Jan Murphy Gallery is pleased to present ‘Seven Sisters: Kungkarangkalpa’ the new exhibition featuring works by Sylvia Ken, Tjungkara Ken and the Ken Sisters Collaborative (Freda Brady, Sandra Ken, Tjungkara Ken, Maringka Tunkin and Yaritji Young).

Based in the Amata community in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia and painting at Tjala Arts, Sylvia and Tjungkara’s evocative paintings are a celebration of Anangu culture and connection to country alongside their individual expression of ‘Tjukurpa'(ancestral knowledge and law). Sylvia and Tjungkara paint, in different but related ways, the Seven Sisters creation story, an ancestral narrative of the Pleiades constellations (the sisters) and a sinister man (Orion) who followed them across earth and sky. Both Sylvia and Tjungkara’s family are traditional owners of significant sites where the Seven Sisters story takes place with each painting referencing this story and the important sites within the vast landscape. These stories are the
artists’ birthright and come with a responsibility to continue the passing of culture and knowledge to the next generation.

In recent years both Tjungkara Ken, Sylvia Ken and the Ken Sisters Collaborative have all established themselves as important figures in the Australian cultural landscape with wins in major art awards. Most recently Tjungkara Ken was awarded the 2020 Roberts Family Prize (Wynne Prize) at the Art Gallery of New South Wales a year after Sylvia Ken was announced as the 2019 Wynne Prize winner. The Ken Sisters Collaborative were awarded the Wynne Prizein 2016 and the People’s Choice Award at the 2018 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.
Artworks by Tjungkara Ken, Sylvia Ken and the Ken Sisters Collaborative are held in numerous public collections including Artbank, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and QAGOMA.

Image credit: Tjungkara Ken, Seven Sisters 249-21, 2021, acrylic on linen, 198.0 x 152.5 cm (detail)