Jenni Kemarre Martiniello facts for kids

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello OAM (born 1949) is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She is famous for making beautiful glass art. Her art is inspired by traditional woven items made by Indigenous peoples in Australia. She also works hard to support and help other Indigenous artists.

Early Life and Education

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello was born in Adelaide, Australia. Her father was of Aboriginal and Chinese background. Her mother was a talented singer and pianist of Anglo-Celtic background. They met at work and got married. This was quite unusual for a mixed-race couple at that time.

Early Art Interest

Jenni showed an early interest in art. While in high school, she took evening art classes at the Adelaide School of Art. After high school, she joined the navy for two years. She worked with radar and weapons. She left because she was not happy with how service members were treated.

Settling in Canberra

Later, Jenni met and married her husband, who was from Italy. They moved to Canberra in the late 1960s. They had several children together. After ten years, they divorced.

University Studies

After her divorce, Martiniello went back to school. She studied sculpture at the Canberra School of Art. This school is now part of the Australian National University School of Art. She tried many art forms like drawing, printmaking, and photography. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985. She then continued to study philosophy and art history at the same university.

Career Highlights

Teaching and Writing

Martiniello taught at the University of Canberra. She also taught Indigenous art history at the Yurauna Centre. This centre is part of the Canberra Institute of Technology. During this time, she kept creating sculptures and drawings.

In 1999, Martiniello started the ACT Indigenous Writers Group. She published several books of poetry. In 2003, she received an ACT Creative Arts Fellow award for her writing.

Supporting Indigenous Artists

In 2003, Martiniello and artist Lyndy Delian started the Indigenous Textiles and Glass Artists (ITAG) group. This group helps Indigenous artists. It connects them with other art groups. ITAG works to overcome challenges caused by past unfair treatment of Indigenous peoples. The group also holds art shows and offers workshops for artists.

Martiniello and Delian also created the Honouring Cultures program. This program works with Canberra Glassworks. It helps artists from different regions learn glassmaking skills. It also allows international artists to share their skills and work together.

Kemarre Arts Enterprise

Martiniello founded Kemarre Arts in 2006. It was the first "independent Aboriginal-run social enterprise" in the Australian Capital Territory. This organization supports artists in many ways. It helps them write grant applications and develop their professional skills. It also helps with publishing and guides them on pricing their art. In 2012, Kemarre Arts won the ACT NAIDOC Award for Most Outstanding Agency.

Glassmaking Journey

Martiniello began working with glass in 2008, alongside Lyndy Delian. They received a grant to teach glassmaking to Indigenous artists. They learned new skills with about 20 other artists at Canberra Glassworks.

Weaving Patterns in Glass

In 2011, Martiniello was an artist-in-residence at the Thomas Foundation. There, she started trying out weaving patterns in glass. She was inspired by the traditional Aboriginal way of weaving. As a child, she saw woven items like fish traps and bags in museums. They were shown as if they were old items from a forgotten past. She also watched women, including her Arrernte grandmother, weave things like eel traps, fish traps, dilly bags, and message sticks.

Martiniello combines these childhood memories with her glass knowledge. She uses a special glass technique called canework. This technique helps her make glass look like woven forms. She uses different colors to create a palette that reminds people of the Australian landscape. She works with a team to create her pieces. This is common for glass artists. It also reminds us of Indigenous weaving circles, where groups of artists share knowledge and skills with younger generations.

Major Awards and Collections

In 2013, Martiniello won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. She won it for her artwork called Golden Brown Reeds Fish Trap. This is the most important award for Indigenous art in Australia. The piece was inspired by woven fish traps from northeast Arnhem Land and Cape York. Seven artists worked together to create it.

Other awards she has received include:

• Canberra Critics Circle Award for Visual Arts (2011, 2013)
• Wollotuka Acquisitive Art Prize (University of Newcastle, 2012)
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Visual Arts Fellowship (2013-2015)
• Bay of Fires Art Prize (2016)

In 2022, she received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). This is a special honor for her contributions.

Her artworks are displayed in many important collections. These include the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the British Museum, and the Corning Museum of Glass.