Lily Kelly Napangardi (Aboriginal c.1948)
Born in 1948 in the Haasts Bluff region of the Northern Territory, Lily Kelly Napangardi moved to the Papunya community soon after it was established in the 1960s. There, her painting activities developed - principally through assisting her husband and fellow artist, Norman Kelly. After the couple returned to Mt Liebig in the early 1980s, Lilly Kelly began painting in her own right.
Depicting the Haasts Bluff and Mt Liebig regions - the traditional country of the artists and her Waitiyawanu community - her paintings hypnotise the viewer whilst immersing them in the beauty and subtle intricacies of her land. Lines and dots on the painted surface draw the viewer into deciphering these landscapes through the most subtle gestural shift.
Now one of the senior Law Women of her community, Lilly Kelly Napangardi is responsible for the passing of knowledge and traditional storytelling particularly that of the Women's Dreaming story associated with Kunajarrayi, over which Napangardi holds authority. Active in other artistic mediums including spinifex basket waving, wood carving and ininti bead making, Lilly Kelly has become synonymous with the culture of her people as her paintings have with the landscape of the Mt. Liebig and Hassys Bluff area.
Awards
1986, the Northern Territory Art Award
2003, the General Painting Category at the 20th NATSIAA Telstra Awards
Collections
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of New South Wales
National Gallery of Victoria
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica
Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam
Group Exhibitions
2006, The second Shalom Gamarada Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Shalom College, University of New South Wales, Sidney.
2005, New Acquisitions: Indigenous Australian Art, Queensland Art Galley, Brisbane.
2004, Neil Murphy Indigenous Art showing at Span Galleries, Melbourne; Mary Place Gallery, Sydney; Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide; Recent works by Lilly Kelly Napangardi and Ngoia Napaltjarri Pollard, Mary Place, Sidney.
2003, Telstra Awards; Neil Murphy Indigenous Art showing at Mary Place Gallery, Sydney; Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide; Telstra Awards; Neil Murphy Indigenous Art Span Galleries, Melbourne; Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs.
2002, Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs; Telstra Awards.
2001, Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs.
2000, Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs.
1999, Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs.