia
The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...
, National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and list of most visited art museums in the world, most visited art mu ...
, Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...
, Artbank
Artbank is an Australian art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. The program supports contemporary Australian Visual artists, artists by purchasing their Art, artworks and renting them to public and private sector cli ...
, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...
, Parliament of Western Australia
The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia, which constitutes the legislative branch of the state's political system. The parl ...
Art Collection, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions.
Set be ...
, New Zealand, and the National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
.
Recognition and awards
*Winner, Kate Challis RAKA Award
The Kate Challis RAKA Award is an arts award worth , awarded annually by the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Indigenous Australian creative artists. It is awarded in a five-year cycle, each year in a different area of the arts: c ...
for Visual Arts in 2013 for her painting ''Under The Sun''.
*Finalist, Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Art Award in 2018
*Work featured on the sails of the Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...
in 2020.
*In 2020 Juli featured as one of six artists in the ABC TV series ''This Place: Artist Series''. The series is a partnership between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
and the National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, in which the producers travelled to the countries of "some of Australia's greatest Indigenous artists to share stories about their work, their country, and their communities".
*Featured in the 2020-2021 National Gallery of Australia's '' Know My Name'' – "an initiative of the National Gallery of Australia to celebrate the significant contributions of Australian women artists"
*Awarded the Red Ochre Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2024 First Nations Arts and Culture Awards.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Juli, Mabel
Living people
Australian Aboriginal artists
Indigenous Australians from Western Australia
People from Warmun Community
20th-century Australian painters
Year of birth missing (living people)
Australian women artists
1930s births
Women's Art Register artists