KAYLENE WHISKEY

Early Years

Kaylene Whiskey was born in Alice Springs in 1976. Her grandfather was the acclaimed artist Kunmanara Tjukangku and her mother Lipsey was also an artist—they both worked out of Iwantja Arts in Indulkana. Whiskey grew up in Indulkana, on the on the eastern edge of South Australia’s vast Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands, and she began blending community traditions and pop culture during her childhood: she learned English from Wonder Woman comics and spoke Yankunytjatjara at home, and used to visit a drive-in cinema in Coober Pedy, three hours away, watching movies through the chain link fence. She also recalls driving with cousins to Coober Pedy to see Tina Turner filming Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Her works Strong Kungka Story 1 and 2 appeared at the Tarnanthi art festival in 2017.

Kaylene Whiskey: Artworks

Full of detail and happiness, Kaylene Whiskey’s artworks celebrate strong women (kungkas), and feature the landscape and tradition of the Yankunytjatjara alongside pop culture icons including Dolly Parton, Cher and Tina Turner. She frequently uses humour, but that doesn’t mean her artworks aren’t complex, often offering comment on modern Indigenous life.

• Kaylene TV (2018) won the Sir John Sulman Prize in 2018—an acrylic on linen artwork featuring local, native objects such as boomerangs and a mingkulpa (tobacco) plant, as well as Dolly Parton and Cher. In the background, the television is playing Kaylene TV. It’s Christmas (we can see a decorated tree). Describing the painting at the time, Whiskey said: “This is my painting about two strong kungkas (women). Cher is singing a song on the microphone; she is having a great time because her boots have silver spurs and are really tall above her knees. Dolly Parton is wearing the pink overalls with pockets. Dolly has been skateboarding at the shops. She must have bought that Christmas present for Cher because they are good friends, they like to sing together!”
• In 2021, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Whiskey’s painting Dolly Visits Indulkana (2020) was projected on to the sails of the Sydney Opera House.
• Female bonds and relationships are a key theme in Kaylene Whiskey’s artistic practice. In Flying Over Indulkana, 2022), Whiskey—resplendent in a cape and cowboy boots—flies over the Australian landscape alongside Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Cher, Wonder Woman, Catwoman and, of course, Dolly Parton and Tina Turner.

Kaylene Whiskey: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Super Kaylene Whiskey, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2025)
• Indulkana Soup, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2024)
• From Comic to Canvas, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2023)
• Sistas, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2021)
• Wonder Women, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2019)
• Super Anangu, presented by blackartprojects, NeoSpace, Melbourne (2019)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Archibald Prize 2026, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2026)
• 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art, Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne (2025)
• Too Deadly: Ten Years of Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2025)
• Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Sydney Biennale (2024)
• The power of colour, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria (2024)
• The First 40 Years, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2024)
• Kungka Kuṉpu (Strong Women)_, Bunjil Place Gallery, Narre Warren (2024)
• In the arms of unconsciousness: Women, feminism and the surreal, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, New South Wales (2023)
• Portrait23: Identity, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2023)
• Wynne Prize 2023, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2023)
• 52 Actions, Artspace, Sydney (2022)
• Iwantja Rock n Roll, Iwantja Arts, Fort Gansevoort, New York City (2022)
• Global Positioning, JCDecaux bus shelters, New York City, Chicago, Boston (2022)
• Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2021)
• Sweat, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021)
• Joy, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2020)
• Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Gordon (2020)
• The National: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2019)
• Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), MAGNT, Darwin
• The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art National Gallery of Victoria touring exhibition, Denver Art Museum (2018) (and touring)
• Hard Feelings, The Honeymoon Suite, Melbourne (2018)
• Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs (2017)
• Nganampa Kililpil: Our Stars, Hazelhurst Gallery, Sydney (2016)
• Salon des Refusés, Charles Darwin University with Outstation Gallery, Darwin (2015)
• Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs (2014)

Further Reading

• Artist profile page at Iwantja Arts__
• 2025 profile in Australian __Vogue __
• 2025 profile from The Sydney Morning Herald

Kaylene Whiskey FAQs

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