Rita Kemarr Beasley is an Alyawarr artist from the communityof Wutunugurra (Epenarra). Known for her energetic and expressive style Rita creates loose and evocative depictions of Country using large blocks of colour in a palette inspired by her Country. She builds layers and layers of paint when she works, dotting laboriously over a section of canvas only to paint over it again in a new colour. While sometimes her paintings are finished with her first few strokes, more often Rita's intuitive process means her paintings can go through many evolutions, forming and re-forming, until the work reaches a state of completion she is satisfied with. Watching her paint, a viewer will see many apparently promising paintings appear and then be covered over, the final product often being entirely different from where she first began. The topography of thick marks and ridges of paint on the finished canvas is the only remaining evidence of the hidden paintings underneath.

Rita's work frequently depicts sturdy trees whose thick white trunks stand starkly against her richly coloured backgrounds. These bright eucalypts flourish in the landscape surrounding Wutunugurra and feature in varied forms in the works of many of the Epenarra artists.

Rita was born at Nurrett (Hatches Creek) in Iytwelepwenty (Davenport Ranges), circa 1951. Their mother was Nellie Ngwarrey Beasley and their father, Tommy Pula Beasley (Blind Tommy), was a rainmaker.

At some point prior to 1958, when Tommy and Nellie were first named in the census of Epenarra Station, they and their growing family (they would eventually have nine children in total) walked the 80 or so kilometres from Nurrett (Hatches Creek) to Epenarra Station. During those ration days, the family undertook a variety of work at the station, including cleaning and housekeeping, collecting wood and as station hands. Rita has vivid memories of rounding up cattle on the station horses as well as working as housekeepers.

Rita has remained in the Wutunugurra community for her entire life. She began painting infrequently in the early 2000s, when outreach programmes first brought art workshops to the Wutunugurra community. In 2012, Barkly Regional Arts established a permanent art studio in Wutunugurra and since then Rita has been painting on an almost daily basis alongside two of her sisters, Jessie Kemarr Peterson, Jessie Kemarr Beasley & Topsy Kemarre Beasley. Rita has had a vision impairment in one eye since birth, and at first painted under the guidance of her sisters. However, her natural fluency with materials and colours has continued to develop into a confident and entirely individual approach to painting.

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Group Exhibitions

2025 Four Art Centres from the Barkly - Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts and Culture Centre, Katherine.

2024 Reclaimed: Art From Barkly - Cooee Art Leven, Sydney.

2024 Barkly Groundswell - cbOne Gallery, Melbourne.

2024 Barkly Artists - Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.

2024 Rita and Julie - Coconut Studios, Darwin.

2023 All that glitters... poetics of the Barkly - Coconut Studios, Darwin

2023 All Around Wutunugurra - Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek

2022 National Emerging Artist Prize, Finalist Exhibition - Micheal Reid Art Bar, Sydney

2022 Alpeyt Mwerrangker: Good Blossoms - Cooee Redfern2022 Desert Mob - Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

2022 Salon de Refuges - Salon Art Projects, Darwin

2022 Art on Country: Works from the Barkly - Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Tennant Creek

2022 Barkly Artists - Japingka Gallery, Fremantle

2009 Barkly Showcase - Tarnarthi Festival, Adelaide

2009 Mwerrangker art from the Silver Bullets - Birrung Gallery, Sydney

2009 Epenarra Exhibition - Bleeding Heart Gallery, Brisbane

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Awards

2022 Finalist, National Emerging Artist Prize