Walangkura Napanangka

DOB: c.1946
Born: PAPUNYA
SKIN NAME NAPANANGKA
LANGUAGE PINTUPI
REGION TJITURULNGA

About Artist:
Walangkura Napanangka was born about 1940 in the bush at Tjiturulnga, west of Walungurru (Kintore) in the Gibson Desert, near the Western Australia/Northern Territory border. Her 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 community of Walungurru in 1981 and 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 ceremonial sites and creation stories associated with the Tjukurrpa of her Pintupi homelands.

Although she has been showing regularly, Walangkura is, in the opinion of Reg Richardson:
"an artist of stellar quality, destined for the big time. She may already be there."

Her work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria and Artbank collections.
In January 2007, Walangkura Napanangka was included in the Australian Art Collector's list of the 50 most collectable artists for the first time.

Highest Auction Price - $72,000
103 works have sold at auction since 1993

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 QLD

COLLECTIONS:
Art Gallery of NSW
National Gallery of Australia
Artbank, Sydney
The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands
Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Queensland Art Gallery
Private Collections

Select Bibliography
Isaacs, J., Spirit Country: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Hardie Grant Books, San Francisco, 1999.
Mellor, D. and Megaw V., Twenty Five Years and Beyond, Papunya Tula Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Flinders Art Museum, Flinders Press, Adelaide, 1999.
Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2000.
Bahr, Elizabeth. The Unseen in Scene, exhibition catalogue, Aboriginal Art Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany, 2000.
Walangkura Napanangka: Recent Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, 2003.Bardon, Geoffrey; Ryan, Judith; Pizzi, Gabrielle; Stanhope, Zara., Mythology and Reality
Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 2004.
Dreamscapes-Contemporary Desert Art, exhibition catalogue, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark, 2001.
Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Aboriginal Art 2002, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2002.
Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Aboriginal Art 2003, exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2003
Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Masterpieces From The Western Desert, exhibition catalogue, London, 2003

Auction Details:
Title: Kutungka Napanangka at Papunga 2005
Details: Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 182 x 300 cm,
Auction Price: A$52,800
Auction House: Lawson~Menzies, Modern, Contemporary Australian and Important Abor, Sydney, 19/03/2008, Lot No. 242

135 works listed from the 1970's onwards.