Emily Kam Kngwarray, Australian, (1910 -1996)

Emily Kam Kngwarray

Yam Flowers, 1992

Acrylic on Belgian linen

151cm x 122cm 

Provenance:  Delmore Gallery, NT cat no. 92F039
The Alan Boxer Collection, Canberra
Private Collection, Canberra

Emily Kam Kngwarray is one of Australia’s most critically acclaimed contemporary artists. Her work has been celebrated internationally, with two major retrospective exhibitions overseas: the current exhibition at the Tate Modern (July 2025 to January 2026), and previous retrospectives at the National Museum of Art in Osaka (February to April 2008), and the National Art Center in Tokyo (May to July, 2008). In addition, her paintings have been featured by commercial galleries abroad, including the recent Emily Kam Kngwarray, My Country exhibition at Pace Gallery London (June to August 2025) in conjunction with D’Lan Contemporary.
Emily began painting on canvas in 1988, and over an eight-year period, it is estimated that she produced approximately 3,000 works. At the time, her paintings were considered fresh, innovative, and distinctly contemporary — a quality they retain today. By embracing an abstract, free-form style that resonated with the art market, Emily (along with other notable Indigenous artists in the late 1980s and early 1990s) paved the way for other Indigenous artists to express themselves with greater freedom, breaking away from pre-determined constraints. This marked a significant turning point in the Australian Indigenous art movement, particularly for women artists, who have since become a powerful force in the field.
Emily painted for various agents, but most notably for Delmore Gallery and Rodney Gooch. In my opinion, the quality of the paintings from these sources are consistently high quality and we are fortunate to be able to offer Yam Flowers, a vibrant work painted in June 1992 for Delmore Gallery. In that year, Emily shifted her style, moving away from the simple linear structures influenced by batik-making seen in her earlier work, and towards large fields of dots that allowed for quicker execution. Yam Flowers is an excellent example from this period and comes from the renowned Alan Boxer Collection. Alan Boxer was a discerning collector ahead of his time in acquiring excellent examples of Indigenous art.

Shaun Dennison 2026

Artvisory Indigenous Art Specialist

 © Emily Kam Kngwarray/Copyright Agency, 2025