INDIGENOUS FINE ART AUCTION Cooee Art Paddington | 326 Oxford Street Paddington 4 June 2019 Viewing Room INDIGENOUS FINE ART AUCTION 4 June 2019 Cooee Art Paddington | 326 Oxford Street Paddington This June 4th 2019 offering includes 105 selected items from Australia and overseas estimated, at $1.4 million. With major Papunya artworks featuring at Gagosian Gallery in New York during the next two months Cooee Art MarketPlace is delighted to offer a 244 x 183 cm masterpiece by the renowned George Ward Tjungurrayi. This major men’s ceremonial painting is one of a number of superb Western Desert works with Papunya Tula provenance in the Mike Chandler Estate. Mike Chandler, who passed away, aged 74 on January 6th this year was a great supporter of Aboriginal artists and galleries here in Australia and with his adored wife Barbie, championed Aboriginal art on the international stage. Mike was great at everything he put his hand to. A great wine and food lover, great cook and host, great lunch partner, great fly fisherman, but most important of all he was a great mate who shared our passion for art and Aboriginal culture. Amongst his colleagues he was widely acknowledged as Australia’s greatest typographer. He helped improve the work of every single great writer and art director in Australian advertising throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Cooee Art is Australia’s oldest Indigenous art gallery (Est 1981). “With the depth of our expertise in both the primary and secondary art markets and our progressive outlook, we provide sellers with a vital distinction from the staid, conservative approach of our competitors. We understand that Australian Aboriginal artworks are a vital cultural legacy and believe that they are best promoted and offered for sale by those who are passionately committed to them. VIEW THE CATALOGUE WATCH THE VIDEO

Artist Profile for Katie Cox < Back Katie Cox Katie Cox ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE KATIE COX - GIMMINBAR, LISSADELL STATION SOLD AU$1,800.00 KATIE COX - HILLS OF WARMUN Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Katie Cox ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

Artist Profile for Alison (Jojo) Puruntatameri < Back Alison (Jojo) Puruntatameri Alison (Jojo) Puruntatameri 1984 - REGION | Yapalika (Melville Island, NT) LANGUAGE | Tiwi ART CENTRE | Munupi Arts & Crafts, NT DREAMING | Jarrikalani (Turtle) ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS Alison was born in Pirlangimpi on Melville Island. She grew up in Pirlangimpi and went to the local school. After she completed school she worked in child care. She has one daughter, Anette Orsto known locally as Sugar Plum who is a great favourite at the art centre studio where Alison paints with her mother Paulina (Jedda) Puruntatameri, her partner James Orsto and the other artists. It was Alison’s grandfather, Justin Puruntatameri (deceased) a senior law man who told Alison she should have a go at painting. He knew all the old songs and remembered visits by the Maccassans to the Tiwi Islands when he was a boy. Alison would listen to his stories of his paintings at the art centre and on country. READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$35,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) SOLD AU$12,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) SOLD AU$7,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$5,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$3,500.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) SOLD AU$2,500.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$0.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVE) Sold AU$0.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$22,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$12,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) SOLD AU$6,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$5,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) SOLD AU$3,500.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$2,200.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Sold AU$0.