Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi (born in 1967) is a

contemporary Indigenous Australian art Contemporary Indigenous Australian art (also known as contemporary Aboriginal Australian art) is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded a ...

ist born in the

Papunya Papunya (Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, ...

community, she followed in her father

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 – 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered to be one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and ...

's footsteps and became an internationally respected painter. Examples of her work are held in many gallery collections in Australia and elsewhere, including the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

, the

Flinders University Art Museum Flinders University Museum of Art (FUMA), sometimes referred to as Flinders Art Museum, is an art museum in Adelaide, South Australia, that preserves and develops Flinders University's historical and contemporary art collections. History The art ...

, the Kelton Foundation Collection, the Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

Early life

Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi is the eldest daughter of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

artist

. Born in 1967 in

, around 2.4 km northwest of

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

in the community formed in the 1930s when

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into the ...

and

Luritja The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte p ...

people were forced off their traditional land and moved into

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort town since 1971. It is situated on the river ...

and

Haasts Bluff Haasts Bluff, also known as Ikuntji, is an Aboriginal Australian community in Central Australia, a region of the Northern Territory. The community is located in the MacDonnell Shire local government area, west of Alice Springs. At the 2006 cens ...

. Her language is

Anmatyerre The Anmatyerr, also spelt Anmatyerre, Anmatjera, Anmatjirra, Amatjere and other variations) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, who speak one of the Upper Arrernte languages. Language Anmatyerr is divided into Easte ...

. She spent her early life in Alice Springs, where she began painting with her father from a very young age.

Career

When she was 16 In 1985, Nungurrayi won the Alice Springs Art Award. Throughout her life Nungurrayi has been exhibiting work in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and overseas. In 1991 Nungurrayi received a Professional Development Grant from the Aboriginal Arts Unit of the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

, which helped her to develop her recognisable style showing dotted landscapes featuring elements such as bush foods familiar to her people. As her work was shown at higher profile galleries, collectors became interested in her work. As indigenous art from Australia gained more recognition, Nungurrayi's talent was recognised in a number of international shows. In 2006, she was one of the 33 artists showing at the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

, which was the first major US presentation of art by indigenous women in Australia. In 2010 Nungurrayi showed work in the Down Under Gallery in Munich, Germany. In 2008 Nungurrayi's work found an international audience when celebrity gardener

Jamie Durie Jamie Paul Durie OAM (born 3 June 1970) is an Australian horticulturalist and landscape designer, furniture designer, television host, television producer, and author of eleven books on landscape architecture, garden design and lifestyle. He is ...

won the Gold Medal in the

Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

. When HRH Queen Elizabeth gave Durie the prize she was presented with an original work by the artist, which now hangs in the royal collection alongside that of her father. At the 2014 Melbourne festival her work was used to decorate a tram as part of a major public art project called

Melbourne Art Trams The Melbourne Art Trams is a major public art project in Melbourne, Australia. It is a revival and re-imagining of the ''Transporting Art'' project which ran from 1978 to 1993 and saw 36 painted W-class trams rolled out across the Melbourne net ...

. At

Vivid Sydney Vivid Sydney is an annual festival of light, music and ideas, held in Sydney, Australia. It includes outdoor immersive light installations and projections, performances by local and international musicians, and an ideas exchange forum featurin ...

2016, Nungurrayi's work was selected by director of the "Lighting of the Sails" installation, meaning her images were projected onto the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

along with five other Indigenous artists,

Karla Dickens Karla Dickens (born 2 December 1967) is an Aboriginal Australian installation artist of the Wiradjuri people, based in Lismore, New South Wales. Her works are in major public collections in Australia. Early life and education Dickens was bor ...

Djon Mundine Djon Mundine (born 1951) is an Aboriginal Australian curator, writer, artist and activist. Early life Djon was born in Grafton, New South Wales in 1941. He is one of 11 children born to Roy Mundine and Olive Bridgette Mundine (nee Donovan). ...

, Reko Rennie,

Donny Woolagoodja Yornadaiyn (Donny) Woolagoodja (born 1947) is an Aboriginal Australian artist. He is a member of the Worrorra people of the Kimberley area of Western Australia. Career Woolagoodja is the first chairman of the Mowanjum Artists Centre. Woolagoo ...

, and

Gulumbu Yunupingu Gulumbu Yunupingu (1943 – 10 May 2012), after her death known as Djotarra or Ms Yunupingu, was an Australian Aboriginal artist and women's leader from the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Early life a ...

. Her sister, Michelle Possum Nungurrayi is also a renowned artist. They exhibited together in 2017 at the Japingka gallery in Perth in 2017.

Personal life

Since the early 2000s, Nungurrayi has lived near to Melbourne with her family. The sale of her father's piece "

Warlugulong ''Warlugulong'' is a 1977 acrylic on canvas painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Owned for many years by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the work was sold by art dealer Hank Ebes on 24 July 2007, setting ...

" earned her significant resale royalty, which was seen as a fitting change made possible by the Australian resale royalty right movement, which sought to prevent financial exploitation of indigenous artists. Danny Ramzan of the Australian hip hop group Yung Warriors is Nungurrayi's son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nungurrayi, Gabriella Possum 1967 births Living people 20th-century Australian women artists 20th-century Australian artists 21st-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian artists Artists from the Northern Territory Australian Aboriginal artists Australian women painters People from Alice Springs