Primus Ugle, Noongar/Bibbulmun painter, was born on the Carrolup Mission near Katanning, WA in 1941. Ugle began painting in his adulthood while he was in gaol, and sold his first painting at a Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation’s prisoners’ art exhibition in the mid-1990s. Ugle’s work is predominantly concerned with remembering and documenting the ways of life of Aboriginal people of his and previous generations who lived in Southwestern WA and were forced to live in missions, native settlements and in fringe camps on the outskirts of cities and towns. Themes in his work include his family’s seasonal fruit and vegetable picking work, shearing, the games with which Aboriginal people passed the time in the camps, and instances of Aboriginal people’s fraught relationships with police, government authorities, and missionaries. Ugle has also painted highly nostalgic works which mourn the erosion of Aboriginal culture and ties with the land. Ugle has participated in a number of exhibitions, including 'Aboriginal Artists of the South West’ at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia (2000) 'South West Central: Indigenous art from south Western Australia 1833-2002’ at the Art Gallery of Western Australia (2003), and 'From little things, big things grow: Gather round people, I’ll tell you a story’ (2004) at the National Gallery of Australia.

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Writers:

Fisher, Laura
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Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011