Kay Finn, Waterholes, 152x122cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Kay Finn
• Community - Coober Pedy
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Umoona Community Art Centre
• Catalogue number - 303-26
• Materials - Professional artist acrylic on Belgian linen
• Size(cm) - H152 W122 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

Kay Finn is a senior Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman and a respected cultural leader. She began painting at Umoona Community Arts Centre in October 2021 and works alongside her brother Keith Minunga, sister-in-law Jeannie Minunga, and niece Myra Kumantjara. Kay is a talented artist whose work focuses on her Country around Indulkana, where she paints variations on the recurring theme of waterholes, sites of vital cultural and ecological importance. Her paintings reflect both ancestral knowledge and lived experience of Country. In addition to her solo practice, Kay regularly contributes to collaborative canvases with Jeannie and Myra, together depicting shared stories and the sacred knowledge of their land.

Umoona Community Art Centre is Indigenous owned and governed, based in Umoona community at Coober Pedy in the north of South Australia. It was established in 2020 alongside the art centres of the neighbouring Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, with the aim of building sustainable employment pathways for artists. The artists wanted a permanent centre they owned and operated themselves, and opened their purpose-built studio in Umoona in early 2024. The community is diverse. Artists from different language groups across the central desert work alongside people who have always called Umoona and Coober Pedy home, more than thirty of them, aged from sixteen to seventy. They work in acrylic on linen, punu and carving, tjanpi weaving and ceramics, in a wide range of styles, with strong colour and energetic mark making.