Artist Panel (In-person & Zoom)
Papunya Tula Artists: Contemporary Art and Community Activism in the Australian Desert

The Grey Art Museum at NYU is honored to host a panel with acclaimed Aboriginal Australian painters Sally Rowe Nakamarra, Marlene Nampitjinpa, Mantua Nangala, and Yukultji Napangati. Hailing from Australia’s remote Western Desert, these four women are leading members of Papunya Tula Artists, the oldest Indigenous-owned arts organization in Australia. The panelists will reflect on the impact of Papunya Tula on life in remote desert communities and explore the role of art in promoting economic empowerment, community health, land management, and political representation. Join us for this unique opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of resilience, determination, and the power of art.

The panel will be introduced by the exhibition’s curators Dr. Henry F. Skerritt (University of Virginia) and Prof. Emeritus Fred R. Myers (NYU) and moderated by Nici Cumpston OAM (Director, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection) and Gretel Bull (Business Manager, Papunya Tula Artists).

Visitor Access & Registration

This event will be held in-person and via Zoom. Registration is required to attend. For in-person attendance without an active NYU ID card, RSVP by Tuesday, February 10 to guarantee building access.

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email greyartmuseum@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.

Co-sponsored by Center CIRCL at NYU and the Department of Anthropology, NYU.

Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu is organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in partnership with Papunya Tula Artists.

                 

About the artists

Sally Rowe Nakamarra was born in 1986 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Sally hails from a prestigious artistic lineage: her parents Bundi Rowe Tjupurrula and Nancy Young Napanangka were both artists for Papunya Tula, and Sally learned to paint watching her grandmother, the pioneering artist Wintjiya Napaltjarri. Sally attended school in Walungurru (Kintore) and began painting for Papunya Tula around 2022. Using the restrained palette of Wintjiya, Sally paints the site of Pinari and its associated Tjukurrpa (ancestral narratives), which she has custodial rights through her grandmother. In recent years, Sally has emerged as one of the most exciting new artists at Papunya Tula, exhibiting across Australia, Asia and the United States.

Marlene Nampitjinpa is an artist, interpreter, and health advocate from Walungurru (Kintore), Australia. Marlene was born at Ngaminya, south of Kiwirrkura, around 1959. She is the daughter of artist Nancy Nungurrayi, and the niece of Naata Nungurrayi. As a child, Marlene walked with her family to Papunya, later living at Yayayi before settling at Walungurru (Kintore), where she worked in the health clinic for many years. She began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 2014. She is an active and visible spokesperson for Indigenous health, having served as Chair and Board Member of the Purple House, the Western Desert dialysis service, Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, and the Kintore Clinic. In 2014 Marlene collaborated with anthropologist Fred Myers on the film Remembering Yayayi.

Mantua Nangala is one of the most senior women currently working at Papunya Tula.  Her family was displaced from their Country during her childhood, and they moved between settlements across Western Australia for many years. In 1964 they were forcibly settled on the government reserve of Papunya. In 1981 following the establishment of the Kintore and Kiwirrkura communities, Mantua relocated to Walungurru (Kintore), later settling in Kiwirrkura in Western Australia, the nearest community to her Pintupi homelands. Mantua began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1998, quickly developing a distinctive style to express her intimate connection to Country and impart the respective histories and narratives of place. Her work has been featured in major exhibitions throughout Australia, including the 4th National Indigenous Art Triennial held at the National Gallery of Australia in 2022.

Yukultji Napangati is one of Australia’s most internationally celebrated artists. She was born at Marrapinti, a sacred women’s ceremonial site deep in the Western Desert. Yukultji grew up living a seminomadic lifestyle in the bush until 1984. Yukultji began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1996, as part of a growing cohort of groundbreaking Pintupi women. Yukultji’s singular approach to mark-making utilizes a repeated pattern of interconnected lines and dots that generate the illusion of movement, reflecting the rippling tali (sand dunes) of her homelands in the Gibson Desert near the great salt lake Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay), Western Australia. Yukultji’s work has been exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally, including major touring exhibitions such as Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia (2016–19) and Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia (2022–3). In 2018 Yukultji was awarded the esteemed Wynne Prize by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums; the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth; Milwaukee Art Museum; and the National Gallery of Australia.