Emily Kam Kngwarray
By Jonathan Goodman, August 13, 2026
Emily Kam Kngwarray: The Turning Season 508 & 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001 May 15–August 14, 2026 Photography courtesy Pace Gallery
Emily Kam Kngwarray, an indigenous artist from the Northern Territories in Australia, painted exquisite lyrical abstractions in line with the work of the New York School. Her non-objective art seems, to some extent, to echo the colors of her Australian surroundings, the reds are like the dusty clay of her home. The show offers an overview of an artist dedicated to what must be called, New York School orientation, even in the late 20th century when Kngwarray was working in a language shared by many people in many geographies.
So Kngwarray brings up an important question: Does a particular style reflect a specific geography or not. In America, we have made nearly a religion of poetic abstraction, calling it our own because we originated the style. But people from other places, such as John Riopelle from Canada and Hanz Hartung from Germany, also practiced the style at high levels. Given the internationalization of the image, as put forth by the Internet and social media, it makes good sense to see Kngwarray’s achievement as perfectly reasonable within the influence of other painters’ rhetoric.
Kngwarray made beautiful paintings in keeping with the landscape she lived in. Even so, it is fair to ask whether a specific style can be followed over a period of several decades, and still maintain the energy it had during its beginnings and high points. Sometimes it looks like all the tricks of abstract expressionism have already been worked out. The expression of a style over such a long time, seventy five years, inevitably depletes the forms and colors that face some effect of the works, that is, unless they reflect a color scheme that transcends historical precedents, as in Kngwarray’s case.
Alhaker (1993), refers to the specific homeland of the artist inside the northern territories, which are known for its spiritual and mystical leanings. When you look at the painting, you can't help but be impressed. It seems to cover both nature figuratively and devotionally. When we see the works in NYC we are taken by the urban atmosphere, and perhaps wrongly, associate her works with that of the New York school. But it's certainly true that abstract expressionism is a practice now evident in cultures all over the world. This does not mean however that they are influenced by or copying by the New York School. In Kngwarray’s wonderful style we are subjected to a repetition of form that does seem to come more from nature even though it is hard to give up on its abstract feeling because Kngwarray handles both worlds so well at the same time we can read it either way. Some of the work the artist made was definitely made toward figuration, and some, like the paintings with stripes seem like essays in non-objective art. What is wonderful about the experience is how steadily it stands with both feet planted in both camps.
Kngwarray is a woman of her place and time but she was working in the second half of the 20th century when it was relatively easy to see work from all over the world. It may be a false debate to argue about influence; Kngwarray was so distant from New York and its expressive tendencies that it is hard to make the argument that she was borrowing the abstract defense of a culture that was urban and greatly distant from her own. The real excitement in this work comes from the sureness of Kngwarray’s hand and her willingness to borrow from visual effects that artists and audiences in contemporary New York would see as a copy event though it is not. What is interesting is whether we can worry about the continuation of the same style over more than a few decades. The way Kngwarray met her obligations as an artist is highly original and seems to come from its own origins.
Emily Kam Kngwarray, Body Markings (Sorry Cuts), 1994 WORK ON PAPER acrylic on paper 75 cm × 50 cm (29-1/2" × 19- 11/16"), each in four sheets © Emily Kam Kngwarray / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The painting Untitled ( Body Lines) (1995), consists of black and white horizontal lines that ungulate slightly across the canvas. The title is slightly perplexing, maybe the subtle curves, almost straight lines, indicate the curves of the body. Once again though it is easy to read in light of a major abstract statement, with all the energy and verve you might find in a painting by one of the major abstractionists in the 1950’s. Often it is problematic to connect abstract painting to the life of the artists. But here given the implicit isolation of the artist, we can only admire how contemporary the work feels. Kngwarray shows tremendous energy in these works of art and at the same time, she demonstrates an equal amount of independence. We are lucky to see both in such a gifted hand.
Generally speaking it is a mistake to ascribe close contact and influence on work that comes from a different culture. We can talk about similarities, but that does not prove that a work is derivative of another work from across the world. Kngwarray should be appreciated as an artist who found her own way in her own time, in her own place. Now that the show is up at Pace gallery, we can appreciate its seeming closeness to art made in New York City. We are in a time now where we are still making the mistake of believing everything was made south of 14th street. However close the implications of Kngwarray’s art may be to where she lived and worked, must prove then, she had the imagination to create lines, colors and forms from her own immediate context. And we, the audience, will make of it what we will.
Desert track (1992) beautifully summarizes the experience of Kngwarray’s region. The painting can almost perform the visual effects of her regional environment. Discrete shapes can be seen, mostly in orange/ reddish brown colors, while the abstraction inherent in this work of art seems true to the artist’s life experience. Maybe the New Yorkers seeing the show are not fully cognisant of how specific to the local environment her work referenced. What do the tracks in the painting suggest beyond the presence of an animal? It is hard to say. New Yorkers may well misunderstand this work as an abstract exercise but Kngwarray may simply be describing what she knows; the northern territories are arid and barren and do not cross the mind of the urban New York audience. The important question is whether we can assign western values to an indigenous artist so far away. Kngwarray has managed to paint a body of works whose implications may not be as eclectic as
they seem. In the long run, though, it is not so important to decide on cultural origins as it is to accept and enjoy a body of work as creative as this.
Alalgura I (1990) owes its power to the tactile exterior of the abstraction she paints. The title refers to her ancestral country. Even though the compositional plane is flat it looks like brown forms are set on top of each other or incised directly from the canvas. As a painting it holds a remarkable density and a depth that comes from the use of muted colors. Kngwarray comes close to outdoing herself in this painting by emphasizing the density of what we assume is a part of the landscape, perhaps some specific rock formations or even the remains of shells. Who could imagine so much richness in a single work of art? Who could also imagine that this art came from a very specific identification with a particular region? King is to be congratulated for her remarkable ability to suggest places even if the work is non-objective. People who are coming from urban cultures, especially in New York, where the show is available, will be able to appreciate both the outback as it subjects in the art, and the suggestion of an abstraction that is still taking place in western culture.
It is wonderfully exciting to come across this highly gifted artist. Kngwarray is a natural, whose depth of purpose and image, are all connected to where she lived. For people who don't live in the northern territories it might be hard to see the territorial illusions, but such illusions must be recognized. It is also, perhaps our lesson to learn, this kind of painting not only comes from far away, it comes from a culture in which the style is foreign as a viewer, I can only praise the urgency and weight of a painter who did so much to take the landscape and transform it into something very large. In the future, perhaps we can hope that further large exhibitions will acquaint us with an artist whose independence is so present.