Who was Sally Gabori?
Sally Gabori was a Kaiadilt artist from Bentinck Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland. She began painting in her eighties and became one of Australia's most admired contemporary artists.
Born around 1924 on Bentinck Island, Gabori lived a traditional life until 1948, when the Kaiadilt people were moved to the Presbyterian mission on Mornington Island after a cyclone and tidal surge damaged their island.
In 2005, at around 81 years old, she first painted at the Mornington Island Arts and Crafts Centre. Over the next decade, she produced around 2,000 paintings.
Colour and country
Her bold, abstract paintings use vivid blocks of colour to represent places on Bentinck Island, including her father's country and Dibirdibi, her husband's country.
Major exhibitions were held in Brisbane, Melbourne and at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in 2022.
She died in 2015, just a decade after picking up a brush, but her work changed how many people think about late-career artists and Aboriginal abstraction.
The Kaiadilt were among the last Aboriginal groups to have sustained contact with Europeans, and Gabori's paintings record memories of places she could rarely revisit. Works by her are held by the National Gallery of Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Did You Know?
Gabori painted with other Kaiadilt women, creating large collaborative works.