Recent Works

Warlpiri artist Dorothy Napangardi depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu.  During the Dreaming, Ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks (kurduru) that had emerged from the ground.  They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinyi.

To portray her Mina Mina, the artist has created a striking check-like design in which white plays across the black background, intersecting and weaving, pulling and pushing the eye from one point to the next. The painting can be read like a map through which the viewer moves across the terrain and around the water soakages of Mina Mina.

Esther Giles Nampitjinpa deals with Owl Dreaming known as Coreyuldo Tjukurrpa. The site associated with this Dreaming is north of Tjukurla in Western Australia. The large roundel signifies the waterhole where this Dreaming takes place. The shapes surrounding the waterhole are hills, which hide the waterhole from being visible across the landscape.

The lines running across the canvas represent ‘big mob tali tali’ or large sand hills. During the Dreamtime, Owls would come to this waterhole to drink water. It became a place for these supersized Owls to camp as they travelled across the country to the East.

Abie Loy paints the Bush Medicine Leaf Dreaming story, referring to the leaves of a native shrub that is renowned for its medicinal properties.  It grows abundantly in the desert regions of Utopia, the artist’s homeland, north-east of Alice Springs. During the life of the plant, the leaves change colour and as they do so, they exhibit different medicinal properties.

“This is my grandfather’s story.  This country is known as Artenya.  Ceremonies are held at this sacred site, which is west from Mosquito Bore.  The Bush Medicine Leaf Dreaming Trail goes to Mosquito Bore and stops there.”

The stories that these Aboriginal artists tell provide the context for their powerful paintings that form part of the exhibition entitled Recent Works.

Exhibition Dates: 3 August to 12 September 2012 at Japingka Gallery

Exhibiting Artists include: Esther Giles Nampitjinpa, Peter Mbitjana Palmer, Anna Petyarre, Dulcie Kelly Nangala, Tanya Bird, Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri, Nyungawarra Ward Napurrula, Kay Willis, Julie Robinson Nangala and Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty.

Further information is available on exhibiting artists on the following links:

Dorothy Napangardi

Yinarupa Gibson Nangala

Abie Loy Kemarre

Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa