Yinarupa Nangala / Women’s Dreaming (YN01)

Yinarupa Nangala was born c. 1961 in Mukula, which lies in open country south-west of Jupiter Well in Western Australia. She is the daughter of the late Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, a founding member of the Papunya Tula art movement. She lives at the Kiwirrkura Community in Western Australia along with her brother Ray James Tjangala, another well respected Papunya Tula Artist.

Yinarupa is the widow of another one of the founding desert artists, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, and her own art bears a faint, affecting resemblance to his work.  Together they had 5 children.

Yinarupa has both witnessed and been influenced by the extraordinary Papunya Tula art movement, but her first foray into painting in her own right only began in 1996.  As with many of the wives of early Papunya artists, they played an integral part in the finished artworks of their husbands’ early works, often executing the ‘infill’ of many of these artworks.

Although recognised as a serious talent by astute collectors for many years which included a sell out solo exhibition in 2007, it wasn’t until Yinarupa won the prestigious General Painting Award at the 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2009 that the art world really sat up and took notice of this incredible talent.

Selected Exhibitions

2023 Central Desert Showcase, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2022 Utopia & Beyond, Art Mob, Hobart
2022 Irrititja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past & Present Together: 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Part 2, Kluge-Ruhe Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, USA
2022 Sandhill Country | Paintings of Inland Australia, Japingka Gallery, Freemantle
2021 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Pintupi Masters – Enduring Dreamings, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Director’s Choice 2020, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 International Women’s Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Defining Tradition: the first wave & its disciples, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Pintupi Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2018 Community IX, Utopia Art, Sydney
2018 Papunya Tula Artists: Visual Rhythm II, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2018 Sydney Contemporary 2018, Carriageworks, Sydney
2017 Community VIII, Utopia Art, Sydney
2016 The Last Hurrah, Utopia Art, Sydney
2015 Wynners, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2015 Kanaputa – Women’s Lore, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2014 Mini Masters: Small Works, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2014 Community VI, Utopia Art, Sydney
2014 Desert Song, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2014 Tjukurrpa Ngaatjanya Maru Kamu Tjulkura – Dreaming in Black and White, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2013 Painting Now, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Little Gems, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2012 Heirs and Successors, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2012 Unique Perspectives: Papunya Tula Artists and the Alice Springs Community, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
2011 Thinking Outside the Square, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2011 In Black & White, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA
2011 Papunya Tula Women’s Art, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Maitland
2010 Stories from the Centre, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2010 Papunya Tula Artists: Art of the Western Desert, Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley
2010 Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
2010 Ngurra Kutju Ngurrara – Belonging To One Country, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2009 Nganana Tjungurrayi Tjukurrpa Nintintjakitja: We are Here Sharing our Dreaming, East Galleries, New York
2008 Ngurra Yurru Kulintjaku – Always Remembering Country, CCAE, Darwin
2008 Papunya Tula Artists 2008, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2008 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin
2008 Pintupi Art 2008, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2008 Pintupi – Mixed Exhibition, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2007 Yinarupa Nangala, John Gordon Gallery, Coffs Harbour, NSW
2007 Yinarupa Nangala | Solo show, Papunya Tula Artists in association with John Gordon Gallery, Papunya Tula, Alice Springs
2007 Kiwirrkurra Women, Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2007 Papunya Tula Woman, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane
2007 Aboriginal Art 2007, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2007 Recent Paintings 2007, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2007 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2007 Rising Stars, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2007 The Black and White Show, Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
2007 Pintupi Art 2007, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2007 Pintupi – Mixed Exhibition, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2006 A Particular Collection, Utopia Art, Sydney
2006 Papunya Tula Artists – Recent Paintings, Harriet Place, Darwin
2005 Pintupi Women, Indigenart, Perth
2004 The Desert Mob Art Show, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Comunidad de Madrid touring exhibition, Spain

Awards and Recognition
2016 33rd NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2015 32nd NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2014 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney – Finalist
2014 31st NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2010 Alice Art Prize, Alice Springs – Finalist and Honourable Mention
2010 Western Australian Art Prize, Perth – Finalist
2009 26th NATSIAA, Darwin – Winner General Painting Award
2009 Western Australian Art Prize, Perth – Finalist
2008 25th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2008 TogArt Contemporary Art Award, Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin – Finalist

Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Luczo Family Collection, USA
Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Mukula, east of Jupiter Well in Western Australia. During ancestral times a large group of women came from the west and stopped at this site to perform the ceremonies associated with the area. The women later continued their travels towards the east, passing through Ngaminya, Kiwirrkurra and Wirrulnga on their way to Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay). As the women travelled they gathered a variety of bush foods including kampurarrpa berries (desert raisin) and pura (bush tomato). Kampurarrpa berries can be eaten directly from the plant but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked on the coals as a type of damper, while pura is roughly the size of an apricot and, after the seeds have been removed, can be stored for long periods by halving the fruit and skewering them onto a stick. The shapes in the painting represent the features of the country through which they travelled as well as the bush foods they gathered.