ELIZABETH CLOSE ARTS
ARTIST BIO
Elizabeth Yanyi Close is an Anangu woman from the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Language Groups, whose family links are to the communities of Pukutja and Amata in the APY Lands. Elizabeth was born in Adelaide but grew up in outback SA, returning to Adelaide to complete her secondary schooling, and attend University to complete a Bachelor of Nursing and a Graduate Certificate in Emergency Nursing. Elizabeth worked as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department of a busy Adelaide Metropolitan Hospital for a decade, while using art as a means of processing intergenerational trauma and its impact on her family. In 2007, Elizabeth began to paint professionally and exhibit her work throughout Adelaide and her practice organically grew as she balanced nursing, art and motherhood. By 2014 she had built up a full-time arts practice, and after the birth of their second child, Elizabeth and her husband decided to move home to the APY so that they could immerse their children in their Culture and language. Elizabeth reconnected with much of her Grandmothers family and learned much more about her family, her Tjukurpa and her Country from her Tjamu. This growth as an Aboriginal woman was profoundly reflected in the evolution of her artwork. Elizabeth is based in Adelaide and has three Purungu Skin Anangu children; Isaiah Yungana, Emmeline Tjikatu and Bentji Nganantju.
ARTIST CV
2006 - present Freelance Professional Visual Artist
2021 - 2025 Board Member, South Australian Living Artists Festival
2021 - present Peer Assessor, Creative Australia
2018 - present Peer Assessor, and Panel Chair; Arts South Australia
Achievements
2022 Heysen Landscape Prize - finalist
2021 Adelaide Hills Landscape Prize - finalist
2020 Heysen Landscape Prize - finalist
2020 Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize - South Australian Museum - finalist
2020 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award for Contribution to the Arts - City of Port Adelaide Enfield
Finalist - Our Mob - 2022 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2015 | 2011
Notable Exhibitions
‘Tarnanthi’ - Art Gallery of South Australia - October 2023
'Ngura' - 80:20 Agency; Sydney - April 2023
'Our Mob' - Adelaide Festival Centre - October 2022
'Take Nothing; Leave Nothing' - Guildhouse and SALA 2022 - Yugondi Gallery
'While You Were Sleeping - Volume Two' - aMBUSH Gallery Kambri, Canberra - June 2022
'LT3' - Tarnanthi - Hahndorf Academy - October 2021
'Mirdilyayanthi' - Tarnanthi 2021 - October 2021
'Adelaide X ' - Post Office Projects - September 2021
Dualities' - FELTspace - August 2021
‘Feels like Home’ - praxis ARTSPACE - November 2019
‘Our Mob’ - 2019
‘While You Were Sleeping’ - Ambush Gallery, ANU, Canberra - 2019
‘Our Mob’ - 2018
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Notable Collections and Acquisitions
The National Gallery of Australia
The University of Adelaide
SBS
The City of Prospect, Adelaide SA
The City of Marion, Adelaide SA
Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute