George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi | FireWorks Gallery

Artist Tabs

Selected works

FW15561 Tingari	FW15565 Tingari	FW15566 Tingari
FW15567 Tingari	FW13408 Tingari	FW10278 Tingari dreaming at Kirrimalunya
FW1651 Sandhills	FW4865 Wala wala (tingari)

Bio & CV

Born: c. 1947
Language: Pintupi
Country: Pintupi
Region: Kintore WA

George Hairbrush was born circa 1947 in his traditional Pintupi country in the remote Western Desert region of Australia. Around 1976 he affiliated himself with the Papunya Tula artist group where he launched his career as an artist. George predominantly paints aspects of the Tingari Dreaming, which features mythical characters who traveled throughout the country and shaped the landscape. He was a Finalist in the 2007 Art Gallery NSW Wynne Prize. George’s works are exhibited and collected by many galleries and institutions throughout Australia and held in private, corporate and public collections.

Story/Statement

TINGARI & TALI SANDHILLS
Tingari ancestors are believed to have travelled through the Western Desert creating sacred sites and handing down responsibility of the continuity of all laws and ceremonies. Tingari gathered and performed at sacred sites, and this songline ritual of both ceremony, and more recently dot/circle/line painting, remain part of this continuing tradition. The (Men’s) Tingari designs are iconoclastically embedded into the essential traditions of the Western Desert art movement of the Pintupi. George also paints a Tali Sandhill design depicted with tight wavering parallel lines.

The Artist’s Sandhill and Tingari dreaming stories often refer to sacred sites such as Kirrimalunya, Mamultjuka, Wala Wala and sites near the communities of Kintore and Kiwirrkurra in the WA/NT border zones.

Courtesy of FireWorks Gallery

“Tjungurrayi’s paintings marks are fluid, flowing, broken only by the need to replenish the brush with fresh paint. His paintings are not fundamentally motivated by the stories they tell but by their material expression… look at the sudden twists and turns the lines take in his paintings...it is the constraints of procedure and not of tradition that increasingly structure all aspects of Tjungurrayi’s work: its design, its colours, its finishing.”

Rex Butler essay Sprit & Vision 2004 P 113

GEORGE HAIRBRUSH TJUNGURRAYI

Born: c. 1947
Language: Pintupi
Country: Pintupi
Region: Kintore WA

EXHIBITIONS - SOLO

2016 Desert Line FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2015 Paintings | George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi Gow Langsford Gallery Auckland NZ

2013 Pulka Canvasa Utopia Art Sydney at The Depot Gallery Sydney

2011 Space and Place Utopia Art Sydney

2008 Between the Lines Utopia Art Sydney

2003 Paintings from Mamultjulkulnga and Kirrimalunya Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2003 Unforeseen1989 to 2002 Fireworks Gallery Brisbane

2002 New Fields Utopia Art Sydney

1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

1997 George Tjungurrayi - first solo show Utopia Art Sydney

EXHIBITIONS - SELECTED GROUP

2020 Spring FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2020 Linesmen FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2014 Abstraction Utopia Art Sydney

2014 The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

2013 The Salon Utopia Art Sydney

2013 Painting Now Utopia Art Sydney

2013 No Boundaries Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre Brighton Victoria

2013 LANDSCAPE Utopia Art Sydney

2013 Community V Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Volume One: MCA Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney

2012 Abstraction Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Classic Works from Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan and Levi Collection Seattle Art Museum Seattle USA

2012 Interconnected Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Repertoire Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Community IV: Celebrating Forty Years of Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2012 Unique Perspectives: Papunya Tula Artists and the Alice Springs Community Araluen Arts Centre Darwin

2011 Eclectica Exhibitions Series (I II & III) FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2011 AAA - Australian Abstract Art Utopia Art Sydney

2011 40 Forty Years of Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2011 Pintupi Art 2011 A P Bond Gallery Adelaide

2011 Papunya Tula Artists - Community III Utopia Art Sydney

2010 Tradition and Innovation Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2010 Museum III Utopia Art Sydney

2010 PTA NOW Utopia Art Sydney

2010 Melbourne Art Fair 2010 Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne

2010 Desert Country Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide

2010 Ngurra Kutju Ngurrara - Belonging to One Country ReDot Gallery Singapore

2010 The Desert Mob Art Show Araluen Art Centre Alice Springs

2010 Wilkinkarralakutu - Journeys to Lake Mackay Cross Cultural Art Exchange Darwin

2010 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Darwin

2010 Darwin Aboriginla Art Fair Darwin Convention Centre Darwin

2010 Aboriginal Art 2010 Scott Livesey Galleries Melbourne

2010 Tradition and innovation - Papunya Tuula 2010 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2010 Recent Paintings Chapman Gallery Canberra

