Aboriginal Art Store Website

Terrence Clyne

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:22:34 +0930

Terrence was born in Alice Springs on the 29th of January 1985, however his homelands is Watarrka Terrence resides at the Ulpanyali community, which was many opportunities to develop livelihoods and share their knowledge. Terrence from an early age had the opportunities to watch skilfully his father and grandfathers make traditional weapons.

Charmaine Pwerle

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:59:48 +0930

Charmaine Pwerle is the daughter of artist Barbara Weir and granddaughter of Minnie Pwerle. Charmaine was born in Alice Springs in 1975 and has four daughters and a step-daughter. Her early primary years was spend at the Utopia school. Charmaine high school education was spend between St. Phillips College and the Alice Springs High school. She also studied in Adelaide a short time before returning to Utopia in Central Australia. In 1992, Charmaine worked for Urapuntja Council as the junior administration assistant. During this time Charmaine lived with her mother Barbara Weir and grandparents Minnie Pwerle and Motorcar Jim at Soakage Bore - an outstation on Utopia Station. There Charmaine had this wonderful opportunity to learn about her heritage and performed in ceremonies, and sacred stories have been passed on to her from her grandmothers, which she now expresses in the art. Ever since Charmaine can remember, she has always been surrounded by artists including great aunt the Emily Kngwarreye, Petyarre sisters, her mother Barbara Weir and grandmother Minnie Pwerle. And with this influence Charmaine was destined to eventually follow the family tradition of becoming an artist. For the Utopian artists culturally it important the younger generation to continue to paint so the Dreamings are ever forgotten. Sabine Haider, owner of Central Art- Aboriginal Art Store says -" I believe strongly in Charmaine, emerging artist and in time she will develop as an known artist in her own right". " She has the same artistic vision as her mother and its in her veins, like her brother Fred Torres and sister Therese Purla." In 2010, Charmaine's two daughters modelled unique jewellery items which depicted significant art pieces from their great aunt and grandmothers for Sabine at Central Art in Alice Springs.

Marie Elena Ellis

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:38:05 +0930

We are currently are still collating information for this artist.

Eddie Tjapangarti Ediminja

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:08:14 +0930

Eddie Tjapangarti Ediminja was born c.1920 at Ulpunyali, which is located in the south-west of the Northern Territory a distance of about 1310km south from Darwin. He is also known as Eddie Edimintja; Eddie Edaminja; Eddie Edeminja; Eddie Etaminja Born west of Watakarra (King Canyon), Eddie’s language was Pitjantjatjara and his country Walu, east of Tjuninyanta. Towards the end of his life Eddie lived at Docker River. In his youth Eddie worked as a stockman on various stations including Middleton Downs, Orange Creek and Haasts Bluff. Eddie started painting in the mid ’70s. He was an associate of Limpi Tjapangati , with whom he lived at Haasts Bluff during the mid ’80s. For a time in the late ’80s he lived at Tjukula, between Docker River and Kintore. Eddie painted the Two Women Dreaming and the Three Men Lying Behind Windbreaks. Because of failing eyesight, his two sons Rex and Donald Eddie began helping him with his painting. His work has been exhibited and bought in Adelaide and Alice Springs.

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:41:25 +0930

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was born in 1932 and passed away on the 21st of June 200. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was an Australian Aboriginal painter, considered to be one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and world-wide. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was the most famous of the contemporary artists who lived around Papunya, in the Northern Territory's Western Desert area, when the acrylic painting style (known popularly as "dot art") was initiated. Geoffrey Bardon came to Papunya in the early 1970s and encouraged the Aboriginal people to put their dreaming stories on canvas, stories which had previously been depicted ephemerally on the ground. Clifford Possum emerged as one of the leaders in this school of painting, which has come to be called Papunya Tula. Possum was of the Anmatyerre culture-linguistic group from around Alherramp (Laramba) community. He was of the Peltharr skin. When it held an exhibition of his work in 2004, the Art Gallery of New South Wales described his artistic background: He was an expert wood-carver and took up painting long before the emergence of the Papunya Tula School in the early 1970s. When Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri joined this group of 'dot and circle' painters early in 1972 he immediately distinguished himself as one of its most talented members and went on to create some of the largest and most complex paintings ever produced. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri led a ground breaking career and was amongst the vanguard of Indigenous Australian artists to be recognised by the international art world. Like Albert Namatjira before him, Clifford Possum blazed a trail for future generations of Indigenous artists; bridging the gap between Aboriginal art and contemporary Australian art. Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri died in Alice Springs on the day he was scheduled to receive the Order of Australia for his contribution to art and to the Indigenous community. His obituaries, which appeared in newspapers around the world, generally referred to him as Clifford Possum and gave his age as about 70. While his year of birth is considered to be approximately correct, the day and month remained undocumented. His two daughters, Gabrielle Possum Nungurrayi and Michelle Possum Nungurrayi are renowned artists in their own right. There was legal controversy surrounding his burial, as his surviving family and community maintained he wished to be buried in a location different from that specified in his will He was buried at Yuelamu, which had been the preference of his community and daughters, several weeks after his death. Posthumously, Tjapaltjarri's works are drawing increasing attention. The artist's majestic painting Warlugulong (previously bought by the Commonwealth Bank for just $1200) was auctioned by Sothebys on 24 July 2007. Pre-auction, the work was expected to make art history as the most expensive Aboriginal canvas at auction. The work was tipped to fetch up to A$2.5 million, more than double the then-record for Aboriginal art at auction. The work in fact sold for $2.4 million and the day after the auction it was revealed that the National Gallery of Australia was the buyer.. The Gallery's purchase eased tensions of a rumoured Government legal intervention had the work been purchased by an overseas buyer, out of concern that significant indigenous art would be "lost" overseas. Sabine Haider from Central Art in Alice Springs said: "I feel very privileged to have known Clifford Possum. When I met Clifford, I was only very new to the art industry. I learnt a lot from him. . He had such a great sense a humour. and we laughed a lot. One thing that will always be in my mind is the story he told me, when he met Queen Elizabeth and chatted with her over a a cup of tea. He really was chuffed about that and proud. When I look at some of my old photos of him, I always smile and it takes me back to all the great conversations and times I spend with him. He was great master in my eyes and an incredible proud man of his Aboriginal heritage."

Hilary Wirrie

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:43:26 +0930

We are currently collecting bibliography details on the artist.

William Sandy

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:03:33 +0930

William Sandy was born c.1944 near Ernabella in South Australia. William Sandy started to paint in 1975. From the early 1980s, he began painting for the Papunya Tula Artists. William Sandy has lived in Areyonga and Haasts Bluff and since 1973 at Papunya in central Australia. William moved to Papunya in 1973 and two years later did his first painting for Papunya Tula Artists, after teaching himself to paint by watching the older artists. At Papunya he married Violet Nakamarra, the sister of Michael Nelson Jagamarra, who is also a well know Aboriginal artist. William Sandy was the first of the Pitjantjatjara involved in the contemporary art movement. From the early 1980s, he began painting for the Papunya Tula Artists. William Sandy is also a very knowledgeable, traditional medicine man.

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:41:48 +0930

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, was born c.1927 at Ilpitirri near Mount Denison. Billy Stockman is one of Australia's best-known artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, or Papunya Tula. His mother was killed in the Coniston Massacre in 1928; his father was away from the camp hunting and survived. Billy was raised on Napperby Station by his auntie, the mother of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. In the 1960s he was working as a cook at Papunya when many of the Pintupi people were brought in from the west. Like Clifford he began his artistic career carving wooden animals for the arts and crafts marketplace. He is credited with being one of the men who painted the Honey Ant Dreaming on the wall of the Papunya School at Geoff Bardon's request. He was, in the '70s, one of the first chairmen of Papunya Tula Pty Ltd. He later moved west to Ilili, a pioneer in the country camp movement, although in his later years he has spent much time in Alice Springs. He travelled to New York in 1988 for the opening of the "Dreamings" show at the Asia Society and, along with Michael Nelson Jagamarra, created a sand painting as part of the exhibition. Billy Stockman is now in his mid-eighties, frail and living in the Hettie Perkins Home Aged Care in Alice, his painting days long behind him.

Mick Namararri Tjapaltjarri

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:57:45 +0930

Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri was born c.1926 at Marnpi south-east of Kintore in the Western Desert, is one of the most important painters to emerge from the Western Desert since 1971. From the Pintupi language group, Mick lived in the bush with his two sisters, grandmother, and parents. His father went out hunting one day and when he didn’t return, the family found him speared in the back by “a revenge party”. Out of grief, his grandmother built a fire and threw herself on it. Although Mick tried to pull her out, it was too late. It was the 1920s and Mick was 7 or 8 years old but we will never know for sure. He said, “We didn’t know about years then.” Mick’s mother became the 4th wife of a man named Kamatu, one of the leading Pintupi men in the region, who adopted Mick and his sisters. Mick went through initiation and became an important member of his community. When Haasts Bluff became a cattle station, he went to work in the industry, working for a stockman. In the early 1960s, he was removed to Papunya and became one of its original painters when Geoff Bardon arrived. He was the subject of Geoff Bardon's documentary film, Mick and the Moon. Family Moon Dreaming, a painting in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection, UVA, was created for Geoff Bardon’s documentary. Paintings on art board are the artist’s earliest works. Compared to his later works, the early works are brighter colours with a larger variety of details. Orange was used by many of the artists because that is the colour of the countryside. When the sun sets and hits the sand, it is as orange as the paintings depict. More subdued colours began being used when an art marketer suggested the paintings would sell better that way. From early figurative works, he moved on to creating large geometric designs that typified Papunya Tula art in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1990s he began producing "minimalist" paintings that depicted the imprint of a kangaroo in the sand, the seeds that the marsupial mouse feeds upon, or the aftermath of hailstorms in the desert. He died in Alice Springs in 1998, survived by his wife Elizabeth Nakamarra Marks and his daughter Angeline Nungurrayi.

Gloria Doolan

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:43:00 +0930

I was born in Alice Springs and when I was one or two years old we moved around a lot to places where my parents were working. When I was almost three years old my family and I moved to Mt Isa in Queensland. When I was fifteen we came back to Alice and moved out to Santa Teresa and that's where I showed my true side of being an artist. I started painting banners for the church at Santa Teresa for special feast days. In Keringke Art Centre was started. We did screen-printing, silk painting and lino-printing on T-shirts. That's when I first started painting. I remember when I first saw a dot painting I couldn't understand the meaning of the design but just saw a pretty painting. I started to learn what its meanings were when my cousin sister started telling us the stories as she was doing the paintings. This is how we find our true selves and who we are. Now I am really glad I've learnt to look and listen.

Josie Kunoth Petyarre

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:37:47 +0930

Josie Petyarre was born at Ahalkere in Utopia. Some biographies give the year 1954. (The Australian Census lists a Josie Pitjara b.1959 to father Alec Ngwarai, Aranda, b.1925, mother Polly Ngale, Aranda b.1936. Siblings: Maisie, Sammy, Audrey, David.) Josie Petyarre was living at Alhalpere Store, Utopia, in 1987 when she was a batik artist contributing to the Utopia batik project and book (Utopia – A Picture Story). In 2008 she was living at the Utopia outstation of Pungalindum with her husband Dinni Kemarre and her adult children. Josie has painted and exhibited since the late 1980s after the CAAMA’s Summer Project Exhibition. Her past painting subjects were typically 'Women’s Ceremonial Body Paint’ but she also painted 'Yam Dreaming’ and 'Alhalkere Country’ (Leonard Joel, Oct. 2004, lot 396). In 2005, Josie began making sculptures of animals, figures in ceremonial dress, cars and daily objects from Utopia, and was soon joined by Dinni, formerly a stock-man. Dinni and Petyarre then worked collaboratively to produce wildly coloured painted wood sculptures of quirky objects incorporating contemporary themes. In 2006 they produced painted sculptures of Australian Rules footballers from each team and these were exhibited in 2007 at AFL World, Melbourne. Josie and Dinni attended the AFL World exhibition and the football grand final, leading Josie to produce realist paintings of Melbourne. In 2008, Josie and Dinni were joint finalists in the X strata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, with brightly painted sculptures of everyday objects such as tables and chairs and a police wagon.

Sheree Doolan

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:36:27 +0930

Sheree Doolan was born on the 9th of March 1983 in Alice Springs. Sheree spend her early childhood at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia. Sheree was influenced to paint from her Aunties Marlene and Jane Doolan, who are established artists in art industry. Sheree has been producing contemporary art since 2002. With the use of acrylics her work involves depicting significant elements connected to her homeland, such as wild flowers,seeds and pods.

Brian Young Jagamarra

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:14:17 +0930

Brian Young Jagamarra was born in 1974 and has been painting seriously since 2009. He was taught the stories from the elders of his tribe, and transforms these Dreamings onto canvas. Mostly he enjoys paintings his grandmothers and great grandfathers stories of the Simpson Desert.

Yangkuyi Anderson Loyd

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:08:08 +0930

Central Art apologies for not being able to provide any biography detail on this artist.

Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:21:34 +0930

Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek was born c.1926 and passed away on the 4th December 2004. Bardayal Lofty Nadjamerrek was born in 1926 in the Mann River area of Central Arnhem Land. He spent his younger years growing up in this area, learning the traditional Aboriginal ways of living. Lofty did not attend school but developed his knowledge in the traditional sense of his people. Lofty had a wide knowledge of the stories of his people and is custodian to many of them. He took part in many ceremonies although his age didn't not allow him to attend all that he wishes. Lofty was married man, with five daughters and three sons. None of his children however paint. As a young man Lofty worked at road construction and in the sawmill at Oenpelli. Lofty was consistent painter, until failing eyesight, caused by Trachoma. His collectable works are held by various famous art galleries throughout Australia. Lofty is the only Aboriginal Artist to receive the Order Of Australia, the highest level of recognition that can be achieved in Australia. One of Bardayal’s paintings was used on the Australian 40 cent stamp issued in 1982. Bardayal has participated in nearly thirty group exhibitions since 1975 including notably; 1975, ‘Australian Bark Painting’ from the collection of Dr. Edward L. Ruhe (touring the USA): 1986, The art of the First Australians’, Kobe City Museum, Japan; 1988 ‘The inspired Dream’ Museum & Gallery of the N.T. and touring internationally; 1993-4,’Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria; 1995 ‘Rainbow, Sugarbag and Dream,’ Museum & Gallery N.T. and touring nationally.

Rover Thomas

Tue, 31 May 2011 17:56:40 +0930

Rover Thomas Joolama was born in c. 1926 and passed away on the 11th of April 1998, one of Australia's greatest Indigenous artist. He was born at Gunawaggi in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. At the age of 10 Rover and his family moved to the Kimberley where, as was usual at the time, he began work as a stockman. Later in his life Thomas lived at Turkey Creek where he and his friend Paddy Tjamati broke away from the tradition of producing tribal art on canvas and instead painted landscapes on dismembered tea chests. Thomas was awarded the John McCaughey Prize in 1990 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Thomas was one of the two Aboriginal Australians to exhibit in the Venice Biennale in 1990, alongside Trevor Nickolls. He was the subject of the important solo exhibition Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in 1994. In 2000, Thomas's work was amongst that of eight individual and collaborative groups of Indigenous Australian artists shown in the prestigious Nicholas Hall at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. The exhibition received a positive reception from Russian critics, one of whom wrote: This is an exhibition of contemporary art, not in the sense that it was done recently, but in that it is cased in the mentality, technology and philosophy of radical art of the most recent times. No one, other than the Aborigines of Australia, has succeeded in exhibiting such art at the Hermitage. Thomas and Emily Kame Kngwarreye were amongst the most successful Australian artists in the national and global art markets.

Alma Nungarrayi Granites

Tue, 31 May 2011 10:54:47 +0930

Alma Nungarrayi Granites (also known as Alma Nungarai Granites) was born 30th May 1955. Alma was born into the Warlpiri clan and lives at Yuendumu, 300 kilometres North-West of Alice Springs. She belongs to a great tradition of family painters. Her father and mother, Paddy Japaljarri Sims and Bessie Nakamarra Sims, are two of the artists who founded “Warlukurlangu Artists” in the mid 1980s. This locally owned and operated arts centre at Yuendumu, is on the southern fringes of the Tanami Desert. Alma’s paintings depict the power and majesty of the night sky. The rights to paint and pass on the knowledge of “Seven Sisters Dreaming” and “Milky Way Dreaming” have been handed down by her father, the last Japaljarri who knows all of the songs and ceremony for these dreamings. The cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, known to us now as The Pleiades, represents seven women of the Napaljarri skin group. Jukurra, the morning star, is a Jakamarra man who is in love with the seven Napaljarri sisters and is often shown chasing them across the night sky. In a final attempt to escape from him, the seven sisters ascended into the sky to become stars. Alma’s work is well represented in a number of Australian and overseas galleries that specialize in quality Aboriginal Art. A recent exhibition featured Alma, her mother Bessie and daughter Sabrina. It was titled “Mother, daughter, granddaughter: Three generations of Yuendumu Artists.”

