Karnta Karnta Billy Thomas
In his own words, Billy was born “wild” in the mid 1920ʻs south of Billiluna Station in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. After a career as a stockman, police tracker, and traditional healer, Billy Thomas was to become renowned as an artist.
Kathleen Ngale
An amazing energetic elderly artist, she experimented with colour and brush strokes in creating works that had energy and intensity, and canvases that exuded clouds of luminosity, celebrating the seasons and productivity of her country…
Lena Nyadbi
Lena has been painting at the Warmun Art Centre since it commenced operation in August 1998 and has developed an international reputation as an original and dynamic painter. Lena is one of eight artists featured in the Musee Du Quai Branly project opened in Paris in 2006.
Linda Syddick Napaltjarri
Gibson Desert, WA, Western Desert
Just as the Dreaming connects all of life, Linda herself incorporates contemporary events into the Dreaming…
Margaret Baragurra
Margaret Baraburra paintings is known for combining traditional designs from the Great Sandy Desert with the vibrant colours of the saltwater landscape of the Kimberley. Her artwork has enjoyed critical acclaim and she has been widely exhibited. Her work evokes powerful memories of her country in…
Mary Gibson Nakamarra
Born in the bush at a place called Kurnilwarri between Tjukurla and Patjarr in the Gibson desert. Mary Gibson is married to senior law man Kelly Peterman, a Director of Tjarlirli Art Centre at Tjukurla, WA. They live near the Docker River community with their children.
Matthew Freddy Puruntatameri
With an outstanding reputation as a leading Tiwi artists, Matthew has worked with ochres on paper, linen, bark and iron wood carvings.
Maxie Tjampitjinpa
Maxie Tjampitjinpa started producing some of the first works in the Western Desert art devoid of the design elements which up to that point had been its defining feature.
Mignonette Jamin
“Muthanoongamaya is my country…” Mignonette painted her traditional country – the rivers and billabongs, coastal areas, the hills, rocky ridges, roads and other land marks as well as sites significant to women’s business which belonged to her dreaming for country at Majalindy.
Mitjili Napanangka Gibson
Kiwirrkurra (Gibson Desert), WA
When Miltjili was a young girl, her aunties would tell her stories about her country and the Jukurrpa or Dreaming stories associated with Mina Mina, a sacred site for Napanangka’s and Napangardi’s.
Pamela Napurrurla Walker
Pamela’s paintings have strong iconic themes that are colourful and bold. She paints her father’s jurkurrpa, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were told to her by her father, stories that have been passed down…
Pauline Woods Nakamarra
Pauline Woods was one of the leading figures of her time in the formation and development of Jukurrpa Artists (a women’s collective). She was also the first female artist to win the National Aboriginal Art Award in 1988 and in 1993 she became the first Aboriginal woman artist to have her work…
Polly Napangardi Watson
Polly emerged as a significant painter very early in her painting career, which began in 1987. She has been represented in major international exhibitions since 1990 with her works acquired by public and private collections around the world.
Queenie Nakarra McKenzie
One of the most senior figures in Gija women’s law and ceremony, and one of the most prominent painters of the Warmun (Turkey Creek) community.
Rachel Jurra Napaltjarri
Taught to paint by her cousin Eunice Napangardi, Rachel Napaltjarri commenced painting in 1985…
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa
Walungurru (Kintore), Western Desert, NT
One of Australia’s most visionary artists, Ronnie Tjampitjinpa is recognised for his bold, distinctive graphic style, that depicts the Tingari ancestors…
Rusiate Lali
Stunning Melanesian Aesthetic Energized with Powerful Modernist Expression… Rusiate Lali is a man of his times. Coming from a long lineage of potters, carvers, tapa cloth and fibre artists, Rusiate is one of the most exciting and provocative artists to exhibit at Gallery Gondwana. In 1999 he was…
Sabrina Nangala Robinson
Daughter of the highly acclaimed and late Dorothy Napangardi, Sabrina is a talented artist in her own right.
Sonia Kurarra
Sonia Kurarra grew up in the river country at Yungngora (Noonkanbah). She paints the sandy billabong country along the stretch of the Fitzroy River. Sonia relates her paintings to her birth country, Martuwarra (River Country), rather than her ancestral home of the Great Sandy Desert.
Tjumpo Tjapanangka
Gibson Desert, WA, Great Sandy Desert, WA
At the time of his passing in 2007, Tjumpo Tjapanangka was Balgo’s most venerated male artist and the most highly regarded Law Man and Maparn (traditional healer) in the community. He is a senior custodian for his country, around Wilkinkarra (Lake McKay), and for its Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) stories…
Tommy Watson
Tommy Watson is a senior Pitjantjatara elder and Law man of Karima (Karimara) skin group. His given names of Yannima and Pikarli relate to specific sites near Anumarapiti. During his lifetime he was described by one critic as “the greatest living painter of the Western Desert”.
Veronica Turner
I feel really happy doing art and sharing stories with everyone. We paint for others to see.
Vincent Forrester
A Luritja/Aranda man born in Alice Springs, Vincent Forrester is well known and respected as an artist, activist and community leader…
Walala Tjapaltjarri
Kiwirrkurra (Gibson Desert), WA
Walala began abstracting the classical Pintupi designs, creating a highly graphic language to speak of his country and ceremonial sites. The rectangles so prominent in his paintings form both a physical and spiritual map…
Weaver Jack
This is my country, Lungarung country. This is where I was born, I travelled around this place as a young women walking through the sand dunes (Tali) collecting Mayi (bushfood) with my mother”
William Camakau
After many years as an artist at the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies (OCAC-PS) at the University of the South Pacific (USP) William now works independently as an artist, passionate as he is of painting.