BIOGRAPHY
Joey ‘Helicopter’ Tjungurrayi was born in 1946 in Nynmi country and grew up in the infinite sandhills of the Great Sandy Desert and Gibson Desert, located in the Norht-East of Western Australia. Helicopter was brought up in a traditional nomadic lifestyle, learning from childhood the location of water sources and how to hunt for bush food. The time spent moving through country as a young boy has had a profound and lasting effect on Helicopter’s artistic process and practice.
Helicopter did not have contact with white people until 1957. That year, he mistakenly drank motor oil, fell gravely ill, and a helicopter crew flew him to the Balgo Mission. It was the the first helicopter many of his people had seen and the name stuck.

At the Balgo Mission, Helicopter met and married Aboriginal artist Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri and together, they painted in close collaboration until the early 1990s. Being a Maparn, a respected healer and active Senior Lawman and Singer, Helicopter never sought recognition for his participation in Lucy's work. Helicopter also travelled widely during the time he was at the Balgo Mission. He was sent to pick up supplies in Broome, Alice Springs and Wyndham. There are many stories of the endless tasks performed on the Mission; drilling for water, cutting timber for fencing, fixing the windmill.

In 1994 Helicopter was encouraged to paint his own works. The optical and textural effect of Helicopter’s works are characterised by tightly overlapping dots that create linear striations in stippled, thick impasto. His depictions of sandhill country are often contrasted by a central water hole or interconnected sites, reflecting the pivotal role played by permanent ‘living’ water sources during his youth. Throughout his career, Helicopter has made significant shifts in his colour palette, reflecting the ancient tradition of seeking out materials to depict the intensity of the desert.

Helicopter and his wife had eight children and two of their daughters, Christine Yukenbarri and Imelda (Yukenbarri) Gugaman have become successful artists in their own right.

In 2022, Helicopter was given The Western Australian State Cultural Treasures Award, in the denomination of Visual Arts.

Public Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
Gantner Myer Collection
Laverty Collection, Sydney
Edith Cowan University, Western Australia
Harland Collection
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris