Sandra Ken Biography

DOB: 1968 

Born: Amata, SA 

Language Group: Pitjantjatjara

Community: Rocket Bore, NT (APY Lands)

Sandra Ken Mick was born in 1968 and is from the remote and renowned artist community of Amata, South Australia. Amata is located within the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands) in the far north-west of South Australia. Sandra lives with her husband Dick and her four children. Sandra’s early painting experiences developed from art centres in her local community and the artist now continues to paint her innate Dreaming within her community, to illustrate the sacred lands and natural formations within her Country.

Sandra Ken is most recognised for her depictions of ‘Seven Sisters Dreaming’ which is a story about family protecting and teaching one another other. It tells of the women being chased by an ancestral man who is in love with them. To escape, the sisters ascend into the sky as stars and the ancestral man remains, still chasing the love of the seven sisters today.

Sandra is an incredible artist in her own right but is also recognised and highly regarded for her contribution in the collaborative work that she created along with her sisters Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Freda Brady and Maringka Tunkin famously known as the “Ken Sisters”, that won the prestigious 2016 Art Gallery of NSW Wynne Prize.