Lorna Peterman Napaljarri

Mon, 30 May 2011 13:50:13 +0930

Lorna Peterman Napaljarri was born in 1958 at Angus Down, which is located near the Imanpa Community, 300km south west of Alice Springs in central Australia. Lorna paints bush tucker stories, such as onions, yam and honey ant. She also collects ininti seeds and gumnuts and creates amazing necklaces with painted patterns and symbols on them.

Miriam Giles Nakamarra

Thu, 26 May 2011 11:43:10 +0930

Miriam Giles Nakamarra was born in 1941 . Her country is Kaltukatjara (Docker River), which is south west of Alice Springs, near the Western Australia and Northern Territory border. Miriam Giles Nakamarra is an artist represented by the Maruku Arts and Crafts centre at Kaltukatjara. She paints bush tucker stories from her country, as well as collecting Ininti seed and gum nuts to create necklaces. She then paints the gum nuts with designs she uses in her artwork.

Rosella Namok

Sat, 21 May 2011 13:49:57 +0930

Lockhart River artist Rosella Namok was 20 years old in the late 1990s when her work first burst onto the art scene. Now 31 she enjoys a celebrated reputation among international art collectors Rosella Namok’s subjects are mindscapes of her own making, micro worlds informed by traditional law and detailed observation of nature. Impressive in their powerful immediacy, while deploying a geometric symbolism of the artist’s imagination, they embody a tactility and abstraction that addresses the artist’s sense of country and her connection to it. Namok paints her much loved Lockhart River lands, a former mission settlement 800 km north of Cairns in Australia’s tropical north east. When Namok’s work first appeared on the art scene in the late 1990s, it was unlike any of the dot paintings so characteristic of Indigenous contemporary art. Instead it heralded an exciting new direction in art practice, reassuring collectors that public confidence in Indigenous art was anything but on a downward spiral. Says Sydney Morning Herald art critic John McDonald: ‘She appeared at a time when Aboriginal art seemed to have no clear succession … it was absolutely vital that Aboriginal art got an injection from youth at that stage … bold and abstract and raw and simple, Namok’s paintings absolutely passed muster as contemporary art, and when you learnt they were by a 20-year-old, it was a complete breaking of the mould.’ ‘I paint mainly about clan groups, country, family and what people do; says Namok. Other subjects include the seasons – the dry and the wet – rainforest, camping and tourists when they come through. I also paint about the stories people tell me about the spirits and carnival journeys to other communities. I like to use my fingers when I paint such things – sand painting has always been a favourite style’ Namok’s career as an artist began in the late 1990s soon after her return from Carins to Lockhart River at age 15. There under the stewardship of Fran and Geoff Barker, the original mangers of the Lockhart River Art Centre, she was taught to paint. It was not long before she distinguished herself from other members of the now famous Lockhart River Art Gang. This group today includes Samantha Hobson, Fiona Omeenyo, Silas Hobson, Terry Platt, Patrick Butcher and Adrian King. Namok is now married with two children, and her life is divided between Cairns and Lockhart. Although her home and studio are in Cairns, she regularly visits Lockhart to renew connection to country, family and friends. She works on canvases that are laid out on the ground using techniques which draw upon both Western contemporary art and indigenous art practice. As well as these she deploys finger painting which is used locally for ceremonial body painting, a practice that is widely incorporated into the work of celebrated Central Desert artists like Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle and Eileen Stevens. Body painting resides at the heart of ceremonial practice in traditional Aboriginal culture, it goes hand in hand with the creation of sand paintings or the sculpting in low-relief in traditional design, areas that are used for ceremonial dance. The marks or patterns used on the body and on the ceremonial ground are highly symbolic. They embody arcane and sacred meanings which have been handed down by Aboriginal people through the oral transmission of Dreaming culture for many aeons. Namok learnt body painting from her father who was the painter of dancer’s bodies for traditional tribal ceremony at Lockhart River. She often helped him to do this as a child smearing clay onto the body and working it with the fingers to create the appropriate designs. Interestingly, transference of the tactility of this expression informs her current art practice, where the canvas is treated as skin and acts as a tableau for ceremonial decoration or ritual. Consequently, in Namok’s work we observe both decorative finger painting as well as “scraping” of the surface. The scaping could be seen to be a symbolic scarring of the skin – both practises are reminiscent of traditional ceremonial and initiation practice in Aboriginal culture. Rosella Namok autographing a copy of Our Way – Contemporary Art from Lockhart River, at the book launch in Lockhart The artist’s elegant rive-panel series, titled Old Girl, evokes directly the finger painting technique of ceremony. An essay in organic minimalist flow, the black paint overlay when painted with fingers reveals beneath a background of pinks, orange-reds and white. These subtly coalesce and delineate the parallel wavy lines in colour bands that flow harmonically from one end of the canvas to another. They are a symbolic reference to ceremonial knowledge that has been passed on to Namok by senior Law Women of her community. She is concerned that the influence of tribal elders is not exercised strongly in the community today as the majority have passed away. In a positive sense, she regards her work as one way of recording and transferring the sacred Indigenous knowledge of her people to future generations. Her paintings often address issues of moiety and Law. There are six different clan groups in Lockhart and hers on her father’s side is called Arko. Each group has its own homeland where those belonging to it enjoy hunting, residential and food collecting rights. Namok’s lands are to the south of Lockhart. Her totem is the Rosella, which is named after a large bill in Lockhart where these birds live. This subject is one that she does hot paint. Her mother is from Torres Strait Island, whose country is unfamiliar and to which she consequently has little connection. Her mother died earlier in her life. She has four brothers, and one sister. The artist’s language is the Aankum Group. In Clan Groups Salt-water Side the finger painting technique or ceremony ]s expressed in landscape that speaks about (tribal) Law. Here vertical parallel lines which appear to be translucent emerge as striations in greys, blues, whites and pinks against the smooth background layer. They are revealed through finger painting over a thick multicoloured horizontal ground. Sometimes Namok chooses to paint subjects unrelated to topics of ceremony, which instead describe personal aspects of her life at Lockhart. Often these are inspired by memories, so have a nostalgic quality about them. She says: ‘I love to paint things that make me happy, like going camping and fishing.’ In these works she depicts natural features such as mud crab, paper-bark, waterfalls and black boy. These experiences and subjects can be explored in finger painting works like Mangroves Fishing up the Lockhart where a seemingly pencil strait forest of aqua blue mangroves is overlaid onto a burnt orange background, floating in space like Mimi spirit figures of the Aboriginal Dreamtime. She also uses the rhythmic design of finger paint in a series of serene sand bleached paintings that describes the ripple lines imprinted on the beach by the receding tide. Rather than removing paint with the impress of fingers, Namok uses various implements to scrape the painted surface. Stinging Rain -yah fall down is a glowing work painted in a soft palette of bleached greys. In this work, rhythmic parallel lines paced obliquely to the vertical direction, take the moody narrative forward, their razor-sharp gashes to the painted surface, created by a fine edged scraping tool. This work relates to fishing from a boat on the river during a downpour. ‘It’s always good when it starts to rain … it stings your face and stirs up the fish underneath.’ In Taywai…full moon her confident skill as printmaker reveals itself in her representation of the moon in the night sky. There are two layers in the image: the white shape of the moon is stencilled into being as the negative image of a blue streaked background while its pale blue cloud overlay is created by a second sweeping fine overlay of paint. Namok comments: ‘It’s always pleasant when you are camping to see the full moon … We call it the big damper. When it rises you can see the reflection on the water…and its always good because you can see half-daylight when you are walking on the beach’ Two years after starting to exhibit, her first successful solo show was at Sydney’s Hogarth Galleries in 1999. Helen Hansen of Hogarth Galleries with whom Namok continued to exhibit (up to its closure, August, 2010), said: ‘We saw in Rosella a grain of creativity which has flowered with her maturity and natural process as an artist. She is a good colourist and creates depth in her layering of paint.’ Namok’s winning entry in the 2004 High Court Centenary Art Prize – Today now… we all got to go by same laws is a giant nine-panel work that depicts traditional tribal law overlaid by contemporary law. It hangs in the court’s main gallery. Over the years she has held many solo exhibitions and been included in important group shows. She has been curated into over 30 national and international exhibitions, biennales and prizes. Rosella Namok is one of the youngest Aboriginal artists to achieve widespread success. Already she has a well established international art career and her paintings are represented in all major state and national institutional collections in Australia as well as the prestigious KlugheRugh Collection in Virginia, US. Rosella Namok is represented by Australian & Oceanic Art Port Douglas, Baker Gallery in Brisbane, and Niagra Gallery in Melbourne. Rosella has found herself in the position of being one of Australia’s most sought after artists.

Evelyn Young

Sat, 21 May 2011 12:48:28 +0930

Evelyn Young Perrurle was born on the 24th July 1969 in Yambah country Central Australia. Evelyn Young is an established artist and has worked with the Keringke Arts Centre for some years. now. She paints in a Keringke style, which is vibrant and highly intricate patterning, her works are reflections of land and connections of tangible and intangible energies.

Janie Kulyuru

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:55:07 +0930

We currently do not have nay biography details on this artist. The artist belongs to the Tjanpi Desert Weavers in central Australia.

Carlene Thompson

Wed, 18 May 2011 15:43:44 +0930

We do not currently have any biography details on this artist. The artist belongs to the Tjanpi Desert Weavers in Central Australia.

Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula

Tue, 03 May 2011 16:51:23 +0930

Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula (also known as Turkey Tolson) was born c.1938 and passed away in 2001. Turkey Tolson was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born near Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, Turkey Tolson was a major figure in the Papunya Tula art movement, and the longest-serving chairman of the Papunya Tula Artists company. Son of Toba Tjakamarra, one of the first Pintupi people to come into European settlements out of the Western Desert, Turkey Tolson was born near Haasts Bluff, west of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Sources differ on his birth year: researcher and art historian Vivien Johnson gives an estimate of 1938, while the National Museum of Australia suggests 1943. His mother was one of Toba's three wives: the other two (his stepmothers) are the artists Wintjiya Napaltjarri and Tjunkiya Napaltjarri. He has five half-siblings, the children of Toba and Wintjiya: sons Bundy (born 1953) and Lindsey (born 1961 and now deceased); and daughters Rubilee (born 1955), Claire (born 1958) and Eileen (born 1960). 'Tjupurrula' (in Pintupi) ) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans. Thus 'Turkey Tolson' is the element of the artist's name that is specifically his. Turkey Tolson worked in the stock camp at Haasts Bluff as a young man, and only came to know his birth country in 1959, after his initiation. He married and with his family moved to Papunya, Northern Territory at the time of its construction. His first wife died, and after remarrying in 1984 he moved to Kintore, which lies within his family's traditional country. Later in life he suffered heart trouble, and was in Alice Springs receiving dialysis treatment at the time of his death in 2001. Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began when Indigenous men at Papunya began painting in 1971, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon. Soon afterwards they established Papunya Tula, a company owned and controlled by the artists, which went on to be Australia's pre-eminent Indigenous art centre. Turkey Tolson was one of the first to paint: his name appears in the company's records in 1973. He was influential within the Papunya Tula movement and spent a period as the longest-serving chairman of the company. In addition to painting, Turkey Tolson also made prints, with an example held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. Turkey Tolson's painting style developed in two broad phases. His early work was classical, tightly controlled and with a strong sense of symmetry characterising the geometrical arrangement of symbols and the patterns of dots surrounding them. After his father's death, the artist took over ceremonial responsibility for his country. This shift to a senior place in the community was associated with a looser style and a more individualised iconography. It was during this period that he created the work Straightening spears at Ilyingaungau (1990), held by the Art Gallery of South Australia. This painting was described by Vivian Johnson as his masterpiece,[and by obituarist Rebecca Hossack as his most famous work: "a series of shimmering horizontal lines representing spears being heated and straightened over a fire by Tolson's ancestors". Major exhibitions in which Turkey Tolson's work has featured have included Papunya Tula: Out of the Australian desert at the National Museum of Australia in 2010, and Almanac: The gift of Ann Lewis AO at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, also in 2010.

Selina Teece Pwerl

Tue, 03 May 2011 16:13:05 +0930

Selina Teece Pwerl was born in 1977. Her traditional country is Antarrengeny which lies in Alyawarr country south of the Utopia region in Central Australia. She presently lives on Irrerlirre Outstation in the Arltarlpilta Region north east of Alice Springs with her husband, two children and very large extended family. Selina grew up surrounded by artists and developed her own artistic talents at a very young age. Working for the Amperlatwaty art centre Selina's work was represented in the Desart exhibitions in 2001 and 2002 in Sydney. The theme for her paintings relate to the stories from her father's country Antarrengeny. Her painting style can vary from patterns of intricate dots when illustrating a landscape of her country to bold linear work when representing body paint design.

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 16:36:35 +0930

Whole lot, that's all, whole lot, awelye, arlatyeye, ankerrthe, ntange, dingo, ankerre, intekwe, anthwerle and kame*. That's what I paint: whole lot. - Emily Kame Kngwarreye "My dreaming, pencil yam, mountain devil lizard, grass seed, dingo, emu, small plant emu food, green bean and yam seed” Emily Kngwarreye was born at Alhalkere in 1910 and raised in her traditional Anmatyerre culture. Her first contact with Europeans was in 1919. She took up painting in her late 70s while working with the Utopia Women's Batik group in 1977 and was in her 80s when she exhibited her first solo show at Coventry Gallery in 1990. Her pure talent with colour and composition was quickly recognised and the attention of critics and dealers led to a rapid uptake of her works. While it is often stated that Emily began painting late in life, it is important to remember that she had a lifetime of religious and artistic activity within her traditional culture and many thousands of years of cultural knowledge upon which to draw. The early sureness of her hand was undoubtedly a result of intuitive brilliance, but also reflects a clarity and depth of knowledge, steeped in the traditional Anmatyerre art practices of sand and body painting. Emily also had a unique and very personal vision of connection which in its realisation was capable of crossing cultural territories, changing the way that Western minds thought about Indigenous art and artists. In the book Emily Kame Kngwarreye: the Person and her Paintings (Dacou Aboriginal Gallery, Port Melbourne, 2009), her niece and fellow artist Barbara Weir spoke about how Emily worked: “She dipped that one brush into all different colours. She had one brush, then she’d put it into another colour, then dip that same brush to another colour and it all came out like this. She alternated hands in a single painting, first her left hand, then the right. Her left hand was the strongest. She often sung to the painting while painting it, depending on how she felt when she was painting, who was there, whether she had an interest” - Barbara Weir. Emily’s work walked the line between personal genius and member of a community to which all stories belonged. The demand for her work soon led to high prices which placed her in the role of provider in her community, where resources were traditionally shared. In 1992 she was awarded an Australian Artist's Creative Fellowship which could have allowed her to retire. However it was never a possibility for a woman upon whom so many depended, and she continued to paint until her death. Emily Kngwarreye painted for Yam Seed Dreaming, and yam tracks featured strongly in her works. The perennial atnwelarr (yam plant) has bright green creeping leaves, yellow flowers and white seeds, and these and the underground tuber are a staple food that the women still dig for and collect at Utopia. The first thing Emily did in beginning a painting was often to put down the yam track lines, which held special significance for her as her middle name, Kame, signifies the yellow flower of the yam plant that grows above the ground. Emily also painted for the many other dreamings mentioned above. She had a deep spiritual connection to her land at Alhalkere and many of her paintings are simply entitled ‘My Country.’ Ritual was important to her work which incorporated body painting techniques. Her brushwork was rhythmic and she often sang soft rhythmic songs while painting, assuring them of ritual coherence and giving them a place in the increase ceremonies for which she would have been responsible. As much as it lived and breathed within these ancient traditions, Emily’s body of work is very much a part of contemporary art. Her increasingly abstracted compositions built their own explorations of colour and form which engaged with, and broadened, both these worlds, and lead to comparisons with Monet and Jackson Pollock. Her later canvases grew more ambitious as she recognised the importance of the diplomatic role which had been thrust upon her with her fame. She began to take a more holistic approach to her work and instead of painting one stream of her knowledge she attempted to represent the interconnectedness of all the dreamings related to her land at Alhalkere. This universal approach led to works such as the epic ‘Earths Creation,’ now on permanent display at Mbantua gallery in Alice Springs. Emily’s paintings now command the highest prices of any Indigenous artist. ‘Earth’s Creation’ sold at auction in 2007 for $1,056,000, setting a new record for an Aboriginal artwork and a new record for an artwork by an Australian woman. Her major painting from the Final Series first exhibited in 1997 sold in 2008 for $1,100,000. Her work has toured the world and been represented at the Venice biennale. In 1998 a retrospective of her paintings was launched at the Art Gallery of Queensland, curated by Margo Neale. The retrospective travelled to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Victoria and the National Art Gallery. In February 2008 an expanded exhibition toured to Japan, the largest solo exhibition of an Australian artist to tour overseas. Emily Kame Kngwarreye died on 2 September 1996. In less than a decade, she produced over 3,000 paintings and made a unique and indelible mark on the art world. Her legacy is immeasurable, both to her community where she has paved the way for entire generations of strong, independent artists, and to the wider world, where she has forged such deep interest and provided glimpses into the breadth and depth of Aboriginal culture. Her importance in both these contexts cannot be overestimated.

Lily Lion Kngwarreye

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:41:52 +0930

Lily Lion Kngwarreye, is from the same skin group as Lucky Morton Kngwarreye and is the sister of Michelle Lion. Lily like many of the women from Utopia - started painting and developed her Dream-time stories through the medium of Batik.

Eileen Bloomfield Perrule

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:07:07 +0930

Eileen Bloomfield Perrule was born on the 1st of July 1942 at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia. She is a very quiet artist, depicting stories of Bush tucker associated with her country.

Nancy Kunoth Petyarre

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:35:45 +0930

Nancy Kunoth Petyarre was born sometime between c.1934 or c.1939 and sadly she passed away in August of 2009. She lived in Utopia, north east of Alice Springs in central Australia. The second eldest of the famous and prolific 'seven famous Petyarre sisters' of Utopia (Ada Bird passed away 2009), Myrtle Petyarre, Violet Petyarre, Jean Petyarre and most notably Kathleen Petyarre and Gloria Petyarre). Nancy Kunoth Petyarre was best-known for her fine dot designs representing the skin on the back of Arnkerrthe, the Mountain Devil Lizard. She is buried next to Emily Kame Kngwarreye in a little known spot along the Sandover Highway. It was not until she was in her forties, in the 1980s, that Nancy started painting. She worked first on batik and later on canvas. She also made carvings which have featured in many exhibitions. Her most famous works are "Mountain Devil Dreaming" and "Body Paint". Her first exhibition came when she was believed to be around 50 years old, at Sydney's S. H. Ervin Gallery as part of a group show in 1989. Central Art has removed the artists image in respect to the Petyarre family and Aboriginal culture.

Maisy Ngala

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:39:05 +0930

Central Art does not have any detail of the artist at the moment.

Johnny Possum Tjapaltjarri

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:51:01 +0930

Born in the Willowra region in c.1940 just northwest of Alice Springs, Johnny Possum is a Walpiri speaking tribal elder and the half brother of the late acclaimed artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Growing up in the bush, Johnny worked for many years as a stockman. As well as painting he was also a co-founder with ted Egan of the ‘Jangampa’ Dance and Theatre Group. Johnny’s paintings reflect his tribal tradition, depicting symbols from ceremonial patterns created on the ground and in initiation rituals. His works have been purchased by many institutions and private collectors from around the world. His Dreaming story central to this exhibition is the Possum Dreaming for which he is a guardian of the culture and holds the knowledge for his country. His half brother was the late acclaimed artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjari with whom he was very close. Johnny was a co-founder with Ted Egan of the 'Jangampa' dance and theatre group. His paintings are to be seen in numerous institutions and private collections.

Hazel Morton Kngwarreye

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:31:46 +0930

Hazel was born in 1963 into a large artistic family. Her mother, Kathleen Kamara Morton, was the second wife of Billy (Stockman) Pitjara, a renowned sculptor & painter. Initially Hazel worked in the medium of Batik along with many others, including her family, in the Utopian region in Central Australia. During this time she was involved in the batik workshops and is represented in the prestigious Holmes a Court Collection, ‘Utopia – A Picture Story’, eighty eight silk batiks which toured extensively. Her first foray into painting with acrylic on canvas began when CAAMA initiated Utopia Women’s Paintings The First Works On Canvas – A Summer Project. Her painting subjects include ‘Wild Flowers’ (Alpeyt) , ‘Women’s Ceremony’(Awelye), and ‘Rainbow’ (Mpwelarr) Dreamings. Hazel has developed her style into a very fine pattern of dot work and symbols. Her artworks have been exhibited in Australia and Internationally.

Lynette Conway

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:08:00 +0930

Lynette Conway’s style is representative for the Keringke art centre in Santa Teresa in central Australia. The artists from Santa Teresa have developed this style in the last two decades. Lynette Conway uses pattern, colour, shape and design to depict her sense of country, culture and self. The shapes and designs may have features common to ancient rock art throughout the traditional country of East Arrernte.

David Angus Jungala

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:15:19 +0930

David Angus Jungala passed away in 2010. David was a Pintupi man from Kintore in the Western Desert. He is the son of Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, an well know Papunya Tula Artist. David Angus Jungala depicted the Tingari Cycle in his work - recounting the mythological stories of the Pintupi ancestors. Naming of Aboriginal people who have passed on traditionally, this meant avoiding referring to the dead person by name directly after their death as a mark of respect — and also because it is considered too painful for the grieving family. Today the practice continues in many communities, but has also come to encompass avoiding the publication or dissemination of photography or film footage of the deceased person as well. (The 2008 film 'Australia', like many Australian television programs, includes a title card warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to 'use caution viewing this film, as it may contain images or voices of dead persons,' presumably out of respect for the cultural beliefs of said viewers.) The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as, "that old lady", or by their generic skin name, but not by first name. In some Central Australian communities, if for example, a lady named Alice passes away, that name must be avoided in all contexts, so even Alice Springs needs to be referred to in conversation in a roundabout way (which is usually fine, as the Indigenous name can be reverted to). Those of the same name as the deceased are referred to by a substitute name during the avoidance period — Kuminjay is used in the Pintubi-Luritja dialect.

Kim West Napurrula

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:45:43 +0930

Kim West Napurrula is a Pintubi woman born near Kiwirrkurra, south of Lake Mackay, in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia, in 1960. She was married to Yuendumu George. Her country is around Marrapinti, a significant Women's Dreaming site, and incorporates soakages in desert country that runs along the Northern Territory and Western Australian border. In her paintings Kim Napurrula depicts her traditional country, and the Women's ceremonies and Jukurrpa (Dreaming) of her Pintupi people. She currently lives at the community at Kiwirrkurra. Kim is a Papunya Tula Artist and her works have been exhibited around the country. Kim West Napurrula is an emerging Papunya Tula Artist. Central Art is proud to be able to showcase her works and support her throughout her career.

Takariya Napaltjarri

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:18:53 +0930

Takariya was born around 1960 or 1965 in the desert near what is now Kiwirrkurra Community, Western Australia, on the Western Australia–Northern Territory border. Sources differ regarding her birth date: the Art Gallery of New South Wales indicates 1960, while expert Vivien Johnson reports two possible years, 1960 or 1965. The ambiguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous Australians operate using a different conception of time, often estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence of other events 'Napaljarri' (in Warlpiri) or 'Napaltjarri' (in Western Desert dialects) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the subsections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australian Indigenous people. These names define kinship relationships that influence preferred marriage partners and may be associated with particular totems. Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not surnames in the sense used by Europeans. Thus 'Takariya' is the element of the artist's name that is specifically hers. Takariya's mother was Papalya Nangala and her father was Waku Tjungurrayi, whose decision to avoid contact with Europeans was responsible for the family group not entering any established settlement until 1984. Takariya's father died not long after she was born; she has siblings including older brother Warlimpirrnga Tjapaljarri and older sister Topsy Gibson Napaljarri, also an artist. Takariya married Freddy West Tjakamarra, however they later separated and she subsequently married Richard Tjakamarra and had a daughter Tatiga. Takariya Napaltjarri (also known as Takirriyanya or Doris) is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In 1996, Takariya was represented in the Papunya Women group exhibition at Utopia Art Gallery in Sydney, and in 1997 was included in the Bulada exhibition at the Art Gallery of New Wales. She has painted for the Warlayirti Artists at Balgo] as well as for Papunya Tula, the premier Indigenous art company set up by Indigenous artists in the 1970s. Her work was included in an exhibition of Papunya Tula paintings at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in 2007. Western Desert artists such as Biddy will frequently paint particular 'dreamings', or stories, for which they have personal responsibility or rights. Takariya "paints her mother's Minyma Kutjarra (Two Women) Dreaming for her country, which is south of Kiwirrkurra and includes Marrapinti, Ngalpurrunya, Ngaminya rock-hole, Karilwara rock-hole in the hills west of Pollock Hills in WA, and Wirrulnga rock-hole east of Kiwirrkura where the Tingari Women passed travelling east towards Wilkinkarra". Works by Takariya are held by the Art Gallery of New Wales, as well as in the private American collection of the Kelton Foundation.

Anne Dixon

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 13:56:38 +0930

Anne was born in Alice Springs in 1965 and grew up in Ernabella. Her family live at the Pitjantjatjara communities of Fregon and Watarru. Anne has three children:one son and two daughters. She spends time between Watarru, where her extended family live, and Alice Springs, as her husband is a teacher at Yirara Collage. Anne was inspired to learn the Tjampi coiled basketry technique after watching her mother, Wipana Jimmy, and Tinpula Mervin, practice this art-form. Although starting to weave only recently, Anne has a strong sculptural sensibility and her basket are unique and interesting. Anne enjoys working on a large scale and experimenting with new styles. her baskets and sculptures are highly sought after artworks. Tjanpi evolved from a series of basket weaving workshops held in remote communities in the Western desert by the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatatjara Women's Council in 1995. Building on traditions of using fibre for medicinal, ceremonial and daily purposes, women took easily to making coiled baskets These new-found skills were shared with relations on neighbouring communities and weaving quickly spread. Today over 400 Aboriginal women across 28 communities are making baskets and sculptures out of grass and working with fibre in this way is firmly embedded in Western and Central desert culture. While out collecting desert grasses for their fibre art, women visit scared sites and traditional homelands, hunt and gather food for their families and teach their children about country.

Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:58:45 +0930

Johnny Warangkula's (often referred to as Johnny W.) paintings encompass different layers of meaning. They represent important historical records, physical places, mythological events and ceremonies. The primary stories painted by Johnny Warangkula are the Water Dreaming, the Bungalung Man Dreaming and the Bush Tucker Dreaming. The Bungalung Man sits by the water soakage at Tjikarri – home of many of Johnny Warangkula's stories. The ‘Bungalung Men Dreaming’ is of a mythical struggle between the Bungalung and old Tingari man, where one man lights a fire and both eventually perish. Another comment made by Johnny W. describes the Bungalung Man as a giant, an oversized man of the Dreaming, whose tracks are left in the sand. Another version of this story told by Johnny, mentions the Tingari man was travelling through the desert and the Bungalung man explained he would have to leave, for it was a forbidden territory. The Tingari man challenged the old Bungalung man to a boomerang and spear throwing contest. The old man refused and said if he did not leave, he would impose on the Tingari man a rain and hailstorm. In the end the hail became so strong and hard that it killed the Tingari man and kept him from ever trespassing on the land again. The roundels represent water soakages at Tjakarri, surrounded by clouds (arc shapes) and the hail and rain (white dots). The background dot and marking/patch colours have two fold meaning, representing the traditional man’s body paint markings and the bush tucker species. Johnny Warrangkula was born in 1925 at Minjilpirri, located south of Lake Mackay and Northwest of Illpili. Nearby are two major Dreaming sites; Tijari located north of the Sandy Blight Junction, Western Australia and Kalipimpinpa, situated north-west of the Sandy Blight Junction. Johnny’s mother was of mixed Luritja/Warlpiri/Pintupi descent and his father was Luritja/Warlpiri. Johnny had a traditional bush childhood with no formal education in western schools. As a boy, Johnny remembers hiding from planes flying overhead that his people called ‘mamu’. Like many Aboriginal families at the time, Johnny and his family moved to Hermannsburg, where a mission had been established. At Hermannsburg, Johnny went through the traditional Aboriginal Law Ceremonies of initiation ‘to become a man’. At Hermannsburg, Johnny also worked as a labourer, digging the foundation for a new airport. The family moved to Haasts Bluff, where Johnny continued his labouring work, helping to build a new airport at Haasts Bluff as well as building roads to Mt.Liebig, Yuendumu and Mt.Wedge. As settlements were established, Johnny moved between various labouring jobs. Payment for his work was always in the form of ‘tucker’ or food, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sugar, tea and tobacco. Johnny and his family moved from Haasts Bluff to Papunya in 1960.Here a new Aboriginal settlement had been built. During the Queen’s visit in 1954, Nosepeg Tjupurulla and Johnny Warrangkula were chosen as the Aboriginal representatives to meet the monarch. Whilst Johnny was serving on the Papunya Council with Mick Namarai, Kingsley Tjungarrayi and Limpi Tjapangati, he met a teacher, Geoffrey Bardon. Geoffrey supplied art materials at the request of the Papunya Council members, who were keen to record their stories on a permanent medium. This decision had historical implications as the dot - art movement was born. Geoffrey Bardon referred to Johnny’s paintings as ‘tremendous illusions’ created by Johnny’s personal style of layers of dots. Johnny became known as a major artist in the Aboriginal art movement. In 1984, the Sydney Morning Herald published a photograph of the Director of the Australian National Gallery, James Mollison, next to a work by Johnny Warrangkula. James Mollison declared the work of Papunya Artists to be ‘the finest abstract art ever produced in this country’. Johnny Warrangkula has become known as the ‘Big J.W.’. In 1976, a painting by J.W. titled ‘Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa’ sold for a record $206,000. In 2000 another work by Johnny Warrangkula sold at Sotheby’s Auction house for $486,000, at the time a world record for an Aboriginal painting. For a time between the late 1980’s until the mid 1990’s, Johnny produced few works due to poor eyesight resulting from Trachoma. However, after receiving treatment, Johnny’s enthusiasm for painting was rekindled, mainly driven by his desire to record his stories for future generations and to produce an income for his extended family. Until his death in 2001, Johnny Warrangkula lived at Papunya with his wife, Gladys Napanangka and his eight daughters and two sons. Central Art has removed the photograph of the artist in respect of Aboriginal customs. Sabine Haider from Central Art says : " I feel very privileged to have know the artist and have always been fascinated with his work ".

Christine Peterson Nungala

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:45:06 +0930

Christine Peterson Nungala was born in at Papunya in central Australia. Christine Peterson now lives at Mt Liebig (Watiyawanu) with her family. Christine is part of an illustrious painting family, including her mother, Topsy Peterson, and her aunt, Lilly Kelly Napangardi. After a long bout of ill-health, Christine began painting in 2001. Her principal dreaming is Tina Tjinapa (Willy Wagtail), and her other painting subjects are the sand hills of her country and their associated Dreamings. Due to the lack of quality Central Art is unable to present a photograph of the artist.

Janelle Stockman Napaltjarri

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:29:09 +0930

Janelle Stockman Napaltjarri passed away on the 21st November 2009. Janelle was a very talented, up and coming new generation Aboriginal artist. New to the art scene, she began painting in 2001. Arnkawenyerr lies just outside of Urapuntja on Alyawarr lands but is still known as the Utopia region. Janelle divides her time here with her husband’s family (Mary, Lucky and Sarah Morton and Angelina Pwerle to name a few top artists) and her traditional home land at Hermannsburg and Papunya. Billy Stockman, who is famed for being one of the original members of the Papunya Tula artists, is Janelle’s grandfather. Janelle's paintings have always been noted as very contemporary in style and colour. Her earliest works featured bold lineage, dot work and traditional concentric circles. However, Janelle wanted to do something totally different to everyone else; a new style. She drew up inspiration from a number of places; the landscape, a story from her past and her dream to be a famed artist like her grandfather; such that her works do not tell a story of her ancient Dreamtime but simply any expression of herself. From the moment her designs surfaced, her work has been admired by many and featured in exhibitions nationally and internationally. Her work is also represented in Collections throughout Australia. In April 2005 Janelle had her first solo exhibition, in May 2006 she visited Sydney for the first time for an exhibition featuring her sand hill paintings and her work has been shown throughout the USA. Sadly, Janelle's life was cut short but her paintings remain a legacy. It is inappropriate to display an image of the artist and Central Art has removed the photograph out of respect to Aboriginal culture. - Naming of Aboriginal people who have passed on traditionally, this meant avoiding referring to the dead person by name directly after their death as a mark of respect — and also because it is considered too painful for the grieving family. Today the practice continues in many communities, but has also come to encompass avoiding the publication or dissemination of photography or film footage of the deceased person as well. (The 2008 film 'Australia', like many Australian television programs, includes a title card warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to 'use caution viewing this film, as it may contain images or voices of dead persons,' presumably out of respect for the cultural beliefs of said viewers.) The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as, "that old lady", or by their generic skin name, but not by first name. In some Central Australian communities, if for example, a lady named Alice passes away, that name must be avoided in all contexts, so even Alice Springs needs to be referred to in conversation in a roundabout way (which is usually fine, as the Indigenous name can be reverted to). Those of the same name as the deceased are referred to by a substitute name during the avoidance period — Kuminjay is used in the Pintubi-Luritja dialect.