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Alison (Jojo) Puruntatameri 1984 - REGION | Yapalika (Melville Island, NT) LANGUAGE | Tiwi ART CENTRE | Munupi Arts & Crafts, NT DREAMING | Jarrikalani (Turtle) Alison Puruntatameri is a leading Tiwi artist based in Pirlangimpi on Yermalner (Melville Island) and a senior member of the Munupi Arts Centre. Since commencing her artistic practice in 2011, Puruntatameri has gained wide acclaim for her powerful contemporary expressions of traditional Tiwi cultural knowledge and symbolism. Her work is characterised by intricate, rhythmic patterns created with traditional Tiwi tools such as the pwoja, a comb-like instrument that produces distinctive geometric designs. These compositions reflect an enduring connection to Tiwi land, sea, and ceremony, grounded in ancestral stories and cultural practices passed down through generations. Puruntatameri’s artistic journey was deeply influenced by her late grandfather, Justin Puruntatameri, a respected senior lawman, whose teachings and stories of Tiwi heritage and the visits of the Macassans to the islands have profoundly shaped her practice. His mentorship instilled in her a strong sense of cultural responsibility and connection to country, which continues to inform her work. Her art often explores the natural environment, particularly the movements of water and waves, as seen in her celebrated Winga (Tidal Movement/Waves) series, which captures the dynamic interplay between natural forces and cultural identity. Her work embodies both a preservation and evolution of Tiwi artistic traditions, positioning her as a vital contributor to contemporary Indigenous art in Australia. Puruntatameri’s excellence has been recognised through multiple prestigious awards, including being a finalist in the 2022 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA), the 2022 Alice Prize, the 2022 Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the 2023 Ramsay Art Prize at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Through her innovative practice, she continues to engage audiences with the richness and resilience of Tiwi culture. ARTIST CV Selected Collections: Veolia Collection, Pirmont, NSW Yilli Rreung Corporation, Yarrawonga, NT Westfarmer Collections, Perth WA Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW Libby and Michael Kingdon Collection, Vic Selected Group Exhibitons: 2025Melbourne Art Fair 2025- Alison Puruntatameri & Carol Puruntatameri Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne Vic 2024Ngini Ngawula Pikaryingini (Our Stories), Hilton Double Tree; Darwin; NT 2024Yoi, SAATCHI Gallery; UK 2024Across the Water Exhibition Artitja Fine Art; Fremantle; WA 2024Yoi GJM London; UK 2023Ngarukuruwala Kapi Murrukupuni (we sing to the land), Cooee Art Leven; Redfern; NSW 2023Art of Tiwi Artists of Munupi- Tarnanthi Festival 2023 Exhibition Aiarts gallery; Belair ; SA 2023Pupuni Mantiminga _ Fine Lines. Everywhen Art Space; Flinders, Victoria 2023Kurrujupunyi - Ochre Colours. Hilton Double Tree , Darwin 2023Ramsey Art Award. Art Gallery of South Australia 2022Telstra NATSIA Art Award 2022 - Finalist Museum and Art Gallery of NT 2022NGININGUWULA KURRUJIPUNI Our Own Tiwi Ochre Colours Darwin Hilton Double Tree, august 2022LINE IN PARRALLEL Artitja Fine Art Gallery; South Fremantle; WA 2022Tiwi Creation. Cooee Art Leven, Redfern, NSW 2022Wynne Prize 2022 - finalist- Art Gallery New South Wales Sydney 2022Alice Spring Art Foundation Prize, Finalist - Araluen , Alice Spring 2021Tiwi Papers; Tarnanthi Festival 2021; Art Gallery of South Australia 2021Banapa, Nets of the tiwi Islands - on line exhibition- Red Dot fine art Gallery, Singapore 2021YIRRINKIRRIPWOJA JILAMARA Darwin Hilton Double Tree, august 2021 2020Tiwi Islands to Arnhemland Munupi Maningrinda Artitja Fine Art Gallery; South Fremantle; WA 2020Yalininga, Ngaripantingija, Ngirramini. Aboriginal Signature • Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgique 2019Journey Through Culture. Red Dot Fine Art Gallery, Temporary Gallery, North St, Adelaide, SA 2019Pupini Jilamara Nginingwula (our Beautiful paintings). Hilton Double Tree Hilton, August 2019 2018Nginingawula Awirankiniwaki. Hilton Double Tree Hilton, August 2018 2018One island one side. • Yati Ratuwati Yatuwati • Art Aborigène des Iles TIWI. Aboriginal Signature, Brussels, Belgium 2016Point of difference; Desent to sea. Artitja fine Art at Engine Room.Perth.WA 2016Ngawila Jilamara Exhibition. Hilton Double Tree, Darwin Nt 2014Primavera 2014. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney NSW 2013Munupi Art is Tiwi Life. Marshall Art, Hyde Park, Adelaide, SA 2013Nginingawula Munupi Jilamara. Our paintings Marshall Arts, Hyde Park, SA 2012Tiwi Book Launch. Vivien Anderson Gallery, Caufield North, Melbourne, Vic Bibliography: 2023John McDonald; Get your shopping lists ready: The art world’s version of Young Talent Time is here; Sydney Herald Tribune; 9 June 2023 Awards: 2023Finalist, Ramsay Art Award, Art Gallery of South Australia 2022Finalist, The Alice Art Prize, Araluen Arts Centre 2022Finalist, Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Walse 2015Finalist, NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 2015Finalist, Primavera Veolia Acquisitive Prize, Museum of Contemporary Art Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

BILL WHISKEY SMALL BUT MIGHTY Cooee Art Redfern - 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 From 15 January to 19 February 2022 Viewing Room BILL WHISKEY SMALL BUT MIGHTY Artists: Bill Tjapaltjarri Whiskey From 15 January to 19 February 2022 Cooee Art Redfern - 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 Bill Whiskey’s bold bright painting style reflected his indomitable spirit. He did not begin painting on canvas until entering the last four years of his life at 84 years of age, by which time he was widely renowned as a powerful healer and keeper of sacred knowledge. His paintings, the first to depict the major Dreaming story and the creation of major sites throughout his country, are imbued with authority and steeped in traditional knowledge. His subjects included the mythic battle related in the Cockatoo Dreaming that occurred at his birthplace, Pirupa Alka (Rock holes near the Olgas – Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock – Uluru). During the battle, white feathers were scattered about and the landscape became indented by the entangled combatants crashing to the ground repeatedly. Subterranean streams filled these impressions with water and a circular amphitheatre was created by the sweep of wings. Today, a large, central, glowing white rock signifies the fallen cockatoo, still sipping the life-giving water from the sacred pools. Colourful blues, yellows, and reds, always tempered by cockatoo-white, represent the wildflowers that grow in profusion after rain. In keeping with the depiction of Dreaming stories throughout the Western Desert, the mythic and numinous is inherent within the sacred geography. In this painting, water places such as Pirupa Akla are marked by sets of concentric circles, their dazzling presence representing their powerful life-giving significance rather than their actual size. The actions of the White Cockatoo and Crow ancestors are encrypted as dotted patches that reference topographic features associated with the Dreaming. VIEW CATALOGUE VIEW VIDEO EX 226

Artist Profile for Gabriel Maralngurra < Back Gabriel Maralngurra Gabriel Maralngurra ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE GABRIEL MARALNGURRA - WALLABY SOLD AU$240.00 GABRIEL MARALNGURRA - ECHIDNA SOLD AU$240.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Gabriel Maralngurra ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

TjapangatiJohnn Johnny Mosquito Tjapangati Johnny Mosquito Tjapangati 1920 - 2004 Johnny Mosquito was born in the Great Sandy Desert c.1920 and walked into the old Balgo mission when in his twenties. A Kukatja/Walmatjari speaker, his country lay south west of the current Balgo community beyond Yaga Yaga toward Lake MacKay in the vicinity of Wagulli and Kurtel (Helena Springs). During his lifetime he became the most senior ‘rainmaker’ in the Balgo Hills community and was responsible for all of the Dreamings associated with rain including rainbows, thunder, clouds, lightning and frogs. He was known to ‘bring on the monsoon each year with the aid of ritual and song, and on occasion provoke a downpour when people were (sic) over-electrified by late summer’s dryness‘ (Cowan 1995: 5). Balgo Hills is known by its Kukatja, Ngardi, Walmatjari, Warlpiri and Pintupi inhabitants as Wirrimanu, literally meaing ‘ dirty wind ‘ a powerful force in an area that cusps the Great Sandy and Gibson Desert. In this arid dry hot landscape there is a particular gravitas attached to stories concerning permanent water sources, referred to by the inhabitants with whispered reverence as ‘living water’. These precious watercourses, rock-holes, and clay pans of Johnny Mosquito’s country were the dominant