Lorna Fencer Napurrula

Lorna Fencer Napurrula was born c.1920 and passed away 6th December, 2006.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula's works in acrylic over the last twenty years of her life was notable for its extravagant, abstract and sensual qualities and caught the attention of art collectors from around the world. Her work was exhibited at the United Nations in New York and in the Australian Embassy in Washington.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula was born into the Warlpiri traditional life style in the Tanami desert in Central Australia.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula was a painter most of her life; a skilled painter of decorative body designs for women’s ceremony. In 1986 she joined the Warnayaka Art and with her counterpart Emily Kame Kngwarreye she pioneered the women’s art movement away from the traditional iconography.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula's seniority in her tribe and her strength of character is reflected in her paintings. Lorna visually described the important information on when and where to gather food with her distinctive style, which is characterised by liberal quantities of paint and layering of colours one upon the other, with an exuberance and depth not often seen in paintings from this region. Her work is highly valued.

(Please note in respect for the Narpurrula family, Central Art has removed all portrait photographs of this artist. This is in recognition of Aboriginal custom and cultural practices.)

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Collections:

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Aboriginal Galleries of Australia
Artbank
Australian Heritage Commission Collection, Canberra
Museum and Art Galleries of Northern Territory, Darwin
Christensen Collection, held by Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Holmes a Court Collection of Western Australia
Perth Museum
Margaret Carnegie Collection

Exhibitions:

1988 Hilton International Hotel, Adelaide
1990 Robert Holmes a Court Collection, touring U.S.A.
1990 S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1991 High Court, Canberra
1991 Australian Embassy, Washington, U.S.A.
"Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu", Batchelor College, Tennant Creek, N.T.
1994 Gabriel Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1998 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1999 Embassy of Australia, Washington, U.S.A.
1999, 2000 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne
1999 Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, N.S.W.
1999, 2000 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne
2001 Tandanya, Adelaide
2001 "Icons of Australian Aboriginal Art", Singapore
2002 Perth

Awards:

Gold Coast City Art Award
Included in triennial John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize in 1998

Central Art Exhibitions:

Source: Kreczmanski, Janusz B & Birnberg, Margo (eds.): Aboriginal Artists: Dictionary of Biographies: Central Desert, Western Desert & Kimberley Region (JB Publishing Australia, Marleston, 2004)

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