Audrey Morton Kngwarreye

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:18:55 +0930

Audrey Morton Kngwarreye was born in 1954 at Utopia in central Australia. Audrey was involved in the important Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) community projects which resulted in Utopia - A Picture Story, 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court which toured throughout Australia. Her first foray into painting with acrylic on canvas began when CAAMA initiated Utopia Women’s Paintings the first works on canvas – A Summer Project. She has featured in several group exhibitions since 1977 for her work in batik (during the 1980's) and throughout Australia and America for her work in acrylics. In her work Audrey depicts the Dreamtime stories of her countries, Ngkwarlerlanem and Arnkawenyerr as well as Sweet Honey Grevillea (Tharrkarr), Alpeyt (Acacia flowers) and Awely (body designs.

Trisha Petyarre

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:10:53 +0930

We currently do not have any biography detail on this artist.

George Ward Tjungurrayi

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:15:48 +0930

George Ward Tjungurrayi was born in the area of Kiwirrkurra in the Gibson Desert. George’s father is Yala Yala Gibbs and his brother is Willy Tjungarrayi. George first made contact with Europeans via a welfare patrol lead by Jeremy Long and Nosepeg Tjupurrula at a rock hole site south of Kiwirrkura. After moving to Papunya he worked as a fencer and a butcher in the Papunya kitchen and began painting for Papunya Tula in about 1976. George’s paintings depict the Tingari Cycle – ancient stories of the Tingari people who travelled the land in mythological times. George Ward Tjungurrayi won the prestigious Wynne Landscape Prize in 2004 and his work is featured in leading collections both locally and internationally. Central Art is unable to display a photograph of the artist due to its poor quality.

Lena Pwerle

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:42:59 +0930

Lena, wife of the late Left Hand Sam Kngwarreye, is mother to five children including that of artist Nora Petyarre. Lena grew up at Utopia Homestead, some 240 km North East of Alice Springs with her siblings Ray Loy, Cowboy Loy and Louie (Louis) Pwerle. Lena has also lived in many other places in the Utopia Region, including that of Ngkwarlerlanem in the northern reaches of the Utopia region where she lived with her husband and children for many years. Initially Lena worked in the medium of batik along with over eighty other women from the Utopia Region in Central Australia. Her work in batik is featured in “Utopia – A Picture Story”. In 1996 she was invited to represent Australia in Western Samoa for the Festival of Pacific Arts where she was marked as ‘among the best available talent’. In this same year she also travelled to Indonesia with other women of Utopia for a workshop funded by the Northern Territory Department of Education so that they could learn more about the art of batik. Lena began painting for Mbantua Gallery in the mid 1990’s. Lena has maintained and developed a number of unique styles over the years. Firstly a fine circular pattern of dots in some of Lena’s earliest works reflect Soakages (or waterholes) that are spread across her land. Unkempt arced motifs represent her Awelye (women’s ceremonial body paint designs). Short repetitive linear work accented with fine dots make up her Anwekety (conkerberry) paintings. Traditional colours of ochre reds, tawny yellows and soft whites, of which belong to her country Ahalpere, bequeath her early Soakage paintings and Awelye paintings with simplicity, and great mixes of colours are deliciously abundant in her Anwekety paintings and later Soakage works. Lena enjoys painting very much and is always found encouraging other family members to do so. Lena is a senior boss woman at Utopia and is on a number of government boards including the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (which protects the sacred sites within the NT) and the Urapuntja council which governs Utopia. Lena’s personality reflects this immense responsibility while exuding good nature and humour. A number of women’s ceremonies have been performed at Mbantua Gallery over the years, and Lena has predominately been the woman behind the scenes ensuring that Utopia ladies participate to promote their culture as well as have fun.

Lucky Morton Kngwarreye

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:03:12 +0930

Lucky Morton Kngwarreye was born c.1950 in the Utopia region north east of Alice Springs in central Australia. Lucky is a member of one most famous painting Kngwarreye families, being the last Emily Kngwarreye. As a young girl, Lucky attended a “bush” school near Hatcher’s Creek north-east of her homelands of Utopia and lived in the country of the MacDonnell Downs Station at the Kurrajong Camp. She attended Bachelor Collect in Alice Springs, and furthered her educated in Darwin. She began her career in earnest around 1977, participating in group exhibitions with her art, having made the same transition as many of the Utopian artists from batik work. Her early paintings were vividly bright and colourful as she depicted her Traditional stories of women’s body paint, Tharrkarr (honey grevillea) and many desert flowers (Alpeyt) as well as the popular Honey Ant Dreaming (Yerrramp). Lucky paints what she describes as “Two Countries”, representative of the regions in which she was born and has lived - Ngkwarlerlanem and Arnkawenyerr. Her recent paintings show a new direction with beautifully fine and intricate overlay of subtle understated colour images. These paintings are a version of the Rainbow Dreaming – Boor-la-da. The works are fiercely individual and aesthetically pleasing, well received by a wide audience. Lucky has an impressive profile of exhibitions and collections. She has exhibited with the best of the Utopian artists world-wide, including her mother the renowned artist Mary Morton Kemarre.

Rosie Pwerle

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:29:53 +0930

Rosie Pwerle was born c. 1950 and began painting in the late nineties. Rosie comes from large extended family of artists. Her sister, Lena Pwerle is also a well-known painter and senior custodian of their country. Her brother Louie, who is now deceased, was a talented painter and sculptor. Rosie worked in the medium of batik along with over eighty other women from Utopia, but has since transitioned to painting. Her work are held in private collections and have been included in many exhibitions both in Australia and internationally.

Marcia Alice Panangka

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:29:22 +0930

Marcia was born in 1960 at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia . Marcia moved to Titjikala (formerly known as Maryvale) when she married and has raised two sons. Marcia previously was attached to the Keringke Arts Centre at Ltyentye Apurte, producing silks and artworks. Marcia's work is characterised as fine dotting and circular designs. Marcia and other artists that make wooden artefacts and sculptures collect the roots from of certain trees found growing around Titjikala. The wood is cut using an axe. Often the animal carvings are decorated by the women using wires heated in the camp fire until red hot. They then burn patterns and designs onto the sculptures.

Louanna Williams

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:11:56 +0930

We currently do not have any biography details on the artist. Please check again soon .

Barbara Weir

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:09:03 +0930

Barbara (originally Florrie) Weir (born c. 1945) is an Australian Aboriginal artist. One of the Stolen Generations, she was removed from her aboriginal family and raised in a series of foster homes. After becoming reunited with her mother in the 1960s and divorced in 1977, Weir eventually returned to her family territory of Utopia, 300 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs. She became active in the local land rights movement of the 1970s and was elected the first woman president of the Indigenous Urapunta Council in 1985. She did not begin painting until 1989 at about age 45, but she became recognised as a notable artist of Central Australia. Her work has been exhibited and collected by major institutions. She also has managed her mother's career; since Minnie Pwerle began painting in 2000, her work has become popular. Barbara Weir was born about 1945 at Bundy River Station, a cattle station in the Utopia region (called Urupunta in the local Aboriginal language) of the Northern Territory. Her parents were Minnie Pwerle, an Aboriginal woman, and Jack Weir, a married Irish man described by one source as a pastoral station owner, by a second as "an Irish Australian man who owned a cattle run called Bundy River Station", but by another as an Irish stock man. Under the anti-miscegenation racial laws of the time, their relationship was illegal, and the two were jailed. Jack Weir died not long after his release. Minnie Pwerle named their daughter Barbara Weir. Barbara Weir was partly raised by Pwerle's sister-in-law Emily Kngwarreye. (After age 80, Kngwarreye took up art and became a prominent artist. Barbara grew up in the area until about age nine. One of the Stolen Generations, she was forcibly removed from her Aboriginal family by officials; the family believed she was later killed. This was done under the Aborigines Protection Amending Act 1915, government or assigned officers were authorised in the territories to take half-caste children to be raised in British institutions to assimilate them to European culture. In mid-life, Barbara began to explore Aboriginal artistic traditions. She first painted in 1989 at the age of about 45. Five years later in 1994, she was one of a group of ten Utopia women who travelled to study batik in Indonesia. Her paintings include representations of particular plants and "dreamings", inspired by deep Aboriginal traditions. It has been exhibited and collected by major institutions. Art expert Jenny Green has commented, "In some of her paintings residual traces of women's ceremonial designs are almost entirely obscured by the heavy textural application of natural ochres." After Barbara her mother Minnie Pwerle took up painting on 2000, she quickly became a successful artist. Barbara played a significant role in managing her mother's artistic career, including regularly preventing her from being "kidnapped" by people wanting the aging artist to paint for them.

Kanytjupai Armstrong

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:10:11 +0930

We apologise for the very few details we have on the artist at the moment. We are currently compiling a biography on the artist.

Jedda Purvis Kngwarreye

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:00:11 +0930

Jedda Purvis Kngwarreye is the daughter of an accomplished artist Greeny Purvis Petyarre,who passed away in May 2010. Jedda is an incredible talented artist as well as many of her family members, including her mother Kathleen Kemarre Jedda was born near the Boundry Bore Outstation on the Utopia region in central Australia. Her artwork depict important stories from the Kame Dreaming, handed down from the most famous artist the Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Judy Purvis Kngwarreye

Sat, 15 May 2010 14:08:45 +0930

Judy is the eldest daughter to Greeny Purvis Petyarre and Kathleen Kemarre. Greeny is senior custodian for Alhalkere country in Utopia region in central Australia. Judy along side her sisters depicts significant Dreamtime stories in their artworks, which associated with their country. Judy was involved with the Utopia Batik movement and her work features in the Holmes á Court collection and a prestigious book " Utopia A Picture Story". The Dreamtime story for this seed belongs to Judy’s country Alhalkere in the Utopia region, north - east of Alice Springs. "Kame", the seed of the atnwelarr (pencil yam), is the subject of Judy’s painting. In the Dreamtime there are two parts to the Kame story, one that belongs to Alhalkere and Atnangkere countries, and the other that belongs to Arnumarra country. Two different seeds were born that created two different species of pencil yam; one called Atnwelarr which belongs to Judy’s country, and the other called Arlatyeye which belongs to Arnumarra country. The Kame story is a major Dreamtime story for Judy’s country and ceremonies by her people are performed to ensure its productivity as a food source and life form of the ancestors. Judy uses soft dot work and beautiful colours in this painting to represent the kame. Background designs are inspired by the leaf and root system of the atnwelarr.

Cowboy Louie Pwerle

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:18:51 +0930

Cowboy Louie Pwerle was born in 1941 on Old MacDonald station. He is the younger brother of Louie Pwerle (deceased) who was an important Utopian artist and is an Eastern Anmatyerr speaker. His traditional country lies on the Western side of the Sandover River on Utopia station and stretches west on to Mt Skinner. Cowboy lives at Mosquito Bore with his two wives, both of whom are the sisters Carol and Elizabeth Kngwarreye. Cowboy Louie depicts his Turkey Dreaming various traditional sites on Utopia. He also paints Emu (Ankerr) Tucker Dreaming and Lizard (Arlewatyerr) Dreaming. Cowboy's name is attributed to his reputation as a stock man and his cowboy attire.

Tommy Watson

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:46:49 +0930

Yannima Tommy Watson is a senior Pitjantjatjara artist who was born circa 1930s, some 44km west of the tiny isolated community of Irrunytju in Australia’s central western desert. He began painting in 2002 following the establishment of the community arts centre at Irrunytju in 2001, of which Watson was a founding member and has since then sprung to prominence both nationally and internationally. In this harsh and ancient country, through the guidance of his father, Watson gained a deep understanding of his physical environment and its relationship with the ancestral stories, collectively known as Tjukurrpa which have come to form the central element of his paintings.His artworks fetch high prices and are highly sought after. “My grandfather’s country, grandmother’s country. When they were alive, they would take me around the country, when I was a kid. That Dreamtime country. That’s why we look after the country, go out whenever we can, see if the rock-holes are good.” I want to paint these stories so that others can learn and understand about our culture and country. Strong vibrant colours such as oranges, burgundy, reds, ivory, blue, pinks (and more recently highlights of green) create unfettered, sumptuous and complex compositions that symbolically represent the stories embedded in his country. The large shimmering dots that surge in waves across the canvas enable one to view the landscape as a topography shaped by its cultural importance.

Lorraine Nakamarra Yungut

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:37:59 +0930

Lorraine Nakamarra Yungut is the daughter of famous Western desert artists Walangkura Napanangka and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrla, both represented extensively through Papunya Tula Artists Corporation in central Australia. Lorraine along with her sisters Debra Young Nakamarra and Katherine Nakamarra Marshall were taught stories and started to paint with their mother Walangkura Napanangka. Lorraine depicts striking bold works associated with women's stories, which refer to her extended knowledge of sacred places. At these deep spiritual places the women use this area for sacred ceremonies and to teach the young women their Dreamtime culture.

Debra Young Nakamarra

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:32:14 +0930

Debra Young Nakamarra was born in 1964. She is the daughter of famous of famous western desert artists Walangkura Napanangka and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula who have been represented successfully by the Papunya Tula Artists in central Australia. Debra started painting in 1984 after learning her own Dreamtime stories with she shares with her sisters Lorraine Yungut Nakamarra and Katherine Marshall Nakamarra. Debra is an emerging artist. Debra's depictions are bold and strong and culturally significant.

Patrick Tjungurrayi

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:46:27 +0930

Patrick Tjungurrayi was born at Yalangerri near Jupiter Well, Patrick Olodoodi walked from his traditional country into the old Balgo Mission and worked on the housing at the new Balgo site. He was involved in building the stone houses and the church in which on, he married Miriam Olodoodi. Patrick Tjungurrayi is a senior law man and is responsible for upholding the traditional ceremonies for the country around Balgo, Kiriwrrkurra and Kintore in the western desert. Patrick commenced painting painting in the early 1980's and is diligent and proficient painter

Emily Pwerle

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:00:11 +0930

Emily Pwerle, sister to the famous & widely admired Utopian artist Minnie Pwerle, was present at her first solo exhibition titled ‘Body Markings’ at Dacou Gallery Melbourne, Middle Park. Emily, when only in her early 80s, began painting in 2004 after being encouraged by her older sister, Minnie. Emily instantly took to painting on canvas, applying many layers of acrylic paint in linear brush strokes, creating dense patterns of colour which represent the body paint women apply to each other during traditional bush tucker ceremonies. To the women these works are spiritually relevant, paying homage to their ancestors and the land that provides them with life. To the general viewer, the work is a mass of moving colour, carefully orchestrated to guide the eye across areas of dense abstract beauty on the canvas. Since 2004, Emily’s work has been exhibited & represented in several fine art galleries across Australia, as well as in New York, London, Paris & Seoul. This was her very first, although well overdue, solo exhibition. Over 15 impressive paintings recently completed by Emily are exhibited, along with some of the finest of her earlier works.

Raelene Williams

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:27:15 +0930

Raelene Williams Ngala was born c.1964 in central Australia. Her paintings represent " Walpa Pukla" - Whirly Winds.

Phyllis Gorey

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:04:59 +0930

Phyllis was born on the 28th June 1958 at the Telegraph Station in Alice Springs.She grew up with her family at the Aboriginal community of Amoonguna, 15km out of Alice Springs in central Australia. Phyllis is an active member of the Aboriginal Metal Health unit and travels to many outstation communities. She has enormous passion for the well being of her people. Her Dreaming is Yeperenye - referred to by the Aboriginal Arrernte people for caterpillar. Phyllis enjoys painting with acrylics on canvas and executes her work with perfection.