motifs in his art. He and his inseparable Wangkajunka wife Muntja Nungurrayi painted together from the earliest days of the Warlayirti Art Centre at Balgo Hills. Although they collaborated closely on all of their paintings until 1994, soon after James Cowan arrived as art coordinator he encouraged the male and female artists to paint their own individual works. The paintings that Johnny and Muntja created prior to this intervention were infinitely more complex than those that came after, but all were credited to Johnny alone. The collaboration between the two ensured that each individual painting contained a broader range of information and often depicted larger tracts of land than the individual specific sites Johnny preferred to paint when painting by himself, as he did between 1997 when Muntja passed away, and 2002 when he stopped painting altogether, two years prior to his own death. During the early days of the Warlayirti artists cooperative, prior to Cowan’s tenure, cheep cotton duck was stretched and primed in a mid-grey by mixing black and white gesso as a ground, and artist’s worked on this with brilliantly coloured, but inexpensive, student’s acrylic paint. Adopting this new medium could be seen as an extension of a long tradition amongst Indigenous artists to represent the intense colour seen in their natural environment by collecting and using materials, sometimes trading with other indigenous people across vast distances. Indeed the full colour revolution at Balgo was in large part due to women painters like Muntja, Suzie Bootja Bootja and Tjemma Freda Napanagka, in their daring desire to evoke the luscious colours of the plants and flowers of their desert landscape. This taste for luminosity spread amongst the art community in its early painting days, as the male and female painters worked alongside each other. Blue, in particular, was the first acrylic colour employed by Balgo artists from a brighter spectrum. Time however, has seen the cheap materials, applied originally as brilliant reds and yellows degrade against the grey backgrounds to affect an autumnal palette. Despite this and the aesthetic difference between the works Johnny painted pre 1994 and those created thereafter, there was continuity in the iconography of his work throughout his career as a painter derived principally from this enduring fixation upon water. Johnny’s works created after 1995 are characterized by a restricted, but brilliant palette, and emphatic simplified compositions of the most important elemental features of each particular specific site. By this time Belgian linen had replaced cotton duck, and the quality of the paints had improved markedly. Often employing brilliant shades of blue to depict water, as in both Tjintjarmudal 1994 and his later work, Marloo 1998, he also used red and occasionally yellow, separated solely by minimal white linear dots to delineate blocks of flat colour in emphisising the most important features. This contrast between his use of flat colour and vibratory dots is superb and reaches its zenith in Johnny Mosquito’s 1993-1996 paintings. Johnny is revered as having been one of the first generation of Balgo painters. Every canvas he created, even those painted at the very end of his life, reveal an interior landscape redolent with meaning and charged with energy. His longing for the distant sites visited by the great creation ancestors and sung throughout the millennia found its ultimate expression in his art. Johnny Mosquito Tjapangati’s paintings have had a very impressive sale rate at auction. The vast majority of his works were small and measured just 60 x 90 cm or less. Collectors of Balgo art in particular are well aware that his paintings are rare and that Johnny was a founder of the Kukatja art style and was a very special elder and artist with vast cultural knowledge. His 2002 record price held its place until 2015, when Mossgreen sold two works in seperate auctions from the Peter Elliot collection and the Alan Boxer collection, placing at 1st and 2nd, respectively. The works, painted in 1993 and 1991, sold for $23,180 and $20,070, relegating his previous record to third place and making 2015 his best year by far. He was at 48th place in the ranking of all artists of the movement that year. Before 2015, his best years at auction have been 2005, when all four works offered sold for a total for $26,139, and 2008, when all three works offered sold of which two entered his top ten results at fourth and fifth. The first of these was a fine 1994 rendition of Kultard Rock Hole originally sold to the Sam Barry Collection by Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in Sydney. When offered at Leonard Joel in July 2008, the 120 x 80 cm work achieved $9,000 (Lot 89). An earlier image, Tjintjamatju, created by the artist in 1991, was another Sam Barry Collection work. This work had originally been offered by Sotheby’s in 2004, when it achieved a price of $8,400, the artist’s fifth highest result at the time. When reofferred in Sotheby’s October 2008 sale (Lot 130) it only did marginally better when sold for $9,000. While his average price was $12,000 in both 2001 and 2002, it dropped between 2005 and 2007, to $6,535, $5,520 and $4,392 respectively. It has risen slightly since, but the net effect has been to lower his career average to just $6,700, a very low figure indeed for an artist of this standing. Johnny Mosquito’s vivid works can often be messy, especially those painted toward the end of his life. As can be seen from the figures above, they can still be bought quite cheaply on the secondary market. This is likely to last while the fashion for minimal linear tone-on-tone works associated with the Papunya Tula style continues to dominate market interest. The secondary Aboriginal art market is still far from well educated in terms of the historical development of the various art movements that it encompasses. Johnny Mosquito Tjapangarti’s paintings are rare gems. Over time, as Aboriginal art collectors are served by publications that assist them to become better informed, they should become more discriminating. Once this occurs, interest in paintings by important Balgo Hills founders like Johnny should definitely be on the rise. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

Artist Profile for Eunice Napanangka < Back Eunice Napanangka Eunice Napanangka ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE EUNICE NAPANANGKA JACK - HAIRSTRING SOLD AU$5,000.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Eunice Napanangka ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

GAME, SET, MATCH Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Gadigal, Redfern, NSW, 2016 27 - 24 February 2024 Viewing Room GAME, SET, MATCH 27 - 24 February 2024 Art Leven - 17 Thurlow St, Gadigal, Redfern, NSW, 2016 'Game, Set, Match ' is a group exhibition consisting of seven individual series or sets of artworks by various artists - on view now at our Redfern gallery. DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU price AU$25,000.00 ANGELINA GULUWULLA KARDADA BOONA - WANDJINA EMERGING price AU$5,500.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$2,800.00 BANDARR WIRRPANDA - MUŊURRU price AU$1,200.00 JULIE NANGALA ROBERTSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PIRLINYARNU Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 ANGELINA GULUWULLA KARDADA BOONA - WANDJINA EMERGING price AU$5,500.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA (WOMEN'S DREAMING) Sold AU$4,000.00 NOLA ROGERS - GOGO STATION price AU$1,500.00 BANDARR WIRRPANDA - MUŊURRU - MAŊGALILI STORY price AU$1,200.00 CAROL PURUNTATAMERI - YIPALI AND PURRUKUPALI Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 ANGELINA GULUWULLA KARDADA BOONA - WANDJINA EMERGING price AU$5,500.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA price AU$3,000.00 DAISY JAPULIJA - BILLABONGS price AU$1,200.00 JULIE NANGALA ROBERTSON - NGAPA JUKURRPA (WATER DREAMING) - PIRLINYARNU price AU$850.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 DOROTHY NAPANGARDI - SALT ON MINA MINA Sold AU$0.00 GameSetMatch

HERMANNSBURG - THEN AND NOW From 09 October to 23 October 2021 Viewing Room HERMANNSBURG - THEN AND NOW From 09 October to 23 October 2021

Artist Profile for Glenys James < Back Glenys James Glenys James ARTIST PROFILE ARTIST CV MARKET ANALYSIS READ FULL ARTIST PROFILE GLENYS JAMES - KUNGA KUTJARA SOLD AU$250.00 top Anchor 1 PROFILE Glenys James ARTIST CV Market Analysis MARKET ANALYSIS Disclaimer: At Cooee Art Leven, we strive to maintain accurate and respectful artist profiles. Despite our efforts, there may be occasional inaccuracies. We welcome any corrections or suggested amendments. Please contact us with your feedback .

