An Introduction to Australian Aboriginal Artists
It’s hard to imagine a more diverse group of artists than those referred to as Australian Aboriginal artists. These are people of all ages, from teenagers through to community elders. The art is created by men and women, sometimes using different mediums within the same community. You’ll find Aboriginal artists living in remote deserts, on tropical islands, in tiny coastal communities as well as towns and cities.
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Alison Munti Riley
Region: APY Lands
Alison Munti Riley, a Pitjantjatjara artist born at Ernabella, began her painting career in 2006. She has won the Peoples Prize in the NATSIAA Telstra art awards in Darwin and exhibited widely in Australia, as well as USA and Europe. Alison paints the Seven Sisters Jukurrpa from her homelands.
Andrew Tjupurrula Highfold
Region: Alice Springs
Andrew Tjupurrula Highfold began his painting journey in Alice Springs, capturing the intensity of the Central Australian landscape through use of colour and fine detail depicting aspects of the natural world. “I am a contemporary artist experimenting with style and technique to carry the story from my family.’
Angelina Ngal Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Angelina Ngal is a senior Utopia artist renown for her large, finely dotted canvases. With her sisters Kathleen Ngal and Polly Ngal, Angelina has created major paintings that refer to the native Bush Plum, encompassing the land, the women’s ceremonies and sites associated with the Bush Plum Dreaming story.
Artists of Utopia
Region: Utopia
Artists of Utopia have a unique place in the story of the Aboriginal art movement. Beginning with batik textile art in the 1970s, many of the women artists went on to become famous painters, developing new ways to tell traditional stories. The skills have been passed down across the generations.
Belinda Golder Kngwarreye
Region: Utopia
Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is a Utopia artist who paints the Bush Plum Dreaming story that she inherits from her grandmother, leading Utopia artist Polly Ngale. Belinda paints many colour tones of the plant as the fruits ripen. Her style of dotting also reminds us of the works of Emily Kngwarreye.
Bernadine Johnson
Region: Utopia
Bernadine Johnson is an Anmatyerre artist, b 1965 at Utopia. In her paintings Bernadine incorporates traditional iconography along with realistic elements. The themes depicted are primarily bush medicines, yam dreaming and body painting.
Biddee Baadjo
Region: Wangkatjungka
Biddee Baadjo paints the vast sandhill country of the Great Sandy Desert at her birthplace Piyurr waterhole named after a native bird. Biddee captures the essence of the desert and hidden water resources. She bears the marks of an eagles’ claws that grabbed her when she was a small baby.
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri
Region: Haasts Bluff
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri (1920-2008) is a phenomenon of contemporary Aboriginal art, a Ngangkari or traditional healer, who began painting in the last five years of his life. His works tell the story of the ancestral white cockatoo near the Olgas, and are mesmerising images of creation and life’s journey.
Black and White
Region: Alice Springs
Many Aboriginal artists have made reputations partly based on their powerful use of black and white paintings. This collection provides a quick overview of some of the most impressive works in the gallery. Selected artists include Lily Kelly, Anna Petyarre, Mitjili Napurrula, Sarrita King and Gloria Petyarre.
Clarise Tunkin
Region: APY Lands
Clarise Tunkin is a fourth-generation artist from Kanpi on the APY Lands in South Australia. Recognised artists in her family include great-grandfather Jimmy Baker, grandmother Kay Baker and mother Teresa Baker. Clarise began paints the stories of Country associated with the ancestral figure Marliliu.
Collaboration Wangkatjungka Artists
Region: Wangkatjungka
Senior Aboriginal artists at Wangkatjungka community have painted their ancestral lands in the Great Sandy Desert. These collaborative artworks record the family ownership of waterholes, the knowledge which is embedded in Dreaming law. Each artist contributes to the story of their own family events and locations.
