Jade Akamarre is an Alyawarre/Anmatyerre artist and the Founding Director of Pwerle Gallery, which represents four generations of her family from Atnwengerrp (Utopia, NT). A fourth-generation painter, she began as a child alongside her great-great aunt Emily Kame Kngwarreye and grandmother Barbara Weir; her great-grandmother is Minnie Pwerle. Jade paints under her skin name Akamarre. In 2021 Barbara entrusted her with Atnwengerrp – My Grandmother’s Country (Awelye), which Jade renders as aerial “talking maps” of tracklines, ceremony grounds and seasonal change—single-pass linear dot work with palettes drawn from Country.
She founded Pwerle Gallery in 2015 (continuing Fred Torres’ DACOU legacy) and advocates for cultural sovereignty and provenance. Projects include collaborations with Porsche Australia, American Express, Samsung, Yamaha, Vinteloper, Significant Other, Onix Mosaic and Clearlight Sauna. Featured by VOGUE, Harper’s BAZAAR and Marie Claire, Jade was a VOGUE Game Changer (2018), InDaily 40 Under 40 finalist (2021), and served on the Brand South Australia board.
Jade Akamarre is an Alyawarre and Anmatyerre woman, a fourth-generation artist, and the Founding Director of Pwerle Gallery—the family-run gallery representing four generations of her direct bloodline from Atnwengerrp (Utopia, NT). Raised between homelands and studio floors, Jade began painting at the age of two alongside her great-great aunt Emily Kame Kngwarreye and her grandmother Barbara Weir; her great-grandmother Minnie Pwerle is widely regarded as one of the most important Australian artists of the twentieth century.
Entering the art world professionally at 21, Jade brought a lifelong immersion in Aboriginal art together with more than a decade in fashion and luxury—skills in storytelling, brand and presentation she now applies to both her studio practice and the gallery she founded in 2015. Pwerle Gallery continues the work begun by her father Fred Torres with DACOU, and remains one of Australia’s only privately Aboriginal-owned galleries operating without government funding, dedicated solely to artists from Jade’s family and community.
Jade paints under her skin name Akamarre—a kinship title that defines relationships, obligations to Country and ceremonial roles. In 2021, her grandmother entrusted her with her first Dreaming to hold and paint: Atnwengerrp – My Grandmother’s Country (Awelye). Jade’s paintings read as aerial “talking maps” of that Country—ancestral tracklines, ceremony grounds and seasonal shifts rendered in flowing linear dot work and roundels. The lines are never pre-marked: each mark arrives in a single pass, the way a story is told, building rhythmically across the surface. Colour is drawn directly from home—purples from seasonal wildflowers and the deep red and natural tones from the ochre, whites recalling quartz hills and ceremonial markings, reds and oranges for sandhills and pigment—so that what is seen on canvas echoes what is walked and remembered.
In April 2021, Jade began developing this body of work under the title Dreaming in My Grandmother’s Country—a Dreaming formally passed to her by Barbara Weir. These paintings are composed of loosely executed dots laid into flowing, linear pathways that read like an aerial plan of Atnwengerrp: tracklines, ceremony grounds and teaching places emerging as you look. The approach is deliberately subtle; viewers are invited to search out the motifs woven through each surface. While each canvas carries the same title, changes in palette mark season and weather—country after rain, cool-burn regrowth, dry-time seed. Works from this series affirm cultural continuity while honouring Jade’s personal bond with her Country and family.
“When I close my eyes, I see Atnwengerrp from an aerial view. Nourishing bush tucker, the songlines, sacred sites and deep red colours that evolve throughout the day. I project that into every Dreaming I produce. Each piece has a deep connection to Country and pays tribute to all family members who walked the land before us. It’s an honour and privilege to take what I’ve learnt from my elders onto canvas.”
— Jade Akamarre
Her signature style—rhythmic, linear dot work shaped by the aerial patterns of Atnwengerrp—honours the women who taught her while inviting global audiences into a living tradition. Alongside her studio practice, Jade is a vocal advocate for cultural sovereignty and provenance, ensuring Aboriginal artists lead their own narratives and benefit from their work. Her paintings and projects have connected family stories with new audiences through collaborations with Porsche Australia (including Porsche Centre Adelaide’s 75 Years celebration), American Express Australia, Samsung Australia, Yamaha Australia, Vinteloper, Significant Other, Onix Mosaic, and Clearlight Sauna.
Jade’s artistry and advocacy have been profiled in VOGUE Australia, Harper’s BAZAAR Australia, and Marie Claire Australia. She was named one of VOGUE Australia’s Game Changers (2018), was a finalist in InDaily’s 40 Under 40 (2021), and served a two-year term on the Brand South Australia board. Grounded in more than 60,000 years of cultural continuity and her family’s extraordinary lineage, Jade Akamarre keeps story, ceremony and Country at the centre—on the wall and in the world.
