page:  = Josepha <unk> <unk> = 
   
   Josepha <unk> <unk> ( born ca . 1945 or ca . 1953 , date uncertain ) is an <unk> @-@ speaking Indigenous Australian from Central Australia . Since first taking up painting around 1990 , her works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art have been acquired by several major collections including Artbank and the National Gallery of Victoria . Her paintings portray bush plum " dreaming " and women ’ s ceremonies ( known as Awelye ) . One of her paintings sold at a charity auction for A $ 22 @,@ 800 . Josepha <unk> 's works are strongly coloured and formalist in composition and regularly appear at commercial art auctions in Australia . Her art appears to have survived the huge contraction of the primary art market in Australia since 2008 . There is no existing Catalogue raisonné of Josepha <unk> 's artworks , to date , no fakes have been cited . 
   
   = = Personal background = = 
   
   Josepha <unk> <unk> is an <unk> @-@ speaking Indigenous Australian , born around 1945 or 1953 at the Santa Teresa Mission , near Alice Springs in Australia 's Northern Territory . 
   When Josepha <unk> began painting for <unk> Gallery in central Australia , she indicated that her name was Josepha rather than Josie , and that this was how she henceforth wished to be known ; however <unk> 's biography is the only source that has used that version of her name . 
   After marrying Robin Petyarre , brother of artist Gloria Petyarre , Josepha <unk> moved to the region of Utopia , north @-@ east of Alice Springs , which is where she was living when she began painting around 1990 . They had seven children , one of whom , Damien <unk> , went on to become an artist like his mother . By 2008 , Josie <unk> 's husband had died , and <unk> was dividing her time between Alice Springs and Harts Range , to its north @-@ east . 
   
   = = Professional background = = 
   
   Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began in 1971 when Indigenous men at Papunya created murals and canvases using western art materials , assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon . Their work , which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures , rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia , particularly after the introduction of a government @-@ sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983 . By the 1980s and ' 90s , such work was being exhibited internationally . The first artists , including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula artists ' company , were men , and there was resistance among the Pintupi men of central Australia to women also painting . However , many of the women wished to participate , and in the 1990s many of them began to paint . In the western desert communities such as Utopia , Kintore , Yuendumu , Balgo , and on the outstations , people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale . 
   
   = = = Career = = = 
   
   Josepha <unk> began painting about 1990 or 1992 as part of the contemporary Indigenous art movement that had begun at Papunya in the 1970s . By 1998 her work was being collected by both private and public institutions , such as Charles Sturt University , and in 2005 a work was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria . Her career received a significant boost when her work was included in the National Gallery of Victoria 's 2006 Landmarks exhibition and its catalogue ; her painting was printed opposite that of <unk> Tommy Watson , who was by this time famous , particularly for his contribution to the design of a new building for the Musée du quai Branly . <unk> 's paintings have been included at exhibitions in several private galleries in Melbourne and Hong Kong , as well as at the Australian embassy in Washington in 2001 . 
   In 2006 a commissioned work by <unk> was exhibited at Shalom College at the University of New South Wales as part of a charity fundraising exhibition . It sold for A $ 22 @,@ 000 . As of the end of 2008 , the highest recorded auction price for an item of <unk> 's work was $ 22 @,@ 800 , set in May 2007 . An image based on a triptych by <unk> , Bush Berries , appears on the cover of a book on the visual perception of motion , Motion Vision . 
   Central Australian artists frequently paint particular " dreamings " , or stories , for which they have responsibility or rights . These stories are used to pass " important knowledge , cultural values and belief systems " from generation to generation . Paintings by <unk> portray two different groups of dreamings , rendered in two distinct styles . Bush plum dreaming represents a plant of the central Australian desert which is " a source of physical and spiritual sustenance , reminding [ the local Indigenous people ] of the sacredness of [ their ] country " . These paintings are undertaken with red , blue and orange dots that represent the fruit at different stages in its development . She also paints women ’ s ceremonies ( Awelye ) and dreamings , and these are created using rows of coloured dots and include representations of women 's ceremonial iconography . 
   Journalist Zelda Cawthorne described <unk> as one of the " finest contemporary Aboriginal artists " . Art consultant Adrian Newstead has ranked her as amongst the country 's top 200 Indigenous artists , noting that she has become " known for innovative works that create a sense of visual harmony through fine variegated fields of immaculately applied dotting " . Her style is described by Indigenous art writers Birnberg and <unk> as an " interesting , modern interpretation of landscape " . 
   <unk> 's work is held in a variety of public and private collections , including Artbank , the Charles Sturt University Collection , the Holmes a Court Collection , and the National Gallery of Victoria . 
   
   