Cowboy Louie Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Cowboy Loy Pwerl is a senior Anmatyerr artist, who paints the Bush Turkey, Emu and Lizard Dreamings. His finely dotted paintings mark in the minute the journeys of Ancestor spirits across Country. Cowboy paints with his wives, sisters Carol and Elizabeth Kngwarreye at Mosquito Bore on Utopia homelands.
Damien Marks & Yilpi Marks
Region: Alice Springs
Damien Marks and Yilpi Marks are a husband and wife team who bring new vitality into contemporary Aboriginal art. Their painting is marked by its strong colour and incorporating traditional symbols and artefacts. Damien was taught by the great artists Billy Stockman, Uta Uta Jangala and Clifford Possum.
David Downs
Region: Fitzroy Crossing
Jarinyanu David Downs (1925-1995) was one of the great figurative painters of the Kimberley, He used ochre paints to recreate the great Walmajarri Storm Being Kurtal. David Downs was a custodian for the rain ceremony, and his art shows the Kurtal ancestor with the dancers dressed in the ceremonial headdress.
Debra Nangala McDonald
Region: Haasts Bluff
Debra Nangala McDonald carries on some of the artistic legacy of her grandfather Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi (c1920–1987) with paintings of Goanna Love story, referring to ancestral country south of Lake MacDonald. Debra’s aunties are also great painters – Linda Syddick Napaltjarri and Wentja Napaltjarri.
Debra Young Nakamarra
Region: Kintore
Debra Young Nakamarra paints stories associated with Women’s ceremonies at the site of Tjintjintjin, west of Kintore. Her iconography comes from her mother Walangkura Napanangka. The shapes in the painting show the terrain through which the Tingari Ancestor Kutungka Napanangka passed on her Creation journey.
Dennis Nona
Region: Torres Strait
Dennis Nona is a Torres Strait Islander artist closely associated with the revival of local traditional stories and legends through the printmaking medium. His linocuts reflect the carving skills of his native Badu Island home. He also produces delicate coloured etchings and sculpture based on coastal life.
Djambu Barra Barra
Region: Roper River
Djambu Barra Barra (1946– 2006) is a major painter from Roper River region. He painted large canvases with bold acrylic colours and used traditional cross-hatching patterns. His images were deeply connected to men’s stories and ancestral beings from his homelands Djambu is represented in major collections.
Doris Gingingara
Region: Maningrida
Doris Gingingara (1946–1999) created a unique body of work based on her Arnhem Land heritage combined with her detailed observations of the bush and the natural world around her. Doris created artworks using ink marker pens on paper and many were editioned as full colour limited edition silkscreen prints.
Dorothy Napangardi
Region: Yuendumu
Dorothy Napangardi (1952- 2013) established an international reputation for her beautifully worked black and white paintings of Mina Mina, the women’s sacred ceremonial site. Her work is beguiling with its carefully layered dots presenting minimal structures with rhythmic movement and intriguing patterns.
Dulcie Long Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Dulcie Long Pwerle continues the proud tradition of Utopia painters who draw on cultural stories, like the Yam ceremonies performed by the women, and create contemporary interpretations. Dulcie’s extended artistic family include Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre, Greeny Purvis Petyarre and Minnie Pwerle.
Edward Blitner
Region: Roper River
Edward Blitner is a major painter from Ngukurr in the Roper River region, and is known for his intricate paintings of animals and birds using the rarrk cross-hatching technique. Blitner uses the style and subject matter of his traditional lands, with a palette of earth colours, rendered in acrylic paints.
Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray
Region: Utopia
Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray is a leading Utopia artist whose closely dotted paintings reflect the precise style of Utopia artists, including her mother Nancy Kunoth Petyarre and aunt Kathleen Petyarre. Elizabeth paints the Yam Dreaming story and exhibits with her husband, fellow artist Cowboy Loy Pwerl.
Esther Bruno Nangala
Region: Kintore
Esther Bruno Nangala, a Luritja/Pintupi artist born in Alice Springs, began her painting career in 2009. Granddaughter of Naata Nungurrayi, a Western Desert art legend, Esther’s paintings depict important women’s sites and traditional roles, using intricate designs and symbols from her culture.
