Gloria 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 is the sister of Kathleen Petyarre, Ada Bird Petyarre, Nancy Petyarre, Myrtle Petyarre, Jeannie Petyarre and Violet Petyarre.

Gloria paints the traditional women business subjects, which are predominant in Utopia. The store of white understanding is heavily influenced by the sex of the contact. In Papunya the contact was Geoffrey Bardon, therefore most of the original artist were male. In Utopia the arts advisor was female, allowing the female artists of this area to flourish.

She continues to develop her paintings to higher levels of abstraction, continually experimenting with line and color. She says she prefers the greater freedom and control she finds with the medium of acrylic on canvas. several of her works now have no dots at all, but bands of different color whose optical effects have evoked comparison to the British artist Bridget Riley.

Her main Dreamings that she paints are the Mountain Devil Lizard, Bean, Emu, Pencil Yam, Grass Seed and Small Brown Grass and well as the traditional body paint designs worn by women.

In 1990 she traveled to Ireland, London and India as a representative of the Utopia Women in the 'Utopia - A picture Story' exhibition. (Tandanya, Adelaide, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin Ireland and the Meat Market Gallery in Melbourne.)

In 1991 she had her first solo exhibition at Utopia Art in Sydney. Since then she has exhibited at the National Gallery in Canberra, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jinta Desert Art in Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

She is also featured extensively in major collections around the world. The National Gallery of Australia, the Robert Holmes a' Court Collection, Museum of Victoria and the Powerhouse Museum.