Tracey and Kathy Ramsay

Kathy Ramsay

Kathy Ramsay is an artist at Warmun Art Centre in Western Australia. Established in 1998, the centre is owned and governed by Gija people, and supports the preservation of Gija art, language and culture. Kathy only began painting in 2013 but has already been included in numerous group exhibitions and private collections across Australia and internationally. In 2015, she was selected forRevealed, a biennial art event celebrating emerging Aboriginal artists in Western Australia. Following in the footsteps of her father, the well-known Gija artist Rammey Ramsey, Kathy is known for her use of bright acrylics, which she blends with natural ochre pigments, updating the traditional East Kimberley aesthetic. In 2017, Kathy was a finalist in the John Fries Art Award, and in 2018, she was a finalist in the regional Hedland Art Award for her prominent painting depicting an in-depth story about Juwulinji, her ancestral country which is also known as Bow River Country. Her Country’s landscape and heritage serve as the subject of many of her works, incorporating rich ‘Ngarranggarni’ (dreamtime) stories with recent histories of station life. Recent group exhibitions include The Ochre Story, Japingka Aboriginal Art, WA (2020), Badem Mawoondool, Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney (2020), Summer Salon, Artitja Fine Art Gallery, WA (2020),Connection to Country fundraiser exhibition, Form Gallery, Perth, WA (2019), Warmun Artists/ Whenua, Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand (2019), SALON des Refuses, Charles Darwin University Art Gallery (2019), Our Land Our Place, NAIDOC WEEK exhibition by Artitja Fine Art, Government House, Perth WA (2019), Bow River Country, Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney (2019).

Tracey Ramsay

Tracey Ramsay was born in Wyndham, Western Australia in 1972, but grew up in Juwulinji, her ancestral country, otherwise known as Bow River Country. She began painting in her forties following in the footsteps of her artist parents Rammey and Mona Ramsey, and her sister Kathy Ramsay, and is a member of the Warmun Art Centre, an organisation owned and governed by Gija people to support the preservation of the community’s cultural and artistic heritage. She paints the landscape of the Country she lives in and the dream stories passed down to her from her parents and the wider Gija community, carefully crafting neat graphical compositions that mix together ochre, acrylic and other natural pigments. Tracey was a finalist in the Midwest Art Prize in 2019 and was included in the Revealed Emerging Artist exhibition in the same year. Recent group exhibitions include Badem Mawoondool, Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney (2020), Our Land Our Place, NAIDOC WEEK exhibition by Artitja Fine Art, Government House, Perth WA (2019), Bow River Country, Aboriginal Contemporary, Sydney (2019).

Juwurlinji

Dark formations of rock, vibrant blue rivers and clusters of trees sit against a warm background of yellow, pale pink and ochre earth. These are the painted landscapes of East Kimberley-based artists Tracey and Kathy Ramsay whose artistic legacy is intrinsically tied up with the land, the heritage of the Gija people and their ancient traditions. Bringing the sisters’ paintings together in their first ever UK exhibition, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery is proud to present Juwurlinji, a journey into the real and mythic terrains of the Bow River Country.

Tracey and Kathy Ramsay are part of a new generation of Warmun artists who are reimagining the aesthetics of their region’s ancient Aboriginal art to breathe new life into traditional stories and perspectives. The Warmun community, located in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia, has a rich and long-standing artistic history, which continues to centre around the Warmun Art Centre of which both Ramsay sisters are a part. Established in 1998, the art centre is owned and governed by Gija people, and aims to support and preserve the local art, language and culture with many of its artists spanning different generations of the same family; Kathy and Tracey, for example, are the daughters of well-known Warmun elder and artist Rammey Ramsey.

To Kathy, the older of the two sisters, artistic expression is both a way of connecting with her heritage and paying homage to the land, which is known in Gija as Juwurlinji (the exhibition’s title). ‘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. Our Country really knows us, and it owns us,’ commented Kathy. In this way, the works gain a deeply symbolic resonance as they transcend not just time but also the notion of singularity. Through the use of simple forms and blocks of colour, the artist knowingly speaks to her community’s collective dialogue and identity, whilst also creating a sense of universal familiarity.

Similarly, Tracey employs the same flattened, graphical aesthetic to create a layered and psychological perspective of place. Though Tracey began painting later than Kathy, at the age of 47, the visual affinity of their work in both style and subject-matter (they often paint the same geographical sites) again demonstrates the presence of a larger collective, innate narrative. The warm, earthy tones used by both artists are made from natural pigments, completing the

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