Fiona Omeenyo
Region: Lockhart River
Fiona Omeenyo is a Lockhart River artist whose work emerged as fresh and contemporary when she began exhibiting in the late 1990s. Fiona has a semi figurative style of painting, representing both living people and mythic ancestral figures, created as though carved into the background layers of paint.
Freddie Timms
Region: Kununurra
Freddie Timms (1944-2017) creates spare and beautiful paintings in the bold ochre colours of his East Kimberley homeland. He worked alongside some of the great Warmun Artists – Jack Britten, Hector Jandanay, Henry Wambini, Rover Thomas and his father-in-law, Paddy Jampinji. His work is in major collections.
Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
Region: Mt Allan
Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi is the eldest daughter of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (1932-2002). She became a very accomplished artist while still in her teens, having absorbed the rich cultural stories of her family’s inheritance. Gabriella uses warm vibrant colours to record stories of her Grandmother’s Country.
Genevieve Kemarr Loy
Region: Utopia
Genevieve Kemarr Loy is a Utopia artist with strong family connections to the art tradition on her homelands. Her grandmother is Nancy Petyarr and her parents Cowboy Loy Pwerl and Elizabeth Kunoth Kngwarray. Genevieve paints fine dot artworks that represent the tracks of the bush turkey searching out bush food.
George Tuckerbox
Region: Wangkatjungka
George Tuckerbox is a Wangkatjungka artist from the Great Sandy Desert, his paintings of waterholes and Dreaming sites show his clan country near the Canning Stock Route. Tuckerbox has exhibited regularly at Japingka since 2003 and has sung the Kurtal rain ceremonial songs at some exhibition events.
George Ward Tjungurrayi
Region: Kintore
George Ward Tjungurrayi is a senior Pintupi artist whose geometric paintings convey the Tingari Dreaming law of his country near Lake McDonald. Complex and repeated designs are separated by rows of dots that give great energy and authority to his paintings. These designs represent Ancestor creation journeys.
Gloria Petyarre
Region: Utopia
Gloria Petyarre is one of Australia’s best known Aboriginal artists – her contemporary images of Bush Medicine Leaves have international appeal. Gloria is a Utopia artist, born c1945, who has an extensive exhibition history since 1984. Her stylistic development has been highly influential on Utopia artists.
Gloria Petyarre & Bush Medicine Leaves
Region: Utopia
Bush Medicine Leaves, a traditional Indigenous plant, are a key motif for Gloria Petyarre and a number of Australian Aboriginal artists from Utopia in Central Australia.
Gracie Morton Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Gracie Morton Pwerle has strong connections in Utopia art and has painted for over 30 years. Her sister Gloria Petyarre has had an influence though Gracie produces some of the best fine dot artworks coming from Utopia today. Gracie’s work features layers of colour dotting on a lively painting surface.
Hamish Garrgarrku (Karrkarrhba)
Region: Maningrida
Hamish Garrgarrku (1967- 2017) made ochre painted barks and lorrkon hollow logs using the delicate rarrk or cross-hatching style from the Maningrida region of Arnhem Land. The materials are carefully selected on Country to express the totemic clan designs of his ancestors and made using a cut reed stem.
Hermannsburg Paintings
Region: Alice Springs
The Hermannsburg School of Painters refers to the artists who followed after Albert Namatjira, whose watercolour paintings brought the beauty of the West MacDonnell Ranges to all Australians in the mid 20th century. Many of these artists are related to Namatjira, and use similar watercolour techniques.
Jack Britten
Region: Warmun
Jack Britten (c1921– 2001) was a senior Gija Lawman who painted the unique Kimberley landscapes of the Bungle Bungles using traditional ochre pigments. The artist placed body painting designs into the Purnululu hills to emphasise the connections between the land and the people and ceremonies.
