Walangkura Napanangka DOB: c.1946 -2014
BORN: PAPUNYA
REGION: TJITURULNGA, west of Kintore, in the remote area between the Northern Territory and Western Australia
SKIN NAME: NAPANANGKA
LANGUAGE: PINTUPIWalangkura Napanangka was born in 1946 at Tjiturulnga. She moved to Haasts Bluff before finally settling in Kintore, west of Alice Springs. Walangkura’s family was amongst a group of Pintupi people who made their way to the Ikuntji settlement (Haasts Bluff) in 1956. They walked hundreds of kilometres from west of the Salt Lake of Karrkurutinjinya (Lake Macdonald) to access the supplies of food and water on offer at the settlement. The family returned to their homeland’s community of Walungurru in 1981. Walangkura now resides in Kintore with her husband and fellow artist Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula. Her mother, Inyuwa Nampitjinpa and sister, Pirrmangka Napanangka, both deceased were also painters. Her father was Tutuma Tjapangati.Walangkura began her painting career through participating in the historic Kintore-Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project ‘Minyma Tjukurrpa’ in 1995. Her paintings exude a powerful energy, recreating the creation stories and ceremonial sites associated with the Tjukurrpa of her Pintupi homelands.In January 2007, Walangkura Napanangka was included in the Australian Art Collector’s list of the 50 most collectable artists. Her work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Artbank and The Kelton Foundation.SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
1997 – 2002 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs 1998 ‘Sztuka Aborygenow’ – (Art of the Aborigines), Warsaw, Poland
1998 The Desert Mob Art Show, Arulen Center, Alice Springs.
1999 Utopia Art Sydney; Flinders University Art Museum
1999 Flinders Art Museum, Flinders University, Adelaide
2000 Pintupi, Alice Springs
2000 Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of NSW
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
2000 Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2001 Dreamscapes – Contemporary Desert Art, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark
2001 Size Doesn’t Matter- Papunya Tula Painting 1997-2001, William Mora Galleries
2002 Melbourne Art Fair
2003 Mythology and Reality, S.H Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2003 Solo Exhibition – Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2003 Aboriginal Art 2003, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2003 Recent Paintings by The Women Artists of Kintore and Kiwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi.
2004 Walankura Napanangka, Utopia Art Society
2004 Pintupi Art 2004
2004 Papunya Tula Artists, Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2004 Chapman Gallery Canberra; The Inner and The Outer
2004 Melbourne Art Fair 2004
2005 Across Skin – Women Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2008 – Red Desert Gallery, Eumundi QLYONDEE (meaning Black Goanna) Shane HansenYondee is a Noongar man from Western Australia, now based in Ipswich in Queensland. He was born in 1964 in Dumbleyung, 270km south of Perth. The name Dumbleyung is derived from the Aboriginal word “Dambeling” means large lake and refers to the lake nearby which is the largest in southwest WA. His works are abstract in their presentation but narrative in their content.