Lynette Lewis Australian, Pitjantjatjara, b. 1979

Lynette is fast becoming one of Ernabella's leading ceramic artists. Lynette first began as an art worker at Ernabella Arts at th estart of 2015 when her school age children were at school. Prior to this, Lynette had done tjanpi (weaving) at home and years earlier created a suite of prints at the art centre. In mid-2015 Lynette participated in two workshops leading up to the exhibition at Sabbia Gallery - Yangupala Tjuta Waakarinyi (Many Young People Working).

 

She then attended the Australian Ceramics Triennale in Canberra with three other artists and demonstrated at the Sabbia Gallery exhibition that toured to the Australian National Botanical Gardens Gallery. In late 2015 Lynette also participated in a contemporary jewellery workshop with jeweller Mel Young at Ernabella as part of the Indigenous Jewellery Project. She created some exceptional resin and traditional seed necklaces during the workshop, were exhibited at Whistlewood, Victoria in March 2016.

 

In 2016 Lynette was also selected as a finalist in the National Contemporary Jewellery Award at Griffith Regional Gallery. In mid-2016 Lynette worked alongside seven other Ernabella women potters to create a collaborative ceramics installation for the Indigenous Ceramics Art Award at the Shepparton Art Museum, Victoria in August 2016. In 2017 her work was presented in 'Clay Stories: Indigenous ceramics from remote Australia' at Sabbia Gallery, Sydney. The exhibition began its national tour at Jam Factory Seppltfield for the Tarnanthi: Festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. Her first solo exhibition was titled Mara ninti:Clever hands-Liritja (necklaces) by Lynette Lewis and was presented at Craft ACT in November 2017.

 

Since then, Lynette's work has appeared in exhibitions across Australia and internationally, including the Hold our connection to country strong for malatja-malaltja (future generations) exhibition at Aboriginal Signature gallery in Brussels in 2018. Lynette's mother Atipalku is a senior artist, her sister Langaliki also works as a painter and her father Adrian Intjalki is an established punu (Timber) artist.