Jack Dale Mengenen
Region: Mowanjum
Jack Dale Mengenen (c1920- 2013) records the stories of life in the Kimberley over an 80 year span. His ochre paintings detail Wandjina spirits and ceremonial practices of the West Kimberley as well as frontier life of turbulent years of white settlement on cattle stations created on Aboriginal lands.
Jackie Wirramanda
An important aspect of Jackie’s work is the narrative of the female experience and the role of women’s contributions to local indigenous communities. The artist’s work is represented in corporate and private collections in Australia and internationally.
Janet Golder Kngwarreye
Region: Utopia
Janet Golder Kngwarreye is a significant mid-career artist from Utopia. Her grandmothers are artists Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle. Janet paintings include Awelye Body Paint, Bush Yam Leaf and Bush Medicine stories. Her recent works include colourful images of Country combined with bushtucker stories.
Jeannie Mills Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Jeannie Mills Pwerle paints Anaty Bush Yam design that she infuses with subtle blends of colours then outlines with white dots. The colour impact of her work is striking. Jeannie is part of the first Utopia painting project which produced many great artists. Jeannie has painted for over 30 years.
Jeannie Petyarre
Region: Utopia
Jeannie Petyarre paints traditional plants that her people collect for food and medicine – Bush Yam and Bush Medicine Leaves stories. Jeannie is niece to famous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye and sister to Rosemary Petyarre, Evelyn Pultara and Greeny Purvis. She began as a Utopia batik artist in the 1970s.
Jill Jack
Region: Wangkatjungka
Jill Jack is a Wangkatjungka artist born at Christmas Creek station in 1955. Her paintings show elements of her ancestral homelands, built from stories she has inherited from her mother and father’s country in the Great Sandy Desert. Jill Jack’s mother came from Japingka waterhole in Walmajarri country.
Jimmy Pike
Region: Fitzroy Crossing
Jimmy Pike (c1940– 2002) became one of Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artists during the 1990s, exhibiting widely while creating textiles designs with Desert Designs. His use of vivid colour was extraordinary at the time, which helped bring Aboriginal artworks into mainstream design in Australia.
Jorna Newberry
Region: Alice Springs
Jorna Newberry paints finely detailed Fire and Wind Dreaming stories from Pitjantjatjara country near the West Australian border. Jorna is niece to the famous artist Tommy Watson. Her art captures the effects of Fire used for land management with intricate lines, swirling energy and deep red colours.
Judy Napangardi Martin
Region: Lajamanu
Judy Napangardi Martin is a Warlpiri artist from Lajamanu in the Tanami Desert. Judy inherits stories from her mother, artist Lorna Napurrula Fencer, including Yarla Bush Yam. Judy uses bold line structures and strong colour to map out her Dreaming stories with associated ceremonial rights and obligations.
Julie Nangala Robertson
Region: Yuendumu
Julie Nangala Robertson is daughter of artist Dorothy Napangardi (1952–2013) and lives at Yuendumu. Julie carries the stories of Mina Mina Dreaming and Water Dreaming of which she is custodian. She uses a close colour palette along with black and white to depict the designs associated with her country.
Katherine Marshall Nakamarra
Region: Kintore
Katherine Marshall Nakamarra was born at Papunya, the daughter of Walangkura Napanangka and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula. She paints sacred women’s sites in Kintore region showing the locations and Ancestor travel paths through that Country. Katherine uses densely painted dotwork surrounding her symbols.
Kudditji Kngwarreye
Region: Utopia
Kudditji Kngwarreye (c1928- 2017) is known for large dynamic abstract paintings, saturated with colour and paint. His art has expanded the realm of traditional story-telling by Central Desert painters. Emu Dreaming is one of Kudditji’s inherited ancestral totems, and is the inspiration for his artwork.
Kurun Warun
Region: Murray River
Kurun Warun is of Gunditjmara descent from Victoria. Kurun’s art uses bold contrasting colours to tell stories of Aboriginal experience in Australia. His use of colour reflects the primary resources of indigenous people – red, black and white to convey cultural body markings and structures found in nature.
Lily Karadada
Region: Kalumburu
Lily Karadada is a major artist for Wandjina paintings from Kalumburu. The Wandjina spirit embodies the Creation story and is the Rain spirit for the north-west Kimberley region. Lily paints using traditional ochre pigments on bark and canvas, and is a significant representative of her Wunumbal culture.
Lily Kelly Napangardi
Region: Mount Liebig
Lily Kelly Napangardi is known for her finely dotted black and white paintings of Australia’s Central Desert. Her art captures the vast open country and suggests the shifting nature of the desert sand dunes. With microcosmic details in her paintings, she also includes a macrocosmic aerial view of country.
Linda Syddick Napaltjarri
Region: Kintore
Linda Syddick Napaltjarri walked with her family from Lake MacKay in the Gibson Desert to Central Australia in the 1940s. Her art reflects the deep spiritual culture of her desert homelands sometimes blended with mission biblical stories set in the desert. Linda and her family are strong cultural figures.
Long Jack Phillipus
Region: Mt Allan
Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra has associations with the Papunya Desert art movement since it started in 1971. He was born 1932 at the Rain Dreaming site of Kalipinypa, near Kintore and educated by the Lutheran missionaries. Long Jack paints important stories including Wallaby, Dingo, Possum and Emu Dreamings.
Lorna Fencer Napurrula
Region: Lajamanu
Lorna Napurrula Fencer (c1923- 2006) is a senior Warlpiri artist whose bold use of colour and design set new benchmarks for Lajamanu artists. Lorna painted aspects of the Bush Yam Jukurrpa from Yumurrpa, her custodial lands. Lorna was noted for her assertive and colourful personality and style of painting.
Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri
Region: Kintore
Maisie Campbell Napaltjarri is a Pintupi Aboriginal artist from Kintore. Maisie paints in the traditional style of Western Desert artists using an earth toned palette and desert iconography. She paints the Tjukurrpa sites associated with women’s ceremonies located between Kintore and Kiwirrkurra.
Makinti Napanangka
Region: Kintore
Makinti Napanangka (1932- 2011) is a senior Pintupi artist from Kintore. Her paintings refer to the hair string belts that the women weave and wear at ceremonies for the Ancestor women, Kungka Kutjarra. Makinti distils her imagery into sweeping rhythmic lines symbolising the women dancing at ceremony.
Margaret Lewis Napangardi
Region: Yuendumu
Margaret Lewis Napangardi is a Warlpiri artists, sister of Dorothy Napangardi. She is also influenced by Judy Napangardi Watson as all three artists share the Women’s Ceremony of Mina Mina Jukurrpa. Margaret’s style varies between the minimal dot style and the expressive colour style of Judy Watson.
Mary McLean
Region: Docker River
Pantjiti Mary McLean is a Ngaatjatjarra artist (b1928) from Docker River. Her lyrical paintings show people in everyday activities in their campsites, with birds and animals, waterholes and fires all around. Her paintings are lively anecdotal observations from her family’s stories over many generations.
Maureen Hudson Nampijinpa
Region: Mt Allan
Maureen Hudson Nampijinpa is a Warlpiri artist from Mt Allan. Her paintings capture the rolling sandhill country of the Central Desert using subtle variations of colour. She embeds images of Water Dreaming and women’s ceremonial designs into her artworks, linking the country to its ritual connections.
Michelle Butler Nakamarra
Region: Alice Springs
Michelle Butler’s Dreamings have been passed down to her from both her grandfather and grandmother’s sides. She often paints the Seven Sisters Tjukurrpa, as well as Minyma Inmaku (Women’s Ceremonies), Bush Tucker and Water Dreaming stories from her Grandmother’s country in Western Australia. Her two grandfathers were significant artists, Dr George Tjapaltjarri and Tommy Lowry (Larry) Tjapaltjarri, both members of the original group of Papunya artists.