Benita Cavanagh

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:26:38 +0930

Benita Cavanagh was born on the 18th April 1975 in Alice Springs, central Australia. She grew up with her family at Ltyentye Apurte . Benita transfer's her knowledge of women's stories onto canvas. Another Dreaming significant to the artist is Rain. Benita is an emerging artist inspired and supported by other family members in her family to paint.

Jeannie Mills Pwerl

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:48:11 +0930

Jeannie Mills Pwerl is the daughter of the well known Utopian artist Dolly Mills Petyarre and niece to the elder and acclaimed artist Greeny Purvis Petyarre, who sadly passed away in 2010. Jeannie Mills Desert yam series has captured buyers and collectors world-wide. She was a chosen Australian artist for the prestigious 25th NATSIAA - Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory National Art Award. Her work depicts microscopic dots and intricate detail of subtle shades of colour, giving the work a three dimensional physical presence.

Elizabeth Leo Kemarre

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:20:05 +0930

Elizabeth Kamarre Leo, born in 1953 in Alice Springs, into the Anmatyerr tribe and she now lives at the outstation of Irrultja, on Utopia Station, with her partner and fellow artist Sandy Pitjara Hunter. She began her career when she became involved in the important Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) batik-making community projects which resulted in Utopia - A Picture Story, 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court which toured throughout Australia. Her first foray into painting with acrylic on canvas began when CAAMA initiated Utopia Women’s Paintings the first works on canvas – A Summer Project.

Mervyn Franey Mpetyane

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:11:03 +0930

Mervyn Franey Mpetyane was born on the 6th of January 1963 in Alice Springs, central Australia. Mervyn is a mentor for the Tangentyere artists in Alice Springs. He started to paint seriously in 1995, after firstly experimenting in pencil creating sketches of animals and portraits. In 2005, he started using acrylic on canvas, depicting significant stories connected to Yeperenye Dreaming. The land of the Yeperenye Dreaming is a special site used for meetings and gatherings by the traditional Arrernte people long before the town of Alice Springs was built. Mervyn is married with grown up children and a grandfather of two. Mervyn is dedicated to his art and has a deep respect and connection to his ancestral land, which is expressed in work.

Priscilla Escobar Nagamarra

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:08:47 +0930

Priscilla Escobar was born in Darwin on the 9th February 1977. Priscilla has spent most of her life in Darwin. She was inspired to paint by watching and learning from family member's and commenced painting at the age of nineteen. Priscilla's 'Dreaming' is the carpet snake, which she has inherited from her mother and country of Ikuntji in central Australia. Priscilla exhibited seven works in 2004 at the Drill Hall Anzac House. All works were sold. She painted a Mural in the Darwin City Mall, a Mural in Whyalla in South Australia, which illustrate a ocean feature. Her latest Mural can be seen in Ceduna at the A1 Caravan Park. Priscilla is an example of a young emerging artist who depicts ancient Dreaming's stories into a contemporary style, full of life and colour.

Jennifer Forbes

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:52:22 +0930

Jennifer Forbes was born in October 1958. Jennifer's country is the Ngaanyatjarra lands, which is between the Western desert and the great Victoria desert, home of the Papulankutja Aboriginal community nestled in Blackstone ranges. Jennifer Forbes relocated to Alice Springs for health reasons, but has continued to paint stories through referring to her country and Dreamings.

Judy Dunn

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:56:12 +0930

Central Art is currently collating biography information on the artist.

Veronica Mungaloon

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:26:30 +0930

Central Art apologises for the inconvenience of not being able to provide details on the artist.

Angelina Ngal

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:42:18 +0930

Angelina Ngal was born c.1950. Angelina along with her famous sisters Kathleen and Poly began producing batiks in the mid 1980's and wooden sculptures, probably influenced by her late husband, the older brother of Cowboy Louie Pwerle. Angelina as formerly known as Angelina 'Pwerl' in Alyawarr language is the equivalent to Ngal in the Anmatyerr language, and it is as Angelina Ngal that she is referred to today. She began painting as part of the CAAMA 'summer project' in 1988 -90and, already at forty years of age, was included in the first exhibition of Utopia women's paintings held in Alice Springs in 1980. Angelina quickly adapted to painting on canvas and subsequently gained an international recognition. Her work can be seen as a contemporary dialogue or translation of the cultural geographic, social and religious components and Anmatjerre life. Her initiate renditions of country are delicately layered and be read and appreciated at a superficial level for their abstractions and painterliness. At a deeper level however, they depict the cultural and social mores of the society in which she lives. Angelina paints her grandfather's country, Arlparra. Many of her paintings depicts the Bush plum, which she represents through a focus of dots into which she merges of minutely and painstakingly rendered coloured dots ensuring that the tiny dots are always centered, and clear. She has further extended her painting producing a range of exquisitely coloured compositions that maintain a layer of meandering related to the Bush plum, in which points of geography, knowledge of places and memories of hunting or ceremonial business, result in a subtle and textured surface that hints to the viewer of an ethereal numinous landscape.

Mary Jones Ngala

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:51:22 +0930

Mary Jones Ngala is the daughter of the Utopian artist Myrtle Petyarre. She grew up surrounded by many family painters, such as her aunt's , the famous Petyarre Sisters, Gloria, Ada, Nancy and Kathleen. Mary's sister is Gracie Morton Pwerle. Mary was born at MacDonald Downs and lives at Thelye, an outstation on Utopia in central Australia. Once Mary's five children were grown up she began to paint in a style, which is unmistakable similar to that of her mother, aunties and sister. Mary's style of painting is distinctively minimalist and she uses a fine delicate dotting technique combined with traditional colours derived from natural ochres. Mary's signature work is the Blush plum known to the Alyawarr people as Arnwekety. Her work reflects directly to her homeland of Utopia and associated country surrounding the eastern area of central Australia.

Norah Napaljarri Nelson

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:25:30 +0930

Norah Napaljarri Nelson was born at Haasts Bluff in central Australia on 26th October 1956. Norah first painted in 1986, assisting her husband, but was creating works in her own right by 1987. As of 2004 she was living in Yuendumu and painted for the Indigenous Art centre Warlukurlangu Artists. Norah's Nelson Napaljarri Dreaming stories she depicts in her work are Karntjarra (Two Women), Ngaru (bush plum), Ngarlkirdi (witchetty grub) and Pangkurlangu (Giant) dreamings . She has also painted a series of works based on the Yiwarra (milky way) with the permission of from senior custodian at Yuendumu, Paddy Sims. One of this series was chosen as the design for a mosaic at the new court complex for the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. Norah began painting by assisting her husband the well-know artist Bronson (Frank) Jakamarra Nelson (passed away) , however in 1987 Norah emerged as an artist in her own right. In 1991 Norah Napaljarri Nelson's acclaimed artwork, Milky Way Dreaming, was made into the mosaic that graces the main concourse of the Northern Territory's Courthouse. Norah's career, as an Aboriginal artist spans over 16years and began when she exhibited in a show devoted to Aboriginal women artists at the Esplanade Gallery in Darwin 1987. Since 1988, Norah has featured works in eleven exhibitions across cities in Australia and Madrid. Norah principally painted for Warlukurlangu Artists, such stories as Yiwarra (Milky Way), Witchetty Grub, Ngaru (Bush Plum), and Karntjarra (Two Women). Sadly, Norah's career has slowed down due to her suffering an illness.

Teresa Dingaman

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:06:47 +0930

Teresa Dingaman was born on the 25th July 1975 at Port Augusta. Central Art is currently collating biography information.

Pantjiti McKenzie Tjiyangu

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:08:14 +0930

Pantjiti was born in 1942 and her ngura/home country is near the Blackstone Ranges in Western Australia. She and her husband have four grown children, and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren. She now divides her time between Alice Springs where her husband is a dialysis patient, and Ernabella, started by the Presbyterian Board of Missions in 1937, and the first permanent settlement on the Anangu Pitjantjatara yankunytjatjara Lands, in far north-west South Australia. As a child Pantjiti lived in the bush in the traditional way with her father and his two wives. For a short time she lived in the children's dormitory at Warburton. After her father and one of his wives died, his second wife, Pantjiti's mother, and her family group, walked 600 kilometres east to Ernabella to visit family. Throughout her childhood, adolescence, and young womanhood, Pantjiti moved constantly between the communities of Ernabella, Mulga Park, Amata, Areyonga and further out west travelling often by foot and sometimes in mission trucks or riding donkeys over an area of 80,000 square kilometres. During this time she became very skilled in the art of gathering bush foods, digging for rabbit and hunting. She has worked at both Ernabella and Amata in the community art centres. Like many of her generation, Pantjiti was highly involved with Ernabella (now Pitjantjatara) Choir and was present on many of their important trips around Australia, including a performance at the Adelaide Art Festival in 2004. When Ernabella Video and Television (EVTV) began in 1984 Pantjiti and her husband, Simon Tjiyangu Mckenzie, became custodian managers and producers, and later on were BRACS workers (Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Community Services) for PY Media (Pitjantjatara/Yankunytjatjara Media). over the next twelve years they produced over one thousand videotapes documenting Anangu Pitjantjatara life and culture from the inside. Pantjiti is a highly entrepreneurial woman, and a strong leader, heavily involved in many traditional song and dance activities. Pantjiti is a great teacher, to Anangu and Piranpa/white people alike, of multiple aspects of Anangu Pitjantjatjara culture. Tjanpi Desert Weavers is an Aboriginal women's fibre art social enterprise that started in the Central and Western deserts of Australia in 1995 through the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council.

Sarah Morton Kngwarrey

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:00:10 +0930

Sarah Morton Kngwarreye was born in 1958. Her country regions are Ngkwarlerlanem and Arnkawenyerr in central Australia. Sarah is a daughter to Utopian artist Mary Kemarre. Sarah and her mother were involved in the important Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (known as CAAMA) batik-making community projects, which resulted in Utopia- A Picture Story, 88 silk batiks from the Holmes a Court Collection which toured throughout Australia. Sarah's first foray in painting with acrylic on canvas began when CAAMA initiated Utopia Women's Painting: The first works on canvas - A Summer Project. Sarah's work is featured in the Robert Holmes a Court collection.

Victor Ross Jupurrula

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:27:09 +0930

Victor Ross Jupurrula was born c.1952 at Napanangkajarra a region of Yuendumu, Central Australia. Victor's Dreamings include Yarla (Big Yam) and Ngarlajiyi (Small Yam), Warna (Snake), Ngapa (Water), Karrku (the site of ochre mines at Mt. Stanley), Janganpa (Possum), Mukaki (Bush Plum, Karnta (Two Women) and Watijarra (Two Men). Victor Ross Jupurrula is married to Dadu Gorey Nungarrayi and both paint for Warlukurlangu art centre at Yuendumu.

Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:37:11 +0930

Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart was born in 1972 at Yuendumu in central Australia. Queenie is the only daughter of Paddy Stewart Japaljarri, Chairman of Warlukurlangu Art Centre and one of the main artists who participated in painting significant Dreamings on the Yuendumu School Doors, which later became a well known collection. Queenie commenced painting with the Warlukurlangu Art Centre in 1997. With her father's guidance, together they paint collaborative work, depicting iconography of traditional Dreaming stories. Queenie and her father Paddy are custodians of their country, Yuendumu in Central Australia. Queenie depicts in her work traditional iconography which represents stories from the Dreamtime, particular sites and other elements associated with her country.

Tanya Napangardi

Mon, 11 May 2009 04:15:07 +0930

Tanya Wheeler Napangardi was born in 1986 at Watiyawanu (Mount Leibig) in Central Australia. Her grandmother Polly Napurrula encouraged Tanya to paint and in 2008 she started on her first canvases. Tanya incorporates ancient Aboriginal iconography using bold colours in her works, depicting symbols referring to the women gathering bush tucker in sand hills and rock holes. Aboriginal women often perform their ceremonies at these places. Tanya is an emerging artist. She is married the eldest son of Walangkura Napanangka, a well known Papunya Tula artist. Tanya and her husband now live with his family at Kintore in the Western Desert.

Sarrita King

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:51:53 +0930

Sarrita King was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 5th March 1988. She is the younger sister to fellow artist, Tarisse King and daughter to the late highly regarded artist, William King Jungala (1966 – 2007). Sarrita inherits her Australian Aboriginality from her father who was part of the Gurindji tribe from the Northern Territory. The Gurindji tribe came to public attention during the 1960s and 1970s when members employed by the Wave Hill cattle station led a landmark case which became the first successful land rights claim in Australia. It is this same strong sense of self and pride that Sarrita embodies and it fuels her drive to paint her totemic landscape. Sarrita spent most of her youth growing up in Darwin in the Northern Territory. Not far from where her ancestors inhabited, it is here that her connection to her Aboriginality and subsequently the land was able to grow. Her exposure to the imperious weather and extreme landscape has provided the theme for her works of art, since she began painting at age 16. Rolling sand hills, cracking lightning and thunderstorms, torrential rain, fire, desert and tangled bush are all scathing environmental factors that shaped her forefather’s lives and also her own. Depicting these elements in her paintings, Sarrita provides a visual articulation of the earth’s language. Sabine Haider, Gallerist of Central Art say" Sarrita King is an amazing artist and person. Full of life and optimism and is an example too all upcoming young Aboriginal artists."

Ruby Morton Kngwarrey

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:59:16 +0930

Ruby Morton Kngwarrey was born in 1968 north east of Alice Springs at Utopia in central Australia. Ruby Morton was part of the original group of Aboriginal women to be taught batik. Her work is included in the ‘Robert Holmes a Court’ collection. Ruby has established herself as a painter in the same tradition as her mother, Mary Morton, her sisters and aunties. Her Dreamtime stories belong to her countries Ngkwarlerlanem and Arnkawenyerr. Ruby has painted designs that represent all of her Dreamtime stories. The stories that are featured in this painting include Rainbow (boor-la-da), Ilyarn and Ilyarnayt, Tharrkarr (sweet honey grevillea), Yerramp (Honey ant) and also a variety of Alpeyt (flowers).

Tarisse King

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:24:36 +0930

Tarisse King was born in Adelaide, South Australia on the 4th September, 1986. She is the older sister to fellow artist, Sarrita King and daughter to the late highly regarded artist, William King Jungala (1966 – 2007). Tarisse inherits her Australian Aboriginality from her father who was part of the Gurindji clan from the Northern Territory. The Gurindji clan came to public attention during the 1960s and 1970s when members employed by the Wave Hill cattle station led a landmark case which became the first successful land rights claim in Australia. Like her forefathers, Tarisse is an assertive individual who is determined to communicate the inseparable connection she and her ancestors have with the Australian land. Tarisse spent the majority of her youth in Darwin, a unique city in northern Australia that is subject to extreme weather conditions; from torrential rain and cyclones in the Wet Season to oppressive and immobilising heat in the Dry Season. This climatic impact is seen in her artwork but it was also the road trips she travelled between Darwin, Katherine and Adelaide, where her father resided, that she reflects on most in her paintings. The journey of 3027 kilometres, right through the heart of Australia, reveals extreme expanses of varying landscapes and provided Tarisse with the isolation and time to develop a unique perception of the land which can be seen in her paintings such as Pink Salts and My Country – Tracks and Rivers. Moving to Adelaide at the age of 16, it was her involvement with her father’s art that lead Tarisse to experiment with her own designs and techniques, resulting in a definable style of her own. Drawing on the Central and Western Desert Aboriginal dotting style of painting the land topographically, Tarisse captures a complex and varied soul of the land. In homage to her father, her adaptation of Earth Images defines Australia as if looking from outer space back to land; the viewer is given a heightened feeling of drifting above the earth. Then, in her series, My Country Tarisse composes 40,000 year old Aboriginal iconography of song lines, dots and circles to create a bold and contemporary aesthetic and provides yet another more detailed perspective of the landscape. Finally, Pink Salts, lowers the viewer back down the earth and immerses one in the surreal and luminous pink sunsets over the great salt lakes in the centre of Australia. In all of Tarisse’s artworks, she con temporises the ancient and allows the present day viewer an accessible moment to consider the past. Tarisse continues to live in Adelaide and paints in a shared studio with her sister. At the age of 23, she is a full time artist. She has been included in over 20 exhibitions, is represented in galleries in every Australian state, included in many high profile Australian and international art collections, been auctioned successfully through Paris’ Art Curial and is about to embark on a European exhibition tour in 2010. With so many accolades to her name at such a young age, Tarisse’s potential to build on an already outstanding career is more than promising.

