Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi & Michelle Possum Nungurrayi

Sisters Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi and Michelle Possum Nungurrayi have carried on the legacy of their father, the late artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, who died in 2002. Both these second generation artists have established their reputations painting the ancestral stories that have come down to them from their parents and grandparents.

Gabriella and Michelle continue to use the references to the stories while building on the colour structures and extending the scope of their work to include aspects of Women’s Dreaming. These stories come from the homelands of Yuelamu near Mt Allan. This community was one of the early properties returned to ownership of the local people, when it was transferred in 1976.

Much of the iconography employed by Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi and Michelle Possum Nungurrayi in their paintings have a clear stylistic connection to the devices created by their father and uncle. The tradition therefore is closely linked to the beginnings of the Papunya desert art movement.

As Anmatyerre speakers, both Gabriella and Michelle have close associations with the Creation stories that took place across their country. The Seven Sisters Dreaming story is one of the powerful myths around the constellation of the Pleaides, and is beautifully rendered in Gabriella’s paintings. In other complex paintings the artists have followed in the footsteps of their father, amalgamating aspects of several adjoining stories, such that they tell of the interwoven Jukurrpa strands that criss-cross their country.

Related artists:

• Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi