Gloria Petyarre first exhibited paintings in the early 1990s. With a solo exhibition at Australian Galleries in New York in 1991 she quickly became one of the leading artists of the Utopia painting movement, along with renowned artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle and Polly Ngale. She is one of seven sisters, several of whom are also well known painters.
As many of the early Utopia artists did, Gloria started her artistic practice making Batik in the 1970’s and 80s, exhibiting in group exhibitions in Australia and overseas.
Goria’s paintings depict several Dreamings including Bush Medicine Leaves, Mountain or Thorny Devil and Awelye (women’s ceremonial body paint designs). Her sisters, and now her granddaughter Esther Petyarre, also paint the same Dreamings.
Her paintings are held in state, national and regional galleries around Australia. She won the Wynn Prize for landscape painting in 1999, and was a regular finalist in the Telstra NATSIAA’s throughout the 2000s.