Leonie Campbell

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:53:25 +0930

Leonie Campbell is unique artist. She specialises in jewellery making, which is also an important part in Aboriginal culture. Each necklace or bracelet is comprised of gum nuts, acacia seeds and ininti seeds. Leonie explains that the Gum nut seeds are collected while they are still green, they are sorted, cleaned, dried and then drilled or poked using hot wire to make a hole to tread through the string. Using acrylic paints she decorates the gum nuts with Aboriginal symbols and patterns, which can have multiple meanings referring to the dreamings. The painted gum nuts are then several times lacquered with high gloss. Leonie Campbell's fine craftsmanship is featured in the beautiful illustrated book called "Art On a String".

Genevieve Loy Kemarre

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:58:18 +0930

Central Art is still collating information together from the artist. Genevieve's country is Utopia in central Australia. She is surrounded by many family members that are known artists, such as Abie Loy Kemarre, and her grandmother Nancy Kunoth Petyarre, who sadly passed away in 2010. Genevieve has under guidance. Genevieve depicts in her work the travels of the Bush turkey ancestor. This is a significant Dreaming to Aboriginal people who have custodianship and is re-enacted during their ceremonies.

Leigh Childs

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:34:36 +0930

Leigh Childs created a collection of beautiful gift cards for Central Art exclusively . With the use many different materials and textures. However, Leigh's main focus was to coordinate different design and patterns with Aboriginal symbols Aboriginal Artists used in their artworks.

Ngoia Pollard

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:07:43 +0930

Ngoia Pollard was born circa 1948 in Haasts Bluff in central Australia, west of Alice Springs. Ngoia Pollard began her contemporary artistic career by assisting her husband, who painted with Papunya Tula artists for several years prior to his death. In 1997, Ngoia Pollard began painting independently, and in 2004 won the first prize in a central Australian painting competition supported by the region's local newspaper, the Centralian Advocate. In 2006, Ngoia Pollard won the painting prize in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, with her work 'Swamps west of Nyirripi'. Many of Ngoia's works relate to the region of Yamunturrngu (Mount Liebig), in the country to the west of Haasts Bluff; this is her father's country: ...infused with the spiritual power of the narrative of the water-snake. This snake lives in the swamps and lakes near Nyrippi (Talarada), unoccupied 'dangerous territory' north west of Mt. Liebig. The transcendental calm of her paintings, with their drifts of monochrome clouds of dots, belie the danger of the land and its creatures that they depict. Her works are often characterised by the use of oval shapes representing swamps and lakes. Her palette is usually black and white, though red may be used to highlight oval forms. Other themes in her work include the sand hills of the desert country.

Harold Thomas

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:36:38 +0930

Harold Joseph Thomas was born c. 1947 and is an Indigenous Australian descended from the Luritja people of Central Australia Harold was taken from his family and placed at St John's Hostel. When Harold has eleven he was sent to South Australia's St.Frances House, an Anglican institution for Aboriginal boys. Shortly after this Harold was fostered to a white family. At school he exceeded in sports and this is where his interest began in painting. After high school Harold won a scholarship to study at the South Australia School of Art and later studied social anthropology at the University of Adelaide. During his studies Harold also became actively involved in Aboriginal Civil Rights movement and designed the Aboriginal Flag in 1971. The Aboriginal flag was designed as a symbol of the Indigenous land rights movement. In 1995 the flag was made an official "flag of Australia". Later he was involved in a high-profile Federal and High Court cases to assert copyright over his design, which he won and rightfully so. The flag remain still today a strong and unifying symbol for Aboriginal rights and justice. Harold Thomas is of the most talented watercolour artist. His work is a visual essay of the top end landscape and wildlife. Sabine Haider from Central Art says " I see Harold very much a mentor for me and have the up most respect for him as an artist and a person" Harold Thomas has lived in Darwin for more than thirty five years. He has a deep spiritual love within for his country, its environment and wildlife. Central Art has respected Harold wishes not display a photograph of him. Its something he is not fond of.

Marie Hayes

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:27:36 +0930

Marie was born 19th February 1972 and lives at Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) in Central Australia. Marie's paintings represent the elements surrounding Ltyentye Apurte such as the dreaming tracks, bush seeds, ancestral spirits and significant Dreaming sites.

June Smith

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:07:35 +0930

June Smith was born in 1960 in Alice Springs and later moved to the mission outstation of Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) in central Australia. June Smith was one of the first women to paint for the Keringke Arts Centre at Santa Teresa, often travelling to various art and craft shows to Sydney Show grounds and also New Zealand. June paints on a variety of mediums including silk, paper, boxes, pottery bowls, wooden frames and canvas. Her artworks capture her imagination often reflecting on elements based on her homeland and eastern Arrernte culture. (these elements may include dreaming sites, tracks, spirituality, landscape forms and patterns).

Joylene Hayes

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:53:47 +0930

Central Art is currently still working on collating artists biography details.

Marlene Coombes

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:42:02 +0930

Marlene Coombes was born at Oodnadatta, north east of South Australia. She is the fourth child in a family of fourteen children. In 1987 Marlene began painting on canvas before moving into batik Marlene says "Painting has always been in my family, I have been painting for thirty years as a hobby and find that it is very calming and relaxing for me. My paintings interpret my dreaming of my people, wildlife, land and the universe. My painting style was passed on to me by my mother-in-law Janet Forrester Ngala and my husband and I hope to pass this on to our children and grandchildren".

Aileen Mbitjana

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:09:43 +0930

Aileen Mbitjana was born in the 1940's and grew up on Utopia Station, it is here where she learnt to hunt and gather bush tucker as a young woman. Her relatives taught her to catch Kangaroo and Goanna and where to find bush banana, bush tomato, wild bush potato and where to dig for Honey Ants. In the 1970's Aileen was involved in the batik program where the women of Utopia would paint their traditional designs onto fabrics. It wasn't until the 1980's that Aileen began to paint with acrylics onto canvas and linen. Her story is Bush Plum which she has inherited from her fathers country of Ahalpere, Utopia region in Central Australia. Aileen is the oldest of six children and her mother is the renowned Minnie Pwerle (deceased). Aileen sister Betty Mbitjana is also an artist.

Barbara Miner Gorey

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:58:10 +0930

Very sadly this artist has passed away. We have removed the artist photograph out of respect for Aboriginal customs. Naming of Aboriginal people who have passed on traditionally, this meant avoiding referring to the dead person by name directly after their death as a mark of respect — and also because it is considered too painful for the grieving family. Today the practice continues in many communities, but has also come to encompass avoiding the publication or dissemination of photography or film footage of the deceased person as well. (The 2008 film 'Australia', like many Australian television programs, includes a title card warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to 'use caution viewing this film, as it may contain images or voices of dead persons,' presumably out of respect for the cultural beliefs of said viewers.) The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as, "that old lady", or by their generic skin name, but not by first name. In some Central Australian communities, if for example, a lady named Alice passes away, that name must be avoided in all contexts, so even Alice Springs needs to be referred to in conversation in a roundabout way (which is usually fine, as the Indigenous name can be reverted to). Those of the same name as the deceased are referred to by a substitute name during the avoidance period — Kuminjay is used in the Pintubi-Luritja dialect.

Richard Miner Jungala

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:17:52 +0930

Central Art is currently collating biography information for this artist.

Talisha King

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:40:00 +0930

Talisha King was born in Adelaide on September 9th 1988 and grew up in her father's country Katherine, in the Northern Territory. Talisha is a Gurindji/Waanyi woman. She spent most of her childhood with her extended family throughout the Top End including Katherine, Bulman (Gulin-Gulin) community and Nhulunbuy (Gove). After completing primary school in Nhulunbuy she then moved to Adelaide permanently to continue high school. On completion of high school Talisha was accepted into the University of South Australia, where she is currently completing a Bachelor in Medical Radiation with hopes to pursue a post graduate Medical Degree soon after. Talisha's style reflects traditional family techniques passed down by her father while also incorporating her own personal designs. Capturing her country and experiences throughout her childhood and taking into account the spiritual and cultural connection with the land and elements.

Albert Tjapaltjarri

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:42:37 +0930

Albert Tjapaltjarri was born on 1st of August in 1962. Until 1966, he lived in the Kimberley region with his family. In 1970 Albert was sent to boarding school at Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. Snake Dreaming and Tingari Cycle are Dreaming's inherited from both his parents. Albert enjoys painting, playing guitar and singing. During an interview with Sabine Haider from Central Art Albert explained he is very happy living at Utopia and coming to Alice Springs for regular visits with family, but he does miss his country in the Western Desert.

Dadu Gorey Nungarrayi

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:42:06 +0930

Dadu Gorey Nungarrayi was born in 1955 at Yuendumu in central Australia.. She commenced painting for the Warlukurlangu artists in 1990. Dadu's work has been included in group exhibition from Yuendumu artists. Her depictions are Wardapi (Goanna), Warlawurra (Eagle), Marlu (Kangaroo) and Possum Dreaming. Dadu uses Aboriginal iconography to depict her stories. Central Art has presented the artist since 2008. Dadu is currently studying written and spoken English at Batchelor College in Alice Springs.

Mary Oliver

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:08:18 +0930

Mary Oliver is an original Keringke artist, she started at the Art Centre in 1987, and has been involved in many of their exhibitions. Mary paints of a variety of different mediums including silk, paper and ceramics. Her artwork features fine details and clean lines and the use of mirror imaging. Her colours are very earthy and organic. Much of Mary's work can be found on calendars, diaries and cards which have been reproduced by Community Aid Abroad. Mary Oliver's 1997 entry into the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award was selected to be part of the national touring exhibition.

Hilda Bird Petyarre

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:39:36 +0930

Hilda Bird Petyarre was born c.1950 at Mulga Bore, Utopia in central Australia. Hilda is the daughter of the Ada Bird Petyarre, a known artist who passed away in 2010. Hilda Bird Petyarre paints Awelye (Body Paint) and Bush tucker.

Farren Furber Jampitjinpa

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:43:34 +0930

Farren Furber Jampitjinpa was born in 1992 in Alice Springs, central Australia. Sabine Haider, the director from Central Art encouraged Farren to paint in 2008. Sabine could see Farren could paint and wanted him to have the opportunities as an artist. So the artistic journey began for him under the guidance of his well known grandmother Maureen Hudson Nampitjin and the influence from his mother Julianne Turner Nungarrayi Turner, both artists Central Art represents. Farren is developing steadily and his confident in his work. Farren spends his time between Adelaide and his traditional homeland of Yuelamu (Mt Allen) in central Australia. Farren told Sabine Haider in an interview that he like to study law and enjoys Basketball.

Molly Pwerle

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:32:19 +0930

Molly is a younger blood sister of the celebrated artist Minnie Pwerle and the aunt of internationally known artist, Barbara Weir. As young girls Molly and her sister Galya worked for the Chalmers family, who took up the lease of MacDonald Downs Station in 1923 and later, in the 1960s, leased Utopia Station. In 1975 Utopia Station was sold to the government and handed back to the traditional owners. It is here in the small community outstation Irrultja, 300kms north-east of Alice Springs, where Molly lives with her sisters Galya and Emily, both well known artists. Like Galya and Emily, Molly did not start to paint until 2004 at which time her niece, Barbara, organised a number of workshops where the sisters, including Minnie, individually and collaboratively painted their Dreaming stories. Sharing the same Dreamings, each sister has developed her own painting style and interpretation. Molly’s paintings are characterised by a series of long horizontal or vertical lines which represent the markings painted on the upper part of the women’s bodies when they gather to perform their ceremonial dance. These lines represent dancing tracks in the sand made by the women as they dance.

Gayla Pwerle

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:31:43 +0930

Galya is the younger blood sister of acclaimed artist Minnie Pwerle and aunt of well known artist Barbara Weir, all artists represented by Central Art - Aboriginal Art Store in Alice Springs. As a young girl, Galya worked as a nanny caring for Jock Chalmers, son of Mac Chalmers, whose parents took up the lease of MacDonald Downs Station in 1923 and later also leased Utopia Station. Utopia Station was sold to the government in the 1970s after which it reverted to Aboriginal ownership. Today, Galya lives at Irrultja (Urultja) a small community settlement in the Utopia region. In 2004 Galya’s niece Barbara, in conjunction with her son Fred Torres, organised a workshop at the Irrultja outstation where Galya and two of her sisters, Molly and Emily began painting. Regular workshops continued with the sisters painting between workshops, both collaboratively and individually. Whilst the individual designs in their collaborative pieces sit well together each artist has a unique and instantly recognisable style. Drawing on the same Dreamings as her sisters, Galya paints the seeds of grasses, the bush tomato and the wild orange. Women’s Ceremony or awelye is represented by designs based on dancing tracks made in the sand. These same designs are painted on the women’s bodies before ceremony is performed. In the short time that Galya has been painting, her works have been exhibited in national and international galleries and eagerly sought after by galleries and collectors.

Topsy Peterson Napangardi

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:22:00 +0930

Topsy Peterson Napangardi is from Papunya, Northern Territory. Topsy grew up with her two sisters, Denise Reid Napangardi and renowned artist Lily Kelly Napangardi. Topsy met her husband Leo in Papunya in 1968 and 2 years later welcomed their first child Carroll in 1970, followed by another girl Christine Nungala Peterson in 1974. The following year Topsy gave birth to her son Neil. Growing up Topsy’s Mother Easia Naparulla taught her of their stories, in particular ‘spring flowers dreaming’. It was only after the death of her mother in 1983 that her older sister Lily Kelly Napangardi shared with Topsy more family stories that had been passed down to her, including ‘Sand Hills’. Topsy continues to share these family dreamings with her children to keep their culture alive.

Linda Quinn Nakamarra

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:43:42 +0930

Linda Quinn Nakamarra was born in 1979 Arrungke, Mount Allan in central Australia. As a young girl Linda became inspired by watching her grandmother paint. At the age of sixteen Linda began painting as an artist. Linda Quinn Nakamarra paintings depict Bush tucker, Goanna and Kangaroo Dreaming.

Therese Ryder

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:29:52 +0930

Therese Ryder was born in 1946 at Todd River Station in Alice Springs, Central Australia. As a young girl Therese lived and attended school at the Santa Teresa Mission (Ltyentye Apurte) where she was taught to paint water colour landscapes. Therese assisted the Institute of Aboriginal Development to compile the Central and Eastern Arrernte dictionary. She also taught Eastern Arrernte language at the Catholic High School in Alice Springs for many years. Therese is dedicated in passing on her knowledge of Eastern Arrernte culture to the younger generation. Her depictions are based on her country (east of Alice Springs) and traditional Aboriginal Food (bush tucker).

Graham Tjupurrula

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:38:29 +0930

Graham Tjupurrula was born in 1975 and is the grandson of well known artist Helicopter Tjungarrayi. He is married to Alison Nungarrayi, they have three children and live at Balgo and Kintore in the Western desert. Graham uses acrylic paint to depict men’s Tingari stories and Dingo dreamings. The surface narrative elements that are often termed the painting’s story or ''Dreaming'' are only one level of an Aboriginal painting’s true significance. The imagery employed by Aboriginal artists has a deep cultural resonance that defies simple logic or narrative interpretations. Graham Tjupurrula's art is influenced by examples of the old Pintupi artists who use a very restricted colour palette in depicting the traditional stories. One of his works was used as a motif on an Australian stamp for international postage in 2003. Central Art is unable to display a photograph of the artist due to poor quality.

Marie Napurrulla

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:18:28 +0930

Marie Napurrula was born in 1968 and has 7 children, their ages ranging from 23 years to two years. Marie, the eldest of three children has always been intrigued regarding her Aboriginality and came to Alice Springs several years ago to re trace her family’s history. In her work series “Grandmother’s journey” Marie depicts Aboriginal iconography of the physical and spiritual journey of her Indigenous Grandmother. Marie imagined the tracks and stopping points her Grandmother must have made as she crossed the hot and arid landscape time after time between the cattle station and the Lutheran mission. Her grandmother had been a cameleer and Aboriginal women at that time, often accompanied the men assisting with local knowledge, the transportation of goods and as cooks. These journeys' were long and difficult and required a special resilience to cope with the harsh conditions in the desert. Marie's talent is also in fine craft work in necklace and bracelet making made, using gum nuts, acacia seeds and ininti seeds.

Muriel Williams Kngwarreye

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:42:22 +0930

Muriel Williams Kngwarreye was born on the 12th of April 1980 at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia. Muriel Williams Kngwarreye is an emerging artist, painting in contemporary style elements referring to her homeland of Ltyentye Apurte. Muriel also paints for the Keringke Art centre at Santa Teresa.

