Tjungkara Ken facts for kids

Tjungkara Ken (born October 1, 1969) is an artist from the Pitjantjatjara people. She comes from a place called Amata, South Australia, which is in the APY lands (a special area of land in Australia).

Tjungkara started painting in 1997. This was when the women of Amata opened a place called Minymaku Arts. She became a professional artist in 2008. By then, the art group was known as Tjala Arts.

What Tjungkara Ken Paints

Tjungkara Ken's paintings show stories and figures from her personal Tjukurpa. This is also known as Dreaming. It is a special spiritual belief connected to her ancestors' homeland.

Her father is from the land around Amata and Walitjara. Tjungkara often paints this land and its Tjukurpa stories. She also paints her mother's land. This area is further west, near Irrunytju in Western Australia.

Art Shows and Awards

Tjungkara Ken's paintings have been shown in many group exhibitions. These shows took place in big cities across Australia. Some of her art was also part of a show in Graz, Austria, in 2002.

One of her paintings was called Ngayuku ngura – My Country. It was chosen as a finalist for a big art prize in 2010. This prize is called the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. A private collector bought the painting.

In 2011, the Art Gallery of South Australia chose one of her paintings as a prize. This painting showed the Kungkarungkara (Seven Sisters Dreaming). It was part of a competition during the Gallery's Desert Country exhibition.

A painting by Tjungkara from the Art Gallery of South Australia's own collection was also in this exhibition. It was even featured on the cover of the Desert Country catalogue. The show included art from many artists from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands. These artists included Maringka Baker, Nura Rupert, and Jimmy Baker.

You can see Tjungkara Ken's artwork in several major art galleries. These include the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. Her work is also in the National Gallery of Australia. Many important private galleries in Australia also own her art.

In 2017, she was a finalist for the Archibald Prize. Her entry was a self-portrait called Kungkarangkalpa tjukurpa (Seven Sisters dreaming). She won the Roberts Family Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prize in 2021. This was for her painting Seven Sisters, which she entered in the Wynne Prize.

The Ken Sisters

Many other artists in Tjungkara's family also work at Tjala Arts. Tjungkara has four sisters who are also artists. Their names are Yaritji Young, Freda Brady, Sandra Ken, and Maringka Tunkin. When they work together, the group is known as the Ken Sisters.