Willy Tjungurrayi

Born at Patjantja, south-west of Lake Mackay c.1930 Willy was raised by his father’s brother,
Charlie Tarawa Tjungurrayi, who was one of the founding members of the Western Desert
pictorial movement. The younger brother of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, It was his uncle
Charlie's camels and assistance which eventually brought the family and other Pintupi people
to Haasts Bluff in December 1956 and from there eventually on to Papunya. In June of 1974
Willy participated in a visit to Yayayi, Kulkuta and Yawalyuru sponsored by the Australian
Institute for Aboriginal Studies, an event that also included his brother Yala Yala, John
Tjakamarra, George Yapa Tjangala along with others.

Willy began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1976 and joined the move back to the Pintupi
homelands during the early '80s. He has since emerged as one of the most well known senior
Pintupi painters. He also helped raise the artist Joseph Tjapaltjarri, who was only a boy when
brought into Papunya by the Northern Territory Welfare Branch patrols in the 1960’s. He now
lives at Walungurru (Kintore), his land lying to the south west of Papunya.
He paints the sandhill country north of Kirrikurra, as well as Tingari story.

Collections:

Art Gallery of NSW
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Holmes a Court,
Victorian Centre for the Performing Arts
Kluge Collection, Virginia USA 

William King Jungala

William King was born in 1966 in Katherine in the Northern Territory. The artist began painting
and sketching at a young age. In 1994 he was selected among other prominent Aboriginal
artists to exhibit in ‘The Gallery of Greater Victoria’, in British Columbia, Canada, as part of
the Commonwealth Games celebrations.

William spent most of his childhood with his father and uncles, who as members of the
Gurindji tribe, taught and mentored William. His grandfather, who had travelled extensively
across the country and had a close connection with the land, passed down his stories and
vast knowledge about the desert to the younger man.

As a result, William’s work is greatly influenced by his grandfather’s teaching and he
successfully inter-mingles his own unique style and images with other art styles taken from
many locations and experiences. ‘Earth Images’ depicts William’s combined knowledge of the
physical terrain and the Dreamtime stories which relate to it. The series reflects William’s love
of his native country.

The riverbed in ‘Earth Images’ is painted from and aerial perspective and shows the winding
of the river that snakes its way through the land. This winding of the river forms the origin of
many Aboriginal stories. In the Australian bush the riverbed is often a rich source of food and
water and traditionally Aboriginal people relied heavily on the presence of the river as they
travelled across the land.

In ‘Earth Images’ William depicts campsites with concentric circles. In traditional society,
Aboriginal people were nomadic and would live in one location for as long as the environment
would sustain them. The campsite represents a meeting of the community and is often
represented in Aboriginal art. 

Walangkura Napanangka

Walangkura Napanangka was born around 1946 at Tjiturulnga, west of Kintore. She is the
daughter of Inyuwa Nampitjinpa and Tutuma Tjapangati and sister of the Pirrmangka
Napanangka. Her family was amongst a group of Pintupi people who made their way to the
Ikuntji settlement (Haasts Bluff) in 1956. They walked hundreds of kilometres from west of the
salt lake of Lake MacDonald to access the supplies of food and water on offer at the
settlement. The family returned to their homelands community of Kintore in 1981.

Walangkura began her career through participating in the historic Kintore-Haasts Bluff
collaborative canvas project ‘Minyma Tjukurrpa’ in 1995, and subsequently began painting for
Papunya Tula Artists in 1996. She now lives at Kiwirrkura with her husband and fellow artist
Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula.

Walangkura has exhibited extensively, including in Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2000), in Dreamscapes – Contemporary Desert Art,
Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark (2001), and in Mythology and Reality at the S.H Ervin
Gallery, Sydney (2003). Walangkura had her first solo exhibition at Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi in
2003. Her work is represented in collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales
and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra 

Violet Petyarre

Violet Petyarre is one of the seven famous Petyarre artists including Kathleen, Gloria and Ada
and was born at Atnangkere, on the western boundary of Utopia Station, 170 miles north-east
of Alice Springs circa 1945.

Like the majority of her sisters, Violet was a participant in the batik project A Picture Story that
established the women artists of Utopia in the late eighties. Her batik work is represented in
the Holmes a Court collection. Like the other artists who took part in the project
(approximately ninety women and one man) Violet has left this medium behind and now
executes bold and bright works on canvas that depict the body paint designs associated with
her Dreaming stories. Violet’s work has a very contemporary and textural aesthetic which sets
her apart from other Anmatyerre artists from Utopia.

Collections:

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
The Robert Holmes a Court Collection, Perth, Australia
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA 

Tanya Price Nangala

Tanya is a younger Anmatyerre artist (born circa 1976) who is becoming renowned for her
intricate dotting style that presents an aerial perspective of her country in the Utopia
Homelands of Central Australia. Her paintings relate in particular to Women's Ceremonies
and the special areas of country where they are held. Tanya uses bright colours and intricate
patterns composed of minute dots and icons in her artwork. 

Sylvana Marks

Sylvana is a younger artist (born in 1965) and a Luritja woman, (the Luritja are traditional
owners of the Kings Canyon area). She lives at Mount Liebig community approximately
250km North of Kings Canyon. Sylvana cares for up to five children and paints infrequently,
her works are truly a labour of love, being executed with a single piece of stick the size of a
matchstick. She paints with the canvas laid out on the ground and can spend weeks
completing a larger piece.

Like the Native Americans, Aboriginal people have animal totems that are assigned to them at
birth. With Aboriginal women, their totemic connections extend into the plant kingdom.
Sylvana's plant totem is the bush berry, an edible native berry that changes from yellow to
black as it ripens. It is therefore Sylvana's duty to pay homage to the bush berry during
ceremonies in the form of song and dance. By painting in a permanent medium, Sylvana is
extending her role of honouring this native food which has sustained the Luritja people for
countless years. Her paintings are basically aerial perspectives or maps of the land that she is
connected to and the berries that grow there. The tempo and flow of her dotting will often
mirror a ceremonial song that she hums whilst painting 

Stephen Martin

Stephen is the son of the well known Glory Ngale and brother to Anna Petyarre.

His work is often very experimental and the results are often striking depictions of the Emu or Dingo, and waterhole dreamings. He is a young man who gains a lot of satisfaction from expressing himself and his culture through painting.