Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka (Aboriginal 1934-2003)
Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka was an Aboriginal artist from Balgo Hills in Western Australia. Lucy is a respected senior custodian with a vast knowledge of the waterholes in the Great Sandy Desert.
She began painting in 1989. Lucy's early works followed standard Balgo Hills methods of forming lines by means of rows of dotting and of outlining icons in a similar way. A quietly creative artist, she then moved to another technique using single colour fields of dotting, later going on to a next step of painting her dots so closely together that they converged, creating dense masses of pigment on the surface of the canvas. This, together with her exploration of the visual possibilities of black icons for waterholes and soakwaters and of dark green and blue, gave her work a distinctive style, producing effects unique in desert Aboriginal art. As a result, her work became sought after in the market place.
Lucy Yukenbarri has developed her own symbology of form and colour: glowing hues applied with strong texture over wide areas of the painting. The areas refer to different parts of her country. She concentrates on painting the soaks and rock holes of her country, also the numerous types of bush food including Kantilli (bush raisins) and Pura (bush tomato).
Lucy described herself as a "wild one" in her youth, running away from ceremonial business into the bush. There is also the story of the long walk in from the desert to the mission when they would stop at the wells along the track to pump for water. Once at the mission, she helped make the bread and later began painting.
Awards:
1999, 1999 Waringarri Arts Award, East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra Arts Council;
2000, Highly Commended, 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs;
Collections:
ArtBank, Sydney;
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Queensland;
Robert Holmes à Court-Sammlung, Perth;
Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Campbelltown;
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra;
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
The Holmes a Court Collection;
Laverty-Sammlung, Sydney
Kluge Ruhe Collection, Charlottsville, Virginia, USA;
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra;
Alice Springs Art Foundation, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs;
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection;
Solo Exhibitions
2003, Always Together Painting, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne;
1999, Tjurrnu: Living Water, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne;
Group Exhibitions
2003, Sanjski cas. Dreamtime, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, Slowenien; Die andere Sicht auf das Land. Kunst aus Australien, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek, Berlin, Germany (a collaboration with Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer);
2002, An Artists Survey, Balgo Hills, Hogarth Galleries, Paddington Awards; Balgo, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth; Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs; Images and Identity, Ev. Akademie Iserlohn, Germany (a collaboration with Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer);
2001, Recounting the Essence of Life. Art from Australia, Kunstforum HDZ, Bad Oeynhausen, Deutschland (in Kooperation mit Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer); Thornquest Gallery, Southport; Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Alcaston Gallery, Madrid; Short on Size, Short Street Gallery, Broome; Recent Works by Artists from Balgo Hills, Ochre Gallery, Melbourne; Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley Landscapes, Australia Square (in Kooperation mit Short Street Gallery), Sydney; Kutjungka, Bett Gallery, Hobart; Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs; Desert Colour. My Country, Raintree Gallery, Darwin; Balgo Artists Return to Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne; 31st Alice Springs Art Prize, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs; 26th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle; 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin;
2000, Waltja-Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; The Westside: Images in Ochre and Colour, Coo-ee II Exhibition Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney; Outlandish Dreams II, John Ruskin House, London; Olympic Exhibition, Coo-ee II Exhibition Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney; Marking the Paper. Limited editions prints on paper, Desart, Sydney; Hot Press: Recent Prints from Central Australia and the Kimberley, Beaver Galleries, Canberra; Ikuntji Artists - Warlayirti Artists, Desart Gallery, Sydney; Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Dreaming in Colour, Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA; Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs; BlickDicht - An- und Einblicke. ZeitgenKunst australischer Aborigines, Adelhausermuseum, Freiburg, Deutschland (a collaboration with Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer); Balgo Hills, Gallery Pizzi, Melbourne; Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart; 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award: The Art of Place, Canberra; 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin;
1999, Australie - Art, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / J.L. Amsler - Bastille, Paris; Mularrpa (True) Balgo, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin; Miliynyin, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle; Miliynyin, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; Helicopter Joey Tjungurrayi & Lucy Yukenbarri - Balgo Hills, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne; East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra; Alice Springs Art Prize, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs; Aboriginal Art, IHK Würzburg, Deutschland (a collaboration with Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer); 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1998, Painting Country, Pearlers Row Gallery, Broome; The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Ngurrara - My own Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; Hilton Hotel Art Gallery, Rotterdam; Dreamings, Vlaams-Europeesch Conferentiecentrum, Brüssel; Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence; Begegnungen. Malerei aus Utopia and Balgo Hills, Aboriginal Art Galerie B, Speyer; Art Gallery, Culture Store, Rotterdam;
1997, L'Art des Aborigènes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Galerie de Stassart, Bruxelles. L'Art des Aborigènes d'Australie, Arts d'Australie , Stéphane Jacob / Espace Paul Riquet, Béziers; New Paintings by Balgo Women, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne ; Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Dreamings, Arnhem; Desert Country, Matso's, Broome; Daughters of the Dreaming - Sisters Together Strong, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Big Balgos - Recent Paintings by Warlayirti Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; Aboriginal Art, Goteborgs Konstforening, G;
1996, Songlines XV, Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London;
1995, Place and Perception, Parliament House Art Collection, Parliament House, Canberra; On the Trail of the Kingfisher. Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, Western Desert, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney; New Works by the Artists of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney; Landscape as Language, Australian Perspectives Fine Art Gallery, Brisbane; Australia Now, Groninger Museum, Groningen;
1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria.
The Eleventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the
Northern Territory, Darwin; The Creative Spirit, Chapman Gallery, Sydney; Wirrimanu: Aboriginal Art from Balgo, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin; Wirrimanu: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, WA, Channing Gallery, Santa Fe, USA; Wirrimanu: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, Canadian Book Launch, Derek Simpkins Gallery of Trivial Art, Vancouver;
1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga, Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach, Qld; Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Wirrimanu: The Art of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney;
1992, Warlayirti ArtistsHomelands, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
1991, Paintings by Senior Women from the Western Desert, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria;
1990, Warlayirti Artists, Birukmarri Gallery, Freemantle, WA;
1989, The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery
of the Northern Territory, Darwin; Warlayirti Artists, Birukmarri Gallery, Fremantle;