- Artist: Maria Josette Orsto
- Art Centre: Tiwi Design
- Region: Tiwi Islands
Artwork Story
Maria Josette Orsto is the daughter of Declan Apuatimi and Jean Baptiste Apuatimi. She was just six years old when the Tiwi Design art cooperative was established on the Tiwi Islands in 1968. Orsto was taught to paint and carve by her father and was the first female artist to become a formal member of the cooperative. She began by assisting her father, and she is recognised today as a versatile and prolific artist who works in a variety of media and techniques, including painting, batik-printmaking and wood sculpture.
Orsto’s painting style has developed over several decades. Initially, her work reflected her father’s bold style. Recently, however, she has developed a more subtle, subdued style of painting. Small dots and lines intimately positioned across the canvas give detailed impressions of the surface of an object or the land or reference the surface of the spiritual realm. Her work alludes to the small glimpses of power, sheen and shimmer of the ancestral realm.
Franchesca Cubillo – Senior Curator National Gallery of Australia
I find more life in doing art work. My father, Declan Apuatimi, taught me to paint and carve. I am happy that I became an artist. My designs are growing stronger. I am always building up a new design in my head – sometimes I combine old Tiwi designs with my new ones.
Maria Josette Orsto
Artist statement for her work in 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 2009.
Orsto’s work is held in Australian and international private collections and in numerous public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Australian Embassy, Paris; and Seattle Art Museum, Washington and numerous private collections.