Kathleen Wallace

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:53:28 +0930

Kathleen Wallace is regarded as a custodian for Keringke Arts Inc. She is the senior artist for the Keringke Art Centre, having guided, developed and nurtured the enterprise, its artists and artistic direction for almost 20 years. Kathleen was raised by family in the bush at Uyetye, and trained from an early age in the stories of her culture and country. Kathleen is one of only a few surviving family members or community members who has these stories and skills, and Keringke Arts, in the community of Ltyentye Apurte is situated on her traditional lands. Her connection to her country and to her law and culture has remained strong. As an oral story-teller she uses her skills to provide a version of a story for her audience. As an example, Kathleen is aware of approximately 150 names for different winds that blow around the community and the knowledge of what the winds might mean. She is internationally regarded, and has work in many major Australian collections. Her paintings are highly sought after in the primary and secondary marketplace. The paintings reflect her stories in intricate fine detail, and she is the driving force behind the emergence of the Keringke Style, for which Eastern Arrernte artists are now renowned. In the art centre Kathleen has been responsible for teaching and mentoring many other artists in the use of visual art as well as encouraging them to bring forward into their own art imagery of their experiences of culture and family. This has resulted in a diversity of paintings at the art centre including depiction of dances, story telling, food and fruits, significant country, totems and ancestor stories. In the wider community of Ltyentye Apurte Kathleen has often given her time freely to the school to tell stories for use in a range of educational activities: dance performance, mural painting, bush travel and cultural activities. Keringke Arts became, after a time, an internationally renowned arts organisation. The Ltyentye Apurte Art Centre is named after Kathleen Wallace's Dreaming place.

Marlene Doolan Kemarre

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:02:16 +0930

Marlene Doolan was born in 1970 at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia. Marlene commenced painting on clothing and shoes in 1987 with the Keringke Art centre. In 1999 she began painting with acrylic on canvas.

Marie Ryder

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:35:09 +0930

Marie Ryder was born on the 9th of September 1966 and grew up at Ltyentye Apurte in central Australia. Marie is the daughter of Theresa Ryder, a highly respected illustrative and landscape artist. Marie learnt to paint by watching her mother. Marie's depictions are of the bush tucker. Home for Marie is between ltyentye-apurte and Utopia (north- east) of Alice Springs. Central Art shares a close relationship with the artist.

Teresa Purla

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:59:02 +0930

Teresa McKeeman Purla was born on the 5th of August 1963 in Darwin, Northern Territory. Growing up, the indigenous artist Teresa McKeeman Purla had often watched her mother the artist Barbara Weir, a great painter, well known in Australia and overseas and the most famous of all of the Aboriginal painters from Utopia, Emily Kngwarreye as they painted. And, one day in 1990 Barbara Weir said to her daughter: "Here's a canvas - paint". From that day, Teresa began to learn about the dreamings of her people and how to preserve them with paint and canvas "When I first came here [to Atnwengerrp] they took me to the tracks, just near my home," Teresa said. "This is what gives me the goose bumps. When Nanna Molly mob used to dance. You can actually see the prints where they used to dance in that spot. You can see their footprints. It's so beautiful." Teresa continues to paint the stories of her grandmothers and developed her own unique dotting style for it. Her story is told in a brief essay by Elizabeth Fortescue in a 200 page illustrated publication called "Art of Utopia". In this publication Elizabeth tells the story of the artist and her family in short essays. It also shows a range of images of paintings by those artists. The book is supplied with each painting by Barbara Weir, Minnie, Galya, Emily and Molly Pwerle as well as Teresa Purla. In 2008 the book Art of Utopia was published, illustrating side by side a wonderful series of works of Teresa's, her mother Barbara Weir, her grandmother Minnie Pwerle and aunts Gayla, Molly and Emily Pwerle.

Lulu Teece Petyarre

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:00:46 +0930

Lulu Teece Petyarre was born c.1955 at Utopia outstation in central Australia. Lulu Teece Petyarre started painting in the late 1980's and took part in the "A Summer Project: Utopia Womens Batiks" in 1988-89, which was acquired in its entirely by the Holmes a Court Collection in 1989. Lulu depicts in her paintings Bush medicine and Awelye (body paint design). Her art work is very detailed and intricate. Lulu Teece Petyarre is the sister to Margaret Turner Petyarre , also an accompished artist who sadly passed away in 2009.

Jill Kelly Kemarre

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:40:12 +0930

Jill Kelly Kemarre was born in 1959, an Alyawarr woman; she also speaks Eastern Arrernte and English. Her father’s county is Irrwelty located on Alyawarr land north of the Utopia region of Central Australia. She currently lives with her husband and family at Irrerlirri Outstation in the Arltarlpilta region, 250kms north east of Alice Springs in the beautiful Harts Range. Jill has been painting for about ten years. Over these years she has worked for Delmore Downs Station and the art centre in Amperlatwaty – north of the Utopia Region. In 2001 and 2002 her work was exhibited with DesArt in Sydney and Melbourne. Jill also paints for her community art centre in Atitjere. Her paintings represent elements associated with the stories from her traditional country. They include; Arnwekety – Conkerberry, Ntange - Seeds and Awely – woman’s ceremony. Jill also paints landscape paintings applying intricate patterns of dots. Jill is a Primary school teacher’s assistant at the Harts Range Primary School in the Atitjere community.

Kudditji Kngwarreye

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:51:34 +0930

Kudditji Kngwarreye, was born circa 1928 at Boundary Bore, Utopia, north-east of Alice Springs. An Anmatyerre elder actively painted since 1986, he is the younger brother of the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. In the mid 1990’s Kudditji took a radical path with his painting style moving away from the common pointillist style. Whilst some of these paintings may well be reminiscent of his famous sister Emily’s astonishing works from her last series, Kudditji is quick to point out that he was independently painting such works himself! Using a heavily loaded brush and an usually brighter palette. Kudditji’s forms sweep broadly across the canvas. With progressive blocks of stippled colour sectioned alongside each other, the artist has uniquely managed to create a remarkable sense of space. His most recent paintings amplify a bold architectural style, fusing the borders of earth, water and sky, resulting in a dramatic re staging of the colour and form of the desert landscape. His subjects are mostly powerful and bright expressions of Emu Dreaming and Men’s Ceremonial Dreamings.

Edward Blitner

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:22:42 +0930

Edward Blitner was born on the 24th December 1961. Edward Blitner is from the Ngukkurr Community (now called Yugul Mangl) in Naijarlindji country on the Roper River, approx. 270km south-east off Katherine in the Northern Territory. Edward attended school at Concordia College in Adelaide until he was sixteen year old. As a young man he worked as a stock-man and farmhand. Edward started painting when he was seven years old. Edward (Eddie) learned painting from his grandfather who painted on bark with natural ochre and while working on a particular painting, he recounted the Dreaming stories and taught the children appropriate songs and dance cycles. "My grandfather would be painting on bark and we kids would sit around him and watch him grind the ochre's and mix the colours, after a while he would tell us the story for that particular painting and also teach us the songs and dance for that story. When he was in a very good mood, he let us paint the sides of the bark painting, that was my start." It has taken Edward (Eddie) many years to learn to paint the stories and the Dreamings past on to him by his grandfather. Edward is also a accomplished woodcarver. Some of Eddy's bird carvings stand 2 meters high and are fully decorated and cross hatched (rrarrk). The detailed cross hatching shown in Edward's paintings and carvings, is the artist's family body design and is sacred to his clan.

Serena Hayes Kemarre

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:27:09 +0930

Serena Hayes Kemarre was born in 1973 in Alice Springs, Central Australia. Serena grew up at the Aboriginal outstation of Santa Teresa Mission. (Ltyentye Apurte). She commenced painting in 1997 and is a prolific and creative artist. Serena paints for the Keringke Art Centre.

Pantjiya Nungurrayi

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:55:01 +0930

Pantjiya Nungurrayi was born c.1936 at Haasts Bluff, prior to the mission being established. Her first contact with Europeans was as a young girl, when she and her family met with men who were travelling by camel and distributing rations. During the latter part of the 70’s, Pantjiya lived with her family between Kungkiyunti Outstation, west of Haasts Bluff, and Papunya, before settling in Kintore soon after the community was established in the early 80’s. Pantjiya is the widow of George Tjangala a well known artist and early member of the Papunya Tula Artists. Pantjiya has five sons and three daughters, one of her sons is Raymond Maxwell Tjampitjinpa, who also paints for Papunya Tula Artists. Pantjiya Nungurrayi only began painting in the mid nineties painting a very distinctive style using the three traditional colours of black, white and yellow ochre.

Claire Hayes Peltharre

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:19:42 +0930

Claire Hayes was born in 1965 at Santa Teresa in central Australia. Claire is still developing her style. She uses vibrant colours and unique designs in her paintings, referring to the Eastern Arrernte culture.

Delores Furber Napaltjarri

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:18:20 +0930

Delores Furber Napaltjarri was born in 1958 at Santa Teresa in central Australia. Delores paint Dreamtime Stories, which refer to her fathers Eastern Arrernte country. Often Delores will use Aboriginal iconography in her work.

Julianne Turner Nungarrayi

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:25:32 +0930

Julianne Turner Nungarrayi was born in 1975 at Yuenlamu (Mount Allan) in central Australia. Yuenlamu is situated 250km west of Alice Springs. At an early age Julianne was influenced and taught to paint by her mother Maureen Hudson Nampijinpa; well known and respected Warlpiri artist. Julianne Turner Nungarrayi depicts Aboriginal iconography in her paintings. She lives in Adelaide, but visits her traditional homeland on a regular basis. Julianne is the mother of two children. Her eldest son Farren Furber Jampitjinpa is a promising young artist.

Sharon Hayes

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:23:37 +0930

Sharon born at Santa Teresa, and is an Eastern Arrernte woman. Sharon's work reflects the style and vibrant colours known of the Santa Teresa area, telling the Dreaming stories related to the land.

Raymond Walters Japanangka

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:08:27 +0930

Raymond Walters Japanangka was born in Alice Springs in November 1975. His grandfather’s country is Ngarleyekwerlang of Yuelumu (Mt Allan) and his grandmother’s country is Alhalkerre Atnangkerre (Boundary Bore) of Utopia. Ngarleyekwerlang is located 300km North West of Alice Springs. Boundary Bore is located 300km North East of Alice Springs. Both his grandparents come from the Anmatyerre language group. He also has extended family members from the Arrernte, Western Aranda, Alywarre, Warlpiri and Kaytetye language groups. As a boy Raymond spent most of his youth out bush with his family and extended family members or in town with his mother living in Mt Nancy. Mt Nancy is an Aboriginal town camp located on the fringes of Alice Springs. Raymond’s mother was born in a creek bed not far from the camp. “Growing up in Mt Nancy brings back a lot of good memories being around family and friends, but it was also a time of struggle for my people, my family. There was a lot of alcohol related violence, public intoxication and as children we wandered the streets, sometimes too afraid to venture back home. Most kids grew up in broken homes, in a way people may think that would have been awful, in a way it was sometimes, not having your own room, your own bed, your own processions, love and comfort. I remember my aunty calling me one year during Christmas, she said she called me to say she loved me and was proud of me. I handed the phone over to my partner because I was so emotional about it all. I really couldn’t remember the last time anyone had ever said that to me, if anyone had ever said that to me. That same aunty has been an inspiration to me throughout my upbringing, always kind and gentle with us kids, but also being there for us when we needed support and love. She even came to my first ever solo exhibition in Melbourne. We kids have witnessed and done a lot of things today I’m sure we regret. Silly kid’s stuff I guess. Although it sounds like I had a tough upbringing for which I did, we also had our culture, our elders who made sure we were taught about our cultural heritage, this was the balance in our lives. Our government was still taking away children from their families, I to spent time with non indigenous families, in foster care. I always wondered what was happening and why it was happening. Raymond Walters Japanangka is involved in the Red Dust Role Models. Sabine Haider from Central Art says: " I have nothing but admiration for Raymond, as an artist and as a person. he shows courage and determination. His artistic talent speaks many different languages, a connection between his world and our world." Raymond will always have my support.

Polly Nelson Nungala

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:29:30 +0930

Polly was born around 1940 at Utopia, north east of Alice Springs in central Australia. Polly’s sister, Lena Skinner Ngal, and brother, Johnny Skinner, are also known artists. Polly’s artwork depiction are of the Bush Plum, an significant 'Dreaming' to whose who have rights to paint the stories. Another significant depiction of the artist is Awelye, ochre designs painted onto women’s bodies during their traditional ceremonies.

Betsy Lewis Napangardi

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:25:15 +0930

Betsy Lewis was born in the bush at Kunajarryi, west of Yuendumu in central Australia.. She moved to Mt. Doreen Station with her family when she was quite young, and was brought up by Paddy Japanangka Lewis. She went to school in Yuendumu and has lived there ever since, with sojourns in Nyirripi, a neighbouring community She started painting in 1999 and has participated in a large number of group exhibitions and one jointly with Judy Watson. Betsy passed away in February of 2008. Central Art has removed the photograph of the artist to be respectful of Aboriginal culture. Naming of Aboriginal people who have passed on traditionally, this meant avoiding referring to the dead person by name directly after their death as a mark of respect — and also because it is considered too painful for the grieving family. Today the practice continues in many communities, but has also come to encompass avoiding the publication or dissemination of photography or film footage of the deceased person as well. (The 2008 film 'Australia', like many Australian television programs, includes a title card warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to 'use caution viewing this film, as it may contain images or voices of dead persons,' presumably out of respect for the cultural beliefs of said viewers.) The person can still be referred to in a roundabout way, such as, "that old lady", or by their generic skin name, but not by first name. In some Central Australian communities, if for example, a lady named Alice passes away, that name must be avoided in all contexts, so even Alice Springs needs to be referred to in conversation in a roundabout way (which is usually fine, as the Indigenous name can be reverted to). Those of the same name as the deceased are referred to by a substitute name during the avoidance period — Kuminjay is used in the Pintubi-Luritja dialect.

Rosemary Egan

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:11:52 +0930

Rosemary Egan Nampijinpa started painting with the Yuendumu Community Warlukurlangu Artists Group in central Australia. Dreaming from her fathers county include Ngapa (Water Dreaming), Water and Lightning, Water Emu Egg and Wild Spinifex Other depictions by Aboriginal artist Rosemary Egan Nampijinpa are Bush Red Berry, Bush Orange and Passionfruit, Honey ants (and collecting bush foods), Women gathering big bush banana, small bush banana and wild berry.

Paddy Stewart Japaljarri

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:09:43 +0930

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, is an Australian Aboriginal artist. From Mungapunju, south of Yuendumu in central Australia. Paddy Stewart Japaljarri is the Chairman of the Warlukurlangu Artists Committee. Paddy Stewart Japaljarri is was one of the artists who contributed to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural on the Papunya school wall in 1971 - the very genesis of the modern Aboriginal art movement. Aboriginal people from Yuendumu in the early 1980s began transferring their traditional ochre ground paintings to canvas, and then to the doors. In 1983, Paddy Stewart along with four other artist painted thirty of the Yuendumu School doors with Dreaming designs, negotiating the content with other Warlpiri men and women who also collectively owned the designs. Twenty-seven Dreamings (tjukurrpa) were represented on the Doors, referring to more than two hundred sites in Warlpiri and Anmatyerre territory. The painted Doors were also intended to remind the Yuendumu schoolchildren of a web of sites and obligations extending across their country. The Doors remained at Yuendumu, resisting erasure for twelve years despite the desert wind and sun, and robust treatment from Warlpiri school children. The entire series of Yuendumu Doors was acquired by the South Australian Museum in 1995 and then restored. Twelve of the best doors were selected for a travelling exhibition that toured Australia for three years; the Yuendumu Doors are now at the South Australian Museum. In May 1989, Paddy Stewart travelled to Paris to create a painting at the Centre Georges Pompidou. In 2004 Stuart Macintyre wrote in a "A concise history of Australia' that Paddy Japaljarri Stewart recorded his testimony in his own language in 1991. "He evokes the continuity of dreaming from Grandfather and father to son and grandson, down the generations and across the passages of time; yet the insistence on the obligation to preserve and transmit his three jukurrpa's attest to the corrosive possibility of secular change. He goes on to aver that the maintenance of Dreaming has to be really strict', so that his family will not lose it like paper, or throw it away or give it away to other families "My father's grandfather taught me first, and after a while my father taught me the same way as his father told jukurrpa [Dreaming], and then my father is telling the same story about what his father told him and now he is teaching me to live the same kind of jukurrpa and follow the way what my grandfather did, and then teach what my father did, and then I'm going to teach my grandchildren the same way as my father taught me. When my father was alive this is what he taught me. He taught me the traditional ways like the traditional deigns in body or head of kangaroo Dreaming (that's what we call marlu Dreaming) and eagle Dreaming. He taught me to sing song for the big ceremonies. People who are related to us in a close family, they have to have the same sort of jukurrpa Dreaming, and to sing songs in the same way tht we do our actions like dancing, and painting on our bodies or shields or things, and this is what my father taught me. My dreaming is the kangaroo dreaming, the Eagle Dreaming and the budgerigar Dreaming, so I have three kinds of Dreaming in my jukurrpa and I have to hang onto it. This is what my father taught me, and this is what I have to teach my sons the same way my father taught me, and that's way it will go on from grandparent to sons, and follow that jukurrpa. No-one knows when it will end." Early in his life he worked as a chef in Papunya, and since retained his nickname 'Cookie'. Japaljarri's work is one of the most plagued by fake copies, and was centre to one of the first art forgery cases to be heard in Australia. He is also one of the first Aboriginal artists to achieve a high international profile in the late 1980s. Stewart taught the children Jukurrpa (dreaming) art. It taught young artists that painting can be your own free expression. In 1995, the Canberra Medical Society, specifically Dr Martin Duncan and Dr Cam Webber went to the remote Yuendumu settlement where they removed cataracts from five Aboriginal artists including Stewart who had one of the most difficult conditions. In 2001 Stewart and Paddy Japaljarri Sims, won the$4,000 TELSTRA WORK ON PAPER AWARD from the The National Aboriginal Art Award (now Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, NATSIAA).

