Carolanne Ken

Carolanne Ken was born in 1971 and resides in Fregon, located in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands. Carloanne went to school in Fregon and Ingle Farm High School in Adelaide where she graduated in 1986. Carolanne commenced painting in 2004 at Kaltjiti Arts where she used to assist in studio management before devoting her time to painting full time. Carolanne has one son, Clive and one granddaughter.

Carolanne paints Minma Malilu which was passed down to her through her maternal grandmother. The large roundels represent the cave of Minyma Malilu. Malilu was an ancestral woman who was travelling the country trying to regain one of her daughters who had run away with the ‘wrong man’. It was here at this area that she dug out this cave with her piti (coolamon) to build a big wiltja (shelter). The fluid brush strokes across Carolanne’s canvas represent the digging marks created by Minyma Malilu as she dug this cave. This is Carolanne’s grandmother’s country.

Carolanne is a highly regarded artist and her work was projected onto the Sydney Opera House in 2019.