Biography

Pitjantjatjara, b. 1980 Julie Woods Baker is a Pitjantjatjara artist from Kanpi in the APY Lands of South Australia. She was born at Irrunytju / Wingellina in Western Australia and grew up at Kanpi, where her family moved when she was young. Her mother is artist Elaine Woods and her grandmother was Maringka Baker, a senior artist associated with Tjungu Palya. Julie’s work continues stories passed through her mother and grandmother, particularly women’s stories connected to Country, travel and ceremony. Dreaming & Country: Minyma Kutjara / Two Sisters Julie is closely associated with Minyma Kutjara, or Two Sisters Dreaming. The story follows two ancestral women travelling across Country towards Docker River, and is connected to women’s ceremony, singing, dancing, support and kinship. Her work also includes broader women’s Dreaming stories associated with APY Country. Style and Technique Julie’s paintings are often structured through repeated lines, dotting and travelling forms. In her Minyma Kutjara works, movement across Country is carried through directional pathways and rhythmic fields of colour. The compositions often read as both journey and ground: figures, tracks and ceremonial movement held within a continuous painted surface. Julie’s Palette Julie works with a broad contemporary APY palette, often using pinks, purples, oranges, reds, yellows, greens, blues, whites and darker grounds. Colour is used to separate movement, site and surrounding Country across the surface. For the Collector Julie Woods Baker’s work sits within a strong APY family lineage through Elaine Woods and Maringka Baker. Her practice is centred on Minyma Kutjara and women’s Dreaming stories connected to Kanpi, Irrunytju and the western APY Lands.