Ningura Napurrula

Ningura Napurrula was born at Watulka, south of Kiwirrkurra, Western Australia circa 1938. She is the widow of Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, a highly respected Pintupi elder who held significant knowledge of his countries Dreaming stories.
Ningura’s paintings depict designs associated with the rockhole sites of Palturunya and Wirrulnga, east of the Kiwirrkura Community (Mt. Webb) in Western Australia. The concentric cirlces represent rockholes and the arcs represent the higher rocky outcrops near the site. The U shapes represents a woman camped at the site.
Ningura depicts the mythological events of her ancestors. Her artwork focuses on the travels of her female ancestors, the sacred sites that they passed, and the mythological significance of the bush tucker that they collected. In mythological times, one old woman, Kutunga Napanangka, passed through this site during her travels towards the east. She passed through numerous sites along the way before arriving at the permanent water site of Muruntji, south west of Mt. Leibig. These travels and rituals help to explain the current customs and the ceremonial lives of these Pintupi women.
Ningura Napurrula is of one of the eight great Australian artists whose work is featured in the permanent collection of one of the Europe’s most important public museum, Musee Quai Branly in Paris. Ningura is one of Australia’s 50 most collectable artists according the Australian Art Collector magazine.

Awards

2002 – Alice Prize, highly recommended.
2001 – Finalist 18th Telstra Art Award, Australian National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Award

Selected Major Exhibitions

2004 – Mythology and Reality – Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, Melbourne;
2004 – Peintres Pintupi, Galerie DAD, Mantes-la-Jolie, France;
2003 – Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Prague, Toskansky Place, Prague, Czech Republic;
2003- Masterpieces from the Western Desert, Gavin Graham Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
2001 – Aborigena at the Palazzo Bricherasio, Turin, Italy;
2000 – Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney;

Collections

The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;
The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin;
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney;
The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
The Queensland National Art Gallery, Brisbane;
The Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra;
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France;
Luciano Benetton ,Fashion House, Presidente, Italy-Private Collection (March 2011)