Bob Gibson Tjungurrayi / Tingari (BOB102)
SKU: BOB102
155cm x 87cm Acrylic on Canvas
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155cm x 87cm Acrylic on Canvas
Artist Profile
Bob Gibson Tjungurrayi is a highly distinctive Western Desert artist known for his bold colour, expressive brushwork and wonderfully free approach to painting. Born at Papunya in 1974, Bob later moved with his family to the remote community of Tjukurla, returning closer to his family’s ancestral lands in the Western Desert. His mother, renowned artist Mary Gibson, is connected to Country at Kulkurta, while his father’s Country lies near Patjarr on the edge of the Gibson Desert.
Bob began painting with Tjarlirli Art in 2007 and quickly developed a style entirely his own. He paints with remarkable freedom and instinct, working quickly and allowing one brushstroke, shape or colour to lead into the next. Squares, rectangles, circles and looping forms move across the canvas, overlapping and pressing against one another, while the physical movement of Bob’s hand remains clearly visible in every work.
Bob is non-verbal, making painting an especially important form of personal expression for him. His personality comes through strongly in his work, in the energy of his brushstrokes, his fearless use of colour and the wonderful spontaneity of his compositions. His paintings are immediate and expressive, with a visual language that is unmistakably his own.
Those who know Bob speak warmly of a man who is deeply loved within his community and generous in the support he gives to his extended family. He is a keen Sydney Swans supporter and loves listening to music, particularly the local bush bands. This warmth, energy and individuality can be felt in his paintings, which are often as vibrant and full of character as the artist himself.
Beneath the apparent freedom and spontaneity of Bob’s paintings lies a strong connection to Country and Tjukurrpa. He has permission to paint his father’s Country at Patjantja, an important ancestral place in the Western Desert, and his work brings together ancient cultural knowledge with a bold and completely contemporary approach to painting.
Bob has become an internationally recognised artist and one of the most distinctive contemporary painters to emerge from Tjukurla. His work has been exhibited throughout Australia and internationally, and a major painting, Patjantja, was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in 2018.
Selected Achievements
• 2025 – Wanambi Kutjara, solo exhibition, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
• 2023 – Bob Gibson: His Father’s Country, Ricco/Maresca, New York
• 2022 – Bob & Mary, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
• 2021 – Hadley’s Art Prize, Hobart; Bayside Acquisitive Art Award, Melbourne
• 2019 – 36th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin
• 2018 – Port Hedland Art Award; Albany Art Prize
• 2017 – NGURRA: Home in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, South Australian Museum, Adelaide
• 2009 – First solo exhibition, Perth
Selected Collections
• Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Artwork Description
The Tingari Cycle encompasses ancestral journeys extending across vast areas of the Western Desert, connecting people, places, ceremony, law and Country. Much of the deeper cultural knowledge associated with the Tingari is restricted, and paintings such as these offer a public expression of these continuing cultural connections without revealing sacred knowledge.
In his Tingari paintings, Bob Gibson Tjungurrayi interprets this cultural landscape through his own highly individual visual language. Squares, rectangles, circles and spiralling forms move across the canvas, evoking places, pathways and connections within Country. Some works are built from dense networks of irregular geometric forms, while others feature circular shapes floating within broad fields of colour. Despite their visual differences, they share the same unmistakable energy and freedom of movement.
Bob’s forms are never rigid or precise. They lean into one another, overlap, twist and shift across the surface of the painting. Colours collide and reappear, while his loose, visible brushstrokes retain the movement and immediacy of the painting process. His works can appear spontaneous, even playful, yet they remain grounded in Country and the cultural knowledge that underpins his practice. QAGOMA has described his characteristic compositions as “mind-map” landscapes, with irregular forms relating to sites and connections across the Western Desert.
For Bob, painting is also an important means of personal expression. As a non-verbal artist, he communicates through colour, movement and form with extraordinary confidence and individuality. Each painting carries something of Bob himself: energetic, instinctive, generous and completely original.
Through his Tingari paintings, Bob brings together ancient cultural knowledge and a highly contemporary way of seeing and painting. The result is a body of work that is raw, joyful and unmistakably his own.
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