The Sisters Painting 'Bow River Country'

Aboriginal Contemporary is a gallery in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs that works solely with remote Aboriginal art centres to ensure high ethical standards for both artists and customers.

Last year, gallery founderNichola Dare traveled to the East Kimberley, where she had hoped to meet the famed artist Rammey Ramsay. Instead, she met his daughters, Kathy and Tracey Ramsay, both emerging artists who paint the important sites and stories of Bow River Country, with echoes of their Father’s bold, arresting style.

Tonight, Kathy and Tracey Ramsay open their first ever show together over 4,000 kilometres away from their home, Bow River Country, at Aboriginal Contemporary in Bronte.

Written

Sally Tabart

‘Warrbon (River Kangaroo) Dreaming’, by Tracey Doorloo Ramsay. 120cm x 90cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

Left: ‘Warlbough Hill, Bow River’ by Kathy Ramsay. 80cm x 80cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Right: Bow River Country’ by Kathy Ramsay. 120cm x 90cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

‘Gorge Yard’ by Tracey Doorloo Ramsay. 140cm x 100cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas.

Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

‘Blowfly Dreaming’ by Tracey Doorloo Ramsay. 150cm x 100cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

‘Blowfly Dreaming’. 80cm x 60cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

Left: ‘Green Vale’ by Kathy Ramsay. 80cm x 60cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Right: ‘Juwurlinji (Bow River)’ by Kathy Ramsay, 80cm x 70cm, Natural ochre and pigments, on canvas. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

Bow River Country. Image – courtesy of Aboriginal Contemporary.

Writer

Sally Tabart

21st of June 2019

Kathy and Tracey Ramsay live and paint in Juwurlinji Aboriginal Community, also known as Bow River, which is an outstation situated around 30km north of Warmun, between Broome and Kununurra, with an entry point along the Great Northern Highway. Daughters of Rammey Ramsay, legendary Warmun artist and senior Gija man born in the East Kimberley, both Kathy and Tracy have inherited the ‘same sureness of mark marking passed down to them by their father’, explains gallerist Nichola Dare of Aboriginal Contemporary, ‘but they paint a different country, they paint their country at Bow River’.

Kathy, the older of the two sisters, began painting in 2013 to fulfill the urge to preserve her family history, stories, and traditional knowledge. ‘I just paint what my old people told me about our Country – because they are the ones who know the history of our Country, the Country we’re still connected to today’, explains Kathy. ‘Our Country really knows us, and it owns us’. Tracey didn’t start painting with the Warmun Art Centre until 2018 at the age of 47. After her first work sold instantly, she gained the self-confidence to paint more of Bow River.

Bow River Country is a spectacular exhibition in a palette of dusty pink, cobalt blue and earthy hues from the two sisters, portraying graphic depictions of sites and stories of the area – ‘each tells her story with different embellishments and detail to the other’, says Nichola. This is Kathy and Tracey’s first exhibition together and offers a beautiful, visceral insight into the magnificent land they are so deeply connected with.

You can view the catalogue for Bow River Country here!

Bow River Country by Kathy and Tracey Ramsey
Opening Friday, June 21st 6pm– 8pm
June 21st – July 1st
Aboriginal Contemporary
254 Bronte Road
Waverley, New South Wales