Kathleen Ngala

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:00:33 +0930

Kathleen Ngala (alternative spellings include Kngale, Kngala, Kngal, Ngale) is a senior Australian Aboriginal artist, born c.1930 in the Utopia region of Central Australia. Kathleen Ngala belongs to the oldest living generation of Utopia artists and has in the last two decades emerged as one of the greatest Aboriginal artists, having been compared to such eminent figures as Emily Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle or Kathleen Petyarre, due both to her senior status and the uncommon quality of her work. Kathleen Ngala started working in Batik in 1979 and pursued her work in that medium until she, along with many other Aboriginal artists, was introduced in the late 1980s to painting in acrylic colours on canvas. Her work since then has come to be seen as some of the most sophisticated and complex in the Aboriginal art scene. She has been featured in many exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas, and she was a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in both 2000 and 2008. Kathleen Ngale is now the senior custodian of the cultural knowledge of her country, Arlparra. Her younger sisters Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle Ngale are also accomplished artists. Kathleen Ngala's works are a depiction of her country, Arlparre, and its 'Bush Plum' (anwekety) Dreaming. Her paintings are made up of numerous layers of superimposed dots, creating a feeling of depth, light and movement. There is virtually as much hidden in these works as there is visible in a surface reading, with many under dotting colour planes shimmering through the top layers in a highly complex interplay. Her subtly dotted under painting often consists of yellows, reds, purples, greens, over which she then often applies a thick layer of over dotting which almost obscures the under dotting altogether or fuses with it to create a surface of delicate, fragile colour softer than the original under dotting, red and white often fusing into a translucent, fleshy white/pink. The colour is often thickly applied or washed out, but then in the surface of the same canvas the over dotting can in some parts become very sparse, allowing the viewer to see down through the painting's surface into a field of deep or 'negative' space. Sasha Grishin, Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History at the Australian National University, wrote in 2009: "Although Kathleen Kngale has been painting for over two decades , it is only in recent years that she has been acclaimed as one of the most significant and exciting artists in contemporary Utopia painting, creating memorable and visually dazzling paintings... She is an artist who has created an unique and distinctive stylistic language, one of great visual power and spiritual resonance. Her works have become sought after in recent years.

Betty Mbitjana

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:59:21 +0930

Betty Mbitjana was born in Utopia, NT circa 1945. She is the daughter of renowned artist Minnie Pwerle. Betty paints the awelye , bush berry, . Betty’s mother and other women used to collect these fruits, cut them up into pieces and skewer them on a piece of wood and dry them to be eating in times when bush tucker was scarce. Betty’s paintings depict the designs that the women would paint on their bodies, and the dancing tracks which are made in the sand during women’s (awelye) ceremony. Through their awelye ceremonies, women pay homage to their ancestors, show respect for their country and dance out their collective maternal role within their community. A design based on these dancing tracks is painted on women’s bodies before a ceremony is performed, and this same design can be seen today in Betty’s works on canvas and in the works of her mother, sisters, and aunts. Ochre, charcoal and ash are all used to paint designs on the women’s upper bodies, and Pwerle women paint their chests, breasts and upper arms for awelye in ochre, red and white. The designs they use have been passed down for many generations, and only the Pwerle or Kemarre owners can paint them. Betty Mbitjina paints in a style as her mother Minnie Pwerle, who sadly passed away in 2008.

June Sultan Napanga

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:20:20 +0930

June Sultan was born in 1654 June Sultan at Neutral Junction , Barrow Creek in central Australia. June commenced painting in the 1980's after her brother Reg Sultan, an accomplished artist encouraged her. June Sultan is a independent artist. June cares for detail in work, often paints bush tucker themes associated with Aboriginal culture.

Trephina Sultan Thanguwa

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:52:34 +0930

Born in 1967 in Alice Springs, Trephina grew up with many uncles, aunties and cousins doting on her as a beautiful young Aboriginal girl, she was the only child in her family. Trephina Sultan started to paint at a very young age. As a young girl she used to sit and watch her uncles, aunties, cousins and friends paint for hours at a time. She would then pick up a stick and draw her art in the dirt. With her mother and aunty a big influence in her life, Trephina went to the English speaking school at Alice Springs. Even though English became Trephina’s first language, she was taught Luritja, the language of her family and Elders at home. Trephina, in her own words, had the best of both worlds. The language skill she acquired stood Trephina in good stead. Acknowledged as a Luritja language specialist, she did work as an interpreter and in conjunction with colleagues and the Alice Springs Institute for Aboriginal Development, was a valuable contributor to an Aboriginal-English dictionary. However, Trephina’s main love is painting. Her artwork drawing on the knowledge acquired in her youth, and the stories her family and Elders passed down.

Jean Hudson Nampijinpa

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:54:30 +0930

Jean Hudson Nampijinpa was born in c.1956 and was brought up by her family in the traditional Law. Jean Hudson Nampijinpa inherited Warlu (Fire) Dreamings from her father, Ngapa (Water) from her grandfather and Kanmarra (Bush Onion) from her mother. At first Jean produced art using traditional iconography, then her paintings took on a more impressionistic look.

Angelo Burgoyne Judda

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:00:03 +0930

Angelo Burgoyne Judda was born in 1970 at Cummins in South Australia. He began painting in the year 2000 and depicts hunting and gathering scenes. He tribe used to go on walkabout after rain fall to gather food. Angelo's people are the Kookatha tribe. Angelo lives in Alice Springs with his family. Central Art first supported Angelo when he first came into Alice Springs, He was very shy then, but has since grown into an independent artist with a vision. His work is very popular and affordable.

Uma Napanangka

Mon, 21 May 2007 15:33:58 +0930

Central Art does not currently have any biography details for this Aboriginal artist. If you would like to know more about this Aboriginal artist and their Aboriginal paintings, please do not hesitate to contact us via our contact details below.

Bambatu Napangardi

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:54:34 +0930

Bambatu Napangardi was born in the early 40's in Winron, Pintupi country, across the Western Australian border, east of Kiwirrkura. She grew up in the bush living a traditional life with her family, hunting and living off the land, as the Aboriginal people did for thousands of years before her. While visiting relatives in Balgo she met Dinni Campbell Tjampitjinpa and they married in Balgo. Dinni Campbell's older brother, Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, was one of the original artists painting in Papunya. He watched the old men painting during the 70's and assisted his brother Anatjarri for some months. By doing this he gained valuable experience in mixing colours, laying out stories onto canvas and helping to paint. During one of these visits to Papunya in 1981, Uta Uta Tjangala invited Dinni as one of the men to assist him to paint a very large canvas depicting events at the site of Yumari. To be asked by Uta Uta to assist in painting was regarded as a great honour. When Dinni finished his apprenticeship and became an artist in his own right, he began painting for Michael Hollow Aboriginal Desert Art Gallery, in Alice Springs Melbourne and Sydney since 1991. Dinni Tjampitjinpa and Bambatu Napangardi have four sons and two daughters. Sadly Dinni Campbell passed away in Alice Springs Hospital in 2000. Bambatu Napangardi was an apprentice to Dinni Campbell for many years; she started painting her own Dreamtime stories passed on to her by her mother and her father and also her famous husband Dinni Campbell Tjampitjinpa. The skills and techniques she has learnt from her husband and by watching the old man paint is now applied to her own paintings. Her works are quite typical of the old men and women from Kintore and Papunya. Her paintings traditionally depict women's ceremonies. The techniques she uses in her work tend to focus on painting in line work and dotting techniques showing body paint designs and the many traditional symbols (icons) seen in Central Desert paintings Bambatu depicts in her work the ceremonial journey's of her ancestral women. Her "Kungka Tjukurrpa" paintings depict the journey paths travelled from Wirrulunga, east of Kirwirrkurra, from Kintore to Mount Leibig and the Papunya regions. At each location, the women would stop, dance and sing the cycle of each sacred site. In Bambatu's paintings, the concentric circles represent waterholes, and the parallel dotted lines represent the path travelled.

Miriam Williams Napangardi

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:11:51 +0930

Miriam Williams Napangardi was born in 1991 at Yuendumu in central Australia. Miriam is under the guidance of her aunt Audrey Martin Napanangka, one of the senior and well respected female artists in Yuendumu. Miriam is a very talented artist. Her very first artworks she painted was for the Central Art in Alice Springs.

Katie Rumble Petyarre

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:01:17 +0930

Katie Rumble Petyarre (Pitjara) was born in c.1960's at Utopia in central Australia. Katie commenced painting in 1996. Katie's depicts in her painting stories of Anwekety (Bush plum). The fruit from this Australian native plant are gathered by the Anmatyerr women from Utopia in Central Australia. The women also pay homage to the spirit of Bush plum in their ceremonies to ensure perpetual germination.

Madeleine Dixon Napangardi

Wed, 16 May 2007 18:09:33 +0930

Denis Nelson Jupurrurla

Wed, 16 May 2007 17:31:16 +0930

Denis Nelson Jupurrurla was born in 1966, at Aboriginal community of Yuendumu in central Australia. Denis attended his primary schooling at Yuendumu, before commencing his secondary education at Yirara College in Alice Springs.Denis works as a translator in the Alice Springs Court House. Denis Nelson Jupurrurla began painting in his teenage years and was taught his Flying Ant and Ngapa (Water) Dreamings from his father Michael Nelson Jagamarra. Painting for Denis gives him enjoyment and a close spiritual connection to his land. Denis is married to Janet Spencer Nungurrayi and has three children. He is currently living in Alice Springs.

Mary Brown Napangardi

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:03:58 +0930

Mary Brown Napangarti was born c. 1953 in a bush camp at Mandarine, south west of Yuendumu in central Australia. As a young girl, Mary lived a traditional lifestyle, learning about gathering bush tucker, bush medicine, making necklaces for ceremonies. Whilst Mary was still young, her family was picked up by a white man and moved to Yuendumu. She lived there for some time with her family and then with her husband and fellow artist, Mick "Pegleg" Brown Tjampitjinpa (passed away) . Mary and Mick later moved to Mt Liebig and then onto Nyirripi. Mary started to paint in the early 1990's. Mary lives at Yuendumu and is the wife of celebrated artist, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa.

Janet Spencer Nungurrayi

Wed, 16 May 2007 15:34:09 +0930

Bessie Purvis Petyarre

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:33:52 +0930

Bessie Purvis Petyarre was born c.1960 in Alhalkere country, Utopia in central Australia. Bessie mother is the renowned artist Polly Ngale Other well know family artists of Bessie are Kathleen Ngale, Angelina Pwerle. All these women artists Central Art represents and has a close relationship with. Like many other Aboriginal women from Utopia, Bessie began experimenting with batik after it became a popular source of income in the late 1970s. When the option of acrylic on canvas was introduced in the late 1980s, Bessie adopted it and her work thrived. Bessie was taught to paint by her mother, with whom she shares the Bush Plum Dreaming. The Bush Plum is significant as it is a major source of food for Bush Women, with ripened fruit still being gathered today. Using a topographical technique, Bessie indicates the growth patterns of the Bush Plum on her country. By building up layers of colour, Bessie is able to reflect varying seasonal colour tones and create a shimmering, vibrant effect in her work.

Barbara Reid Napangarti

Mon, 14 May 2007 15:57:18 +0930

Barbara Reid Napangarti was born around 1964 in the Tjukurla region of the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. Her language is Ngaanyatjarra. Barbara began painting in 1987 with the Centre for Aboriginal Artists in Alice Springs. Barbara Reid depicts her traditional country with a distinctive personal style. Many of her paintings feature the puli (rock formations) and tali of this country and tell women's ceremonial stories related to the formation of the natural environment around Tjukurla. This area is dominated by expansive sand hills and rock holes containing water where bush foods are found. Essential to Barbara's work is the women's sacred stories (minyma stories) involving the role of the women as healers and providers in Ngaanyatjarra society.

Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi

Mon, 14 May 2007 14:35:37 +0930

Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi was born c.1948. Jeannie commenced painting in 1987 for Warlukurlangu Artists at Yuendumu in central Australia Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi depicts in her work traditional stories as the Bush plum, Native Fuchsia, White Ochre and the story of two giants. Often using Aboriginal iconography.

Narrabri Nakamarra

Fri, 11 May 2007 15:27:42 +0930

Narrabri Nakamarra, born c.1950 in Haasts Bluff, and sadly passed away in June 2010. Narrabri was the daughter of 2008 Telstra Award winning artist Makinti Napanangka and sister-in-law of 2006 Telstra Award winner, Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri. Narrabri started to paint in 1999. Her style was heavily influenced by that of her mother, particularly in the use of straight lines representing sand hills (tali) and her exploration of themes associated with Lupulnga, the woman's ceremonial site that her mother is custodian of. However her work prior to her passing, she had definitely developed her own distinctive style. Central Art showcased her work in the exhibition 'Amazing Women of the Desert. Central Art has removed the artist image in respect of her family and Aboriginal culture.

Audrey Martin Napanangka

Thu, 03 May 2007 17:15:06 +0930

Audrey Martin Napanangka was born in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community, north west of Alice Springs in central Australia. She grew up in and went through primary school in Yuendumu. Audrey learnt painting from well know artist Netta Williams (Napanangka). She started painting on canvas in 1986. Both of her parents were artists. Audrey’s dreamings are bush tucker (food), including witchetty grubs, Bush Sultana Bush tomato and sweet potato.Some of her paintings and designs have been printed into fabric. Audrey is one of the senior and well respected female artists from central Australia.. She has taught many young aboriginal artists to paint. One of these artists is her niece Miriam Williams Napangardi, already a well known artist.

Bevan Tjampitjimpa

Thu, 03 May 2007 14:23:28 +0930

Bevan Tjampitjinpa was born in 1980 in Darwin in the Northern Territory and grew up visiting his homeland of Ti Tree (Pmara Jutunta), 200 km north of Alice Springs in Central Australia. After finishing his school years in Darwin he moved to Ti Tree, which is his Grandparents and Mothers country. Bevan has been establishing himself as an artist since 2001. Central Art was one of the first gallery to support him as an emerging artist. Under the guidance of his elders he was taught the traditional Aboriginal Culture and was initiated into the ceremonies and the laws of the desert region. Bevan speaks fluent Anmatjere and knows the traditional law and how to hunt for bush tucker and bush animals. Bevan learned a variety of techniques which included symbols, how to differentiate various landscapes features into the canvas, he was also taught how to make spears, shields and fighting sticks (nulla nulla) which are an important part of the hunting stories he portrays. Bevan was encouraged to use both brush and stick to produce traditional art - which took a number of years to perfect. Bevan lived permanently with his Elders for the next ten years being taught the traditional ways and being initiated into the ceremonies and laws of the desert region. Bevan was taught by Peggy Nungulla Reily, Beryl Pultura, Barbara Leo, Judith Ross, Tommy Mbtajana and Mark Cook, his training covered a number of techniques which included Dreamtime symbology and how to interpret various landscape features into the canvas Traditional symbols reflect the men's hunting forays and the women's hunting and gathering expeditions Bevan has been involved in - telling a modern story of how his family group and clan.

Rodney Tolson Tjupurrula

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 19:15:52 +0930

This artist has passed away and Central Art do not contain any biography details.

Abie Loy Kemarre