Gloria Petyarre was born around 1945 in her country of Atnangkere. She lived in the traditional ways before moving to one of the established settlements, Utopia. Gloria painted the traditional women business subjects, which are predominant in Utopia. She used close tonal values of different colours, creating a dynamic optical intensity. Her work features powerful structural linear patterns derived from body painting, outlined with single dots. At other times the structural pattern becomes submerged in a sea of dots, the tonal relationships causing the structural pattern to dissolve into the base design of her painting.

Her main Dreaming’s that she painted were the Mountain Devil Lizard, Bean, Emu, Pencil Yam, Grass Seed and Small Brown Grass as well as the traditional body paint designs worn by women. Gloria’s work was exhibited at the National Gallery in Canberra, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. She was also featured extensively in major collections around the world. She passed away in 2021.