Michelle Cooper
Region: APY Lands
Michelle began painting under the guidance of her paternal grandmother, Kuntjil Cooper (1920-2010). Michelle learned the significant Women’s Dreaming stories from Pitjantjatjara culture including Two Sisters (Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa) and Seven Sister Dreamings.
Michelle Possum Nungurrayi
Region: Mt Allan
Michelle Possum Nungurrayi is a skilled Central Desert artist taught by her father Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Michelle paints Dreaming stories from near Mt Allan, inherited stories from the women’s side of her family. Her colourful paintings describe the many important cultural sites she knows well.
Minnie Pwerle
Region: Utopia
Minnie Pwerle (c1910 – 2006) is a highly collected Utopia artist. Her paintings of Awelye, women’s body paint designs, combine colour and movement into abstract linear structures. The repeated body paint design creates a rhythm that is highlighted by colour changes and echoes the flow of ceremonial dance.
Mitjili Napurrula
Region: Haasts Bluff
Mitjili Napurrula (1945- 2019) is a distinctive artist using tree motifs to represent Uwalki, a site on her father’s country. The bold images create harmonious patterns showing the trees used for creating spears. The artist often uses black and white to emphasise the forms, then adds rows of red sandhills.
Nada Rawlins
Region: Wangkatjungka
Nada Rawlins (1936- 2019) is a Wangkatjungka artist. She paints the waterholes from her ancestral lands at Percival Lakes, where the fresh water sits underneath the salt lake surface. Nada uses rich contrasts in colour to show sandhills and waterholes, which she lists by reciting the sequence of waterholes.
Nellie Marks Nakamarra
Region: Kintore
Nellie Marks Nakamarra is a Luritja artist, the stepdaughter of famous artist Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula. Nellie is custodian of Dreaming stories from her father’s and grandfather’s country east of Kintore. Her subjects include Water Dreaming Kalipinypa, Lightning Dreaming, Women’s Stories and Women’s Tingari.
Ningura Napurrula
Region: Kiwirrkura
Ningura Napurrula (1938 – 2013) from Kiwirrkura depicts mythological events on travels by the female Ancestor and the sacred sites she creates. Ningura contributed to designs for the surface decoration of the building at Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Her work is in major collections and art institutions.
Paddy Bedford
Region: Kununurra
Paddy Bedford (c1922- 2007) is a senior Gija artist from the East Kimberley, continuing the tradition of Rover Thomas and Paddy Jaminji, painting Country in pared-down designs and ochre colours. Later in his career Paddy Bedford used black and white into which he laid small amounts of contrasting colour.
Patrick Tjungurrayi
Region: Kiwirrkura
Patrick Tjungurrayi (1935- 2017) paints the Tingari Dreaming paths of his desert homelands between Balgo and Kiwirrkura. His use of colour is most closely connected to Balgo artists including his relatives Brandy Tjungurrayi and Elizabeth Nyumi. Patrick’s artwork has an authority and deep connection to Law.
Penny K Lyons
Region: Wangkatjungka
Penny K Lyons is a senior artist from Wangkatjungka community. She was one of the very last Walmajarri people to leave her homelands in the Great Sandy Desert. Penny’s paintings reflect her deep knowledge of her ancestral country and waterholes and the Dreaming stories that connecting people to the land.
Polly Ngale
Region: Utopia
Polly Ngale is senior custodian of her country Ahalpere at Utopia in Central Australia. She shares this country and Bush Plum Dreaming with her sisters Kathleen Ngale and Angeline Ngale. Polly creates paintings by building up layers of colour to create multi-dimensional images of the growth of bush plum.
Queenie McKenzie
Region: Warmun
Queenie McKenzie (1915- 1998) is a major ochre painter, born at Old Texas Downs Station. She was the first women painter to gain prominence in the East Kimberley. Her ochre paintings have harmonious use of design and colour, presenting the country around the Ord River with its Dreamings and history.
