Utopia, located 270km northeast of Alice Springs on the eastern perimeter of the Western Desert “bloc” next to the traditional land of the Eastern Anmatyarre and Alyawarre people. It was named by the first white settlers in 1927 and occupies 1800 square kilometers of desert country.
Utopia paintings are highly recognized and sought after and continue to grow in richness and variety. The work of the artists of Utopia is cutting edge contemporary art. Yet it also depicts the “Dreaming”, a coded culture which tells how the ancestral spirits created, then became the land, how the land is alive and sacred. It is this duality – the visual impact of the work, coupled with its important cultural message, that ensures its place in the galleries of the world.
