Venita Woods b. 1988

Venita Woods was born in Kaltukatjara, or Docker River, a remote community near the Western Australia border in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara (APY) Lands of Central Australia. Venita now lives in the community of Kanpi in South Australia, and works in the school there as well as maintaining her artistic career. Venita comes from a very creative family – she is the granddaughter of acclaimed artist, Maringka Baker – and her mother, Elaine Woods, and sisters, Cassyanne, Julie and Janice Woods are all established artists.

Like many of her family members, Venita’s paintings depict Minyma Kutjara (Two Women), a “big story” that intersects many language groups in the Central and Western Desert regions. The songline details the journey of two women as they travel across Country, changing form into animals or elements to pass through certain areas. The movements of the two women create features of the landscape as they walked, rested, and performed ceremony. The waterholes and sites where the women camped on their travels are depicted, as well as other topographic details of the country. There are variations to the Minyma Kutjara Dreaming story; Venita captures the textured topography of her own ancestral country in the APY Lands, in particular the Musgrave Ranges - the reds, oranges and yellows of the rocky outcrops, the undulations of sandhills and rockholes.

Venita is a sought-after artist, and was a finalist in the 2015 NATSIAA (National Telstra Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards). Aside from painting, Venita’s creative practice also includes textile arts such as creating tjanpi weavings, making baskets and fibre sculptures out of native grass, raffia and wool.