2009 Papunya Classica Utopia Art Sydney Sydney

2009 Nganana Tjungurrayi Tjukurrpa Nintintjakitja: We are Here Sharing our Dreaming East Galleries New York USA

2009 Papunya Tula Classics Utopia Art Sydney

2009 Papunya 2009: Senior Pintupi Artists Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2009 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair The Chan Building Bennett Park Darwin

2009 Painting the Country Cross Cultural Art Exchange Darwin

2009 26th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Darwin

2009 Togart Contemporary Art Award Darwin

2009 Pintupi 2009 Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer Adelaide

2009 Community - The Heart of Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2009 Nganamatju Kanpatja Winki, Nganampatju Yara Winkii - All Our Paintings, All Our Stories Papunya Tula Artists Alice Springs

2008 Between the Lines Utopia Art Sydney Sydney

2008 From the air FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2008 Repeat this again: the serial impulse in art since the 60s University of Queensland Art Museum Brisbane

2008 Anzac Artists 2008 FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2008 Ngurra Yurru Kulintjaku - Always Remembering Country CCAE Darwin

2008 David Larwill and the Western Desert Artists Stephen Wiess Studio New York USA

2008 TogArt Contemporary Art Award Darwin Convention Centre Darwin

2008 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Darwin Convention Centre Darwin

2008 Aboriginal Art 2008 Scott Livesey Galleries Melbourne

2008 The Desert Mob Show Araluen Art Centre Alice Springs

2008 20 Years of Papunya Tula Artists Utopia Art Sydney

2008 Pintupi Art 2008 Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer Adelaide

2008 Kintore to Kiwirrkura - Papunya Tula Artists ReDot Gallery Singapore

2008 TogArt Contemporary Art Award Araluen Art Centre Alice Springs

2007 Lines and Signs FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2007 The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

2007 Group Show Jan Murphy Gallery Brisbane

2007 Pintupi - Mixed Exhibition Papunya Tula Artists Alice Springs

2006 Homage to the Square FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2006 Western Desert Satellites Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth

2006 Three Large Rooms FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2006 Pintupi Hamilton Gallery London UK

2006 Pintupi Dreamtime ReDot Gallery Singapore

2006 Art Forum Berlin (in association with David Pestorius Gallery Brisbane and PWG Brisbane)

2005 The Dark and the Light II FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2005 New Works from the Western Desert Indigenart Perth

2005 The Wynne Prize Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

2004 Spirit and Vision Sammlung Essl Vienna Austria

2004 Talking About Abstraction Ivan Dougherty Gallery College of Fine Arts UNSW Sydney

2004 The Inner and the Outer Stadtgalerie Bamberg Villa Dessauer Bamberg Germany

2004 Mythology and Reality Heide Museum of Modern Art Melbourne

2003 Masterpieces from the Western Desert Gavin Graham Gallery London UK

2003 Aboriginal Art 2003 Scott Livesey Galleries Melbourne

2002-3 Unforseen FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2002 Utopia Art Sydney

2002 Meridian: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney

2002 Lines II FireWorks Gallery Brisbane

2002 Structures of Difference Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Connecticut USA

2001 Art of Pintupi Tony Bond Art Dealer Adelaide

2001 Australia Kintore and Kiwirrkura

2001 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

2001 Palm Beach Art Fair Palm Beach Florida

2001 William Mora Galleries Melbourne

2001 A Survey of Recent Aboriginal Art Australian Exhibition Centre Chicago USA

2001 Toronto International Art Fair Toronto Canada

2001 Dreamtime: The Dark and the Light Kunst der Gegenwart Sammlung Essl Vienna AMG Gallery Paris France

2001 Papunya Tula 2001 William Mora Galleries Melbourne

2001 Kintore and Kiwirrkura Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

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

1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi Melbourne

1997 Utopia Art Sydney

AWARDS

2010 27th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award Darwin (highly commended)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2001 Dreamtime Zeitgenossische Aboriginal Art Edition Sammlung Essl (Hrsg) Klosterneuburg Ausst Kat ISBN 3902001038

1994 Johnson V Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert A Biographical Dictionary Craftsman House East Roseville ISBN 9768097817

COLLECTIONS

Art Gallery of South Australia Adelaide

Artbank Sydney

Museum of Victoria Melbourne

Groninger Museum The Netherlands

Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane

Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney

Kunst Der Aborigines

Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney

Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory Darwin

National Gallery of Australia Canberra

Seattle Art Museum Seattle USA

Araluen Art Centre Alice Springs

Kunstwerk Sammlung Alison und Peter W Klein

Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht The Netherlands

Robert Holmes a Court Collection Perth

National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne

Supreme Court of the Northern Territory Darwin

Sammlung Essl Germany

Musee des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie Paris France

University of Virginia USA

Past exhibitions

SOLO

Desert Line 2016

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