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa
Region: Kintore
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa is an original Papunya Tula artist. His art employs classic Pintupi style – geometric repeated forms, bold designs and minimal colour. Ronnie’s subjects are based on the Tingari Cycle, the secret Law for initiated men. The Tingari are Ancestral Beings who created the land and its Law.
Rosella Namok
Region: Lockhart River
Rosella Namok is a Lockhart River artist from northern Queensland. Her richly coloured paintings create the tropical rainstorms, the natural world and beach landscapes of her coastal homelands. Her work has been exhibited regularly at Japingka Gallery since 2013 and was used as a backdrop by Houston Ballet.
Rosemary Petyarre
Region: Utopia
Rosemary Petyarre paints the Bush Yam and Bush Medicine Leaves stories from her Utopia homelands. Rosemary’s art uses colour and movement and offsets these with fine white dotting which surrounds the designs. She paints with sister Jeannie Petyarre, re-telling the major women’s stories from her Country.
Rover Thomas
Region: Warmun
Rover Thomas (1926-1998) is one of Australia’s most significant Aboriginal artists. His minimal ochre paintings developed with Paddy Jaminji from traditional ceremonial dance boards stimulated a major painting school in the East Kimberley at Turkey Creek. Rover was represented at the Venice Biennale in 1990.
Samantha Hobson
Region: Lockhart River
Samantha Hobson is a leading Lockhart River artist. Her paintings are of Country and elements of nature in the tropics. Samantha paints the burning-off season on Cape York, the annual ritual of burning thick undergrowth after the wet season. She also paints aspects of the coast and Great Barrier Reef.
Sarrita King
Region: Darwin
Sarrita King creates her paintings with veils of dots, bringing together images of Country and waterways and paths of ancestors. Sarrita is a contemporary artist with an international following, who uses elements of the land and her own life story to create paintings about the connection of people to place.
Sonya Edney
Region: Gascoyne
Sonya Edney is a Gascoyne artist whose first near sell-out exhibition was at Japingka in 2019. Sonya paints the vast spinifex country and river plains of her Gascoyne homelands and the big night skies. Sonya has a grand sense of colour that recreates the sense of being inside the landscape.
Spinifex Artists
Region: Spinifex
The Spinifex artists’ first paintings recorded their connection to Pitjantjatjara lands as part of a Native Title claim. The artists are known for direct and powerful paintings showing the traditional country of their forebears. The artists produce their artworks for Spinifex Arts Project at Tjuntjuntjara.
Stumpy Brown
Region: Wangkatjungka
Stumpy Brown (1924- 2011) is a senior Wangkatjungka artist and custodian for her ancestral site Ngupawarlu in the Great Sandy Desert. Stumpy is full sister to famous Aboriginal artist Rover Thomas. She began painting at Fitzroy Crossing where bright, washed colour became a trademark of painters from the region.
Tarisse King
Region: Darwin
Tarisse King began painting at an early age mentored by her father William King Jungala (1966 – 2007). Her paintings of expansive landscapes reflect journeys made through Central Australia, including her Salt Lakes and Our Land series. Tarisse exhibits with her sister Sarrita King at both national and international venues.
Thomas Tjapaltjarri
Region: Kiwirrkura
Thomas Tjapaltjarri left the Gibson Desert in 1984 when his family emerged after 20 years isolation from his clan. The family settled in Kiwirrkurra where Thomas and his brothers developed into important artists. They painted Tingari Dreaming sites of their homelands using traditional geometric patterns.
Tjungkara Ken
Region: APY Lands
Tjungkara Ken is a Pitjantjatjara artist born in 1969 who lives in Amata, South Australia, on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands. She has exhibited widely throughout Australia and her work is represented in collections including Artbank, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, QAGOMA, and significant private collections.
