Judy Watson Napangardi Paintings

About the Artist

Date of Birth

c. 1935 – 2016

Place of Birth

Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, Yuendumu, NT

Language

Warlpiri

Community

Yuendumu, NT

Leading Warlpiri artist Judy Watson Napangardi has exhibited since 1990 and has a proud exhibition record covering more than two decades. Living to about 81 years of age, her richly coloured paintings of the Women’s Dreaming story from Mina Mina are dynamic images of this powerful ceremonial site in the Tanami Desert.

In the Jukurrpa or Dreaming narrative from this site, the women celebrate the place where the digging sticks rose up from the ground. The women collected up these valuable implements and continued on their journey, dancing and creating new Creation sites as they went.

Judy Napangardi had grown up in a very traditional way at Mt Doreen Station and her family made many trips on foot to her ancestral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts, where they lived for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu. Judy Watson learned about painting from her elder sister, the famous artist Maggie Napangardi Watson, and the two artists worked together, painting for many years at Yuendumu community.

Judy Watson is represented in major national and state galleries including National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, South Australian Museum, Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht and Kelton Foundation.

Aboriginal Art Status

Highly collectable artist.

Selected Group Exhibitions

1990 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin NT
1990 I.U.N.C. (showing at Hilton Hotel), Perth WA
1990 Women’s Exhibition, The Women’s Gallery, Melbourne VIC
1991 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin NT
1992 The Long Gallery, Hobart TAS
1992 Hogarth Gallery of Dreams, SydneyNSW
1993 Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide SA
1993 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane QLD
1993 Northern Territory Art Award, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT
1993 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne VIC
1993 CINAFE (Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition), USA
1994 Armstrong Gallery, Florida USA
1995 SOFA, Miami, USA; SOFA, Chicago USA
1995 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane QLD
1997 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney NSW
1998 Art Gallery “Culture Store” Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1998 A Thousand Journeys, Tin Shed Gallery, University of Sydney NSW
1998 Kurrawarri – Kirli, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne VIC
1998 Framed Gallery, Darwin NT
1998 Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
1999 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs NT
1999 Mina Mina, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW
2000 Beaver Galleries, Canberra ACT
2005 Group Show, Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2005 Divas of the Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs NT
2005 Recent Works, Short Street Gallery, Broome WA
2005 Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs NT
2005 Luminous, Northern Editions, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT
2005 Luminous Contemporary Art from the Australian Desert, Manly Art Gallery, Sydney NSW
2005 Land of Diversity, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney NSW
2006 Opening Doors, Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, Holland
2006 Songlines, Ceremonies, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2006 Artists of Yuendumu, Australia’s Outback Gallery, Sydney NSW
2006 Divas of the Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs NT
2006 Divas of the Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs NT
2006 Paintings from the Fire Country, Birrung Gallery, Sydney NSW
2006 Collectors Show, Reid Caruana Fine Art, Sydney NSW
2006 Pink 2006, Art Mob, Hobart, Tasmania
2006 Recent Works from Yuendumu, Suzanne O’Connell Fine Art, QLD
2006 Warlpiri Artists of Yuendumu, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2008 Artists of Nyirripi & Yuendumu, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2009 Nyirripi and Yuendumu Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2012 Heirs and Successors, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2013 Artists at Nyirripi and Yuendumu, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2014 Desert Song, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2017 Gems of the Stockroom, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2018 Land and Sky – Warlpiri Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2019 Defining Tradition | the colurists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 International Women’s Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Beyond Time, Australian Aboriginal Art, Booker Lowe Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2020 Colours of Spring, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 We Choose to Challenge, Coo-ee Fine Art Gallery, Sydney

Solo Exhibitions

2005 Karnta Jukurrpa, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2006 Karntakurlangu – Women’s Stories, Alcaston Gallery, Sydney NSW

Collections

Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Flinders University Art Museum, Melbourne
Gordon Darling Foundation, Canberra
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
South Australian Museum, Adelaide
The Henderson Family Collection, Sydney
Corrigan Collection, Sydney
Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, USA
Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Motiers, Switzerland
Artbank, Sydney

Awards and Recognition

2007 Top 50 Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector Magazine

Links

Art Gallery of NSW
Australian Museum – Same jukurrpa same country