Walangkura Napanangka | FireWorks Gallery

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Selected works

FW9185

Womens' Ceremony

FW10289

Kutunga Devil Devil Woman

Bio & CV

Born: c.1940 Tjiturulnga west of Walungurru (Kintore) WA - died 2014
Language: Pintupi
Region: Walungurru, Kintore NT

Walangkura began her painting practice in 1995 through a collaborative canvas project between the Kintore and Haasts Bluff communities titled 'Minyma Tjukurrpa'. Later, she went on to depict the story of the ‘devil devil’ woman, who kills and eats people whilst journeying from the west. Important landscape sites, including rock holes, sand hills and underground caves are also depicted in her works. Walangkura has exhibited extensively, including in the landmark show 'Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius' held in 2000 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Her works are held in private, corporate and public collections.

Story/Statement

Walangkura's early works, created from 1996 onward, are characterized by masses of small markings and motifs covering large areas of canvas. Her favourite colour – a deep sandy orange – predominates, accentuated against more somber blacks and reds and dusky greens or yellows. Her later works show a gestural quality though still tightly packed with an intensity of geometric line work representing sand hills. In a sense this provides a strong visual and contextual link to the men's linear style as exemplified by the works of George Tjungurayi, Turkey Tolson and Willy Tjungurayi. The paintings are rich with a sense of rhythm and unimpeded movement, portraying sand hills, rock holes, journeys and gatherings of ancestral women and the flow of colours in subtle shifts of light. Many of these are monumental works that transmit the confidence of an assured and dynamic creativity. Walangkura transmits the power of the desert, soaked up during her childhood years, and imbues her works with the mystery of a sacred perception.

WALANGKURA NAPANANGKA

Born: c.1940 Tjiturulnga west of Walungurru (Kintore) WA - died 2014

Language: Pintupi

Region: Walungurru Kintore NT

EXHIBITIONS—SOLO

2004 Walangkura Napangangka Utopia Art Sydney

2003 Solo Exhibition - Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne　

EXHIBITIONS—GROUP (SELECTED)

2013 Painting Now: Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2008 Red Desert Gallery Eumundi QLD

2006 Three Large Rooms FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2006 Luminaries of the Desert Japinka Gallery Perth

2005 Dark and the Light IV FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2005 Papunya Tula Artists Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2005 22nd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

2005 Across Skin: Women Artists of the Western Desert Japingka Gallery Perth

2004 Papunya Tula Artists Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2004 Mythology and Reality Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Heide Museum of Modern Art Melbourne

2004 21st Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

2003 Emerge Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory

2003 Paintings from Our Country Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer Adelaide

2002 Land is Life: Art from Australia Jagdschloss Granitz Binx Rügen Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr Speyer)

2001 Dreamscapes Contemporary Desert Art Mostings Hus Fredriksberg Denmark

2000 Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genuis Art Gallery of New South Wales

1999 Flinders Art Museum Flinders University Adelaide　

1998 Sztuka Aborygenow - Art of the Aborigines Warsaw Poland　

1997 - 2002 Araluen Arts Centre Alice Springs

AWARDS

2005 1st prize Redlands Westpac Art Prize

COLLECTIONS

Aboriginal Art Museum The Netherlands

Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

Artbank

Gabrielle Pizzi Collection

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Darwin

The Kelton Foundation Los Angeles USA

National Gallery of Australia

Private and public collections

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