Tommy Watson
Region: Alice Springs
Tommy Yannima Watson (c1935- 2017) is a major Pitjantjatara artist who began painting in 2001 at Irrunytju. His vibrant use of colour enlivens his sinuous compositions and suggests the spiritual life that exists inside the Dreamtime country. His large canvases receive critical acclaim across Australia and internationally.
Turbo Brown
Region: Murray River
Trevor Turbo Brown (1967-2017) paints the niave world of birds and animals, painting with energy and freshness. Turbo had a difficult upbringing, suffering from intellectual disability, homelessness and substance abuse. His art took him into a world of hope and joy with a deep empathy for the natural world.
Walala Tjapaltjarri
Region: Kiwirrkura
Walala Tjapaltajarri was born in the Gibson Desert east of Kiwirrkura in 1960s. In 1984 he was one of nine people from his Pintupi family group who walked into Kiwirrkura after 20 years separation. His connection to ancestral lands is shown in artworks of Tingari sites linked to Dreaming law.
Walangkura Napanangka
Region: Kintore
Pintupi artist Walangkura Napanangka (c1946- 2014) was born west of Kintore in the Gibson Desert. Her flowing paintings reveal the ceremonial sites on the journey of an Ancestor woman through her country. Her spiritual maps refer to the locations where women still gather to celebrate the ancestral creation journey.
Wentja Napaltjarri
Region: Mount Liebig
Wentja Napaltjarri (1945-2014) walked into Mt Liebig with her family in the 1940s. Her father Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi became one of the original Papunya artists. Like her sister Linda Syddick Napaltjarri, Wentja paints the great Pintupi stories and locations that they travelled through on their desert exodus.
Willie Kew
Region: Wangkatjungka
Willie Kew (c1930-2016) is named Luurn after the Creation Kingfisher spirit that made the ancestral waterhole at Nyirla, the artist’s birthplace along the Canning Stock Route. Kew uses ochre paints to tell the story of Luurn bringing the people to Nyirla and creating the underground water source there.
Yinarupa Gibson Nangala
Region: Kiwirrkura
Yinarupa Gibson Nangala is a Pintupi artist from Kiwirrkura, the daughter of Papunya Tula artist Anatjari Tjampitjinpa. Her paintings of her birthplace Mukula south-west of Jupiter Well, clearly mark the iconography of landmarks and sites used by her people for ceremonial rites connected to Tingari ancestors.
Yondee Shane Hansen
Region: South West Western Australia
Yondee Shane Hansen is a Noongar artist who records the stories and ground paintings inherited from his grandparents. He brings stories of Noongar culture to life through his contemporary artworks. He paints the Fire and Water cycle that brings the land into balance.
An Introduction to Australian Aboriginal Artists Continued
Some artists are highly educated while others will have little formal education. Many are cultural authorities. They might speak multiple Aboriginal languages as well as being fluent in English.
Some Aboriginal artists focus on sacred stories that they alone are authorised to tell. Other artists create art that reflects their broader life experience. Dreamtime stories and connection to traditional country are important themes for many.
Australian Aboriginal artists work across many art mediums including multimedia. Some exhibit through Aboriginal art centres, some through private galleries, many through both. There are seventy Aboriginal art centres in Australia and these are often a community hub. Family connection plays an important role for many Aboriginal artists, and an artist might have a number of close relatives who are also artists.
A large number of Australian Aboriginal artists have international reputations for excellence. Many are noted for their exceptional level of natural talent in composition and use of colour.
There are artists who still lead a traditional life. They might hunt for food and hold the same spiritual beliefs of their ancestors. Others have Christian beliefs due to the influence of Christian missions.
There is no one Aboriginal art style, although dot art is very famous and well recognised. Aboriginal artists use extraordinarily diverse art styles and palettes. The diversity takes many people by surprise.
For many Aboriginal artists, country is a source of inspiration and a spiritual homeland. Stories are important. Family is important.
Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery, proudly associated with the Indigenous Art Code and the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia, is excited to share with you exciting works from this wide range of artists.