Jimmy Pike

Skin Name: Kurnti Kujarri

Dreaming: Walmajarri Dreaming

Walmadjari artist Jimmy Pike was born west of Japinka, an important waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert. His early life was spent living a traditional nomadic and he did not meet European Australians until he was in his teenage years and his family joined the last migration out of the desert to European settlements during the 1950’s. Pike would go on to become a stockman.

Pike first began to draw and paint in 1980 after he began to attended art classes while he was incarnated at Fremantle Prison. The art teachers of the prison Stephen Culley and David Wroth would later form Desert Design, a design company that transposed Pike’s traditional imagery and patterns onto fabric, clothing and domestic items.

He later met his wife psychologist and writer Pat Lowe in Broome and they would go on to collaborated on a number of books including ‘Jilji: Life in the Great Sandy Desert’ (1990), ‘Yinti: Desert Child’ (1992), ‘Jimmy and Pat meet the Queen’ (1997) and ‘Desert Cowboy’ (2000).

An important participant in the Native title canvas project, Ngurrara 1 and 2. Pike had a number of solo exhibitions throughout his career including a major solo exhibition of his work at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth in 1996. Pike was also a part of numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.