Ningura Napurrula

Ningura Napurrula Biography

Ningura Napurrula was born c.1938 in Watulka, south of Kiwirrkurra in Western Australia. The widow of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, a highly respected Pintupi elder who held significant knowledge of his countries Dreaming stories, Ningura first began to paint in her own right in 1995, in the second year of the Haasts Bluff/Kintore women’s painting project.

Ningura has been named as “one of the most collectible artists” by the The Australian Art Collector magazine. She paints classical images based on ancestral women’s stories using bold intricate linework and a dense monochrome infilling of colour. As a traditional woman Ningura often sings the songs for the story appearing on the canvas as she paints.

Using designs associated with the rockhole sites of Palturunya and Wirrulnga, east of the Kiwirrkura Community (Mt. Webb) in Western Australia, Ningura’s paintings depict the mythological events of her female ancestors and the sacred sites that they passed and the bush tucker they collected. The concentric circles represent rockholes whilst the arcs depict the higher rocky outcrops near the site. The ‘U’ shapes within her paintings represent women camped at the site, reflecting the mark left in the sand by the seated women.

In 2005 Ningura Napurrula was invited to paint a portion of the ceiling in the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris, France.

Ningura Napurrula Description

Ningura Napurrula Resumé

Selected exhibitions
2006 Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, France.
2005 Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
2005 Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens
2005 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2004 Mythology and Reality - Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2004 Peintres Pintupi, Galerie DAD,
2004 Mantes-la-Jolie, France. 2000- William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, Victoria
2003 Glen Eira City; Mason Gallery at Japinka WA
2003 Gabriella Pizzi, Melbourne
2003 Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Toskansky Place, Prague, Czech Republic
2003 Masterpieces from the Western Desert, Gavin Gallery, London, UK.
2002 Araluen Art Centre.
2001 Telstra Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
2001 Pintupi, Alice Springs
2001 Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy
2000 Gabrielle Pizzie Melbourne
2000 Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW
1999 Utopia Art Sydney
1996 Papunya Tula, Alice Springs

Awards and Important Commissions
2002 Australian Post - the Stamps (LEFT) $1.10 Ningura Napurrula (Pintupi)
2002 Alice Prize
2001 Finalist 18th Telstra Art Award, Australian National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Award

Collections
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France.
HOOD Museum of Art, Hanover, MA, USA.
National Museum of Women in the Arts. Washington, USA
The Palace of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Alice Springs Art Price Collection, Alice Springs
Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin
The Harold Mitchell Foundation and the Australia Council
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Australian Tourism collection, Adelaide
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Collection
Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Collection Architecture Australia magazine