NampitjinInyuw Inyuwa Nampitjin Inyuwa Nampitjin 1922 - 1999 Nampitjinpa Inyuwa Nampitjinpa was born near Punkilpirri, a large permanent water site deep in Pintupi country west of the Kintore ranges. With her family, she arrived in Haasts Bluff in 1956, seeking food and water, and was later moved to the new government settlement at Papunya. Following the death of her first husband, she married Tutuma Tjapangati, one of the senior members of Geoff Bardon’s original painting group, in 1971. It was not until almost a decade after his death that she began painting herself, encouraged in part by the women’s painting project of the new Haasts Bluff and Kintore communities in 1994. By then a senior law woman, Inyuwa took on an instructive role in the representation of women’s ceremonial subject matter, much as the elder men had during the early days of Papunya. After an eye operation to remove cataracts in 1997, she began a prolific burst of painting and although she died only two years later, she had produced a steady stream of culturally important and aesthetically innovative works between 1997 and 1999, which proved to be formative in establishing the ‘meteoric rise’ of the Desert women artists post 2000. Inyuwa’s artistic output focused on the sacred water holes of her traditional country and creation stories relating the travels of groups of women who gathered for ceremony and sustenance at these sites. They included the old woman Kutungka Napanangka, who traveled from Papunga and passed through a number of important sites along the way to the large permanent water site of Muruntji, south-west of the current community of Mount Liebig. Other stories pertain to the travels of large groups of women who gathered the edible berries and seeds growing in the area through which they passed. In the majority of her works, paint is applied in a thick impasto background upon which roundels or U shapes, of graduating density, are embedded. The generous viscosity of the painting surface is said to mimic the manner in which body paint is applied during women’s ceremonies. References to the rock holes, food collected, and tools used are depicted; such as the edible seeds that were roasted and ground into a paste, then cooked in the coals like damper bread and the oblong shaped nulla nullas which each woman carried. In her loose and energetic compositions, Inyuwa abstracts the basic symbolic elements of her cultural iconography, leaving her free to experiment with simple colour and uncomplicated forms in the evocation of a tactile, experiential event. Like others among this group of senior women painters, Inyuwa’s paintings were startlingly different from the increasingly formal, line and circle compositions of her male peers of that time (late 1990’s). The exuberance and freedom expressed in the women’s work defied the public's expectations of desert painting, opening up the possibilities of its artistic horizons in many ways. Inyuwa painted for Papunya Tula Artists for just five years prior to her death, playing a vital role in the emergence of contemporary women's art amongst the Pintupi. From the late 1990’s onward, women became an increasingly significant presence in the art movement, outnumbering male artists in some communities and injecting new energy into the fickle art market. Alongside the excitement generated by the work itself, the advanced age of many of the female painters and often the consequent brevity of their painting careers highlighted the power of the ancient practices and beliefs that form the bedrock of their indefatigable creativity. Inyuwa was a ceremonial and community leader in Kintore, where she was also the gentle and unassuming matriarch of a large extended family. She guided her daughter Walangkura and adopted daughter Pirrmangka Napanangka in their own artistic careers and painted until her death from ill health in June 1999, at which time her first solo show was on the walls of the Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery in Melbourne, a legacy left, as she wished, to inspire and inform future generations. While Inyuwa Nampitjin reputedly painted for five years, no works are recorded as having been offered for sale through auction other than those created between 1997 and 1999 and all were produced for Papunya Tula. No less than eight of the artists top 20 results have been for works exhibited originally through Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery in Melbourne, where her only solo exhibition was in progress at the time for her death. Surprisingly, the artist’s two highest results and at least four of her top ten were recorded by Lawson~Menzies. This is unusual for a Pintupi artist given Sotheby’s interest in Papunya Tula provenance and the rarity of Inyuwa’s works. Her $43,200 record set in November 2007 justified its $45,000-60,000 presale estimate (Lot 14). The work, Rockhole at Pukunya 1998, achieved well over twice that of her next highest result. Women’s Site at Pukunya 1998 was exactly the same size and an equally pleasing work yet saddled with a far more conservative estimate of $15,000-20,000. It had sold for just $16,800 when offered three years earlier in Lawson~Menzies November 2004 sale (Lot 81). Perhaps the specialists had been influenced by the fact that the very same painting, under the title Pukunya 1998, had been offered at auction with sister company Deutscher~Menzies in June 2000 (Lot 35) and had sold for just $7,637 when carrying an estimate of just $7,000-8,500. Presale estimates can be vitally important in achieving a successful sale and heightened expectations often result in failure. When the small 91 x 61 cm work Pukunya 1999 first appeared for sale at Sotheby’s in June 2002 it was valued at $5,000-8,000 and failed to attract a buyer (Lot 195). More realistically estimated at $2,500-3,500 three years later in Sotheby’s November 2005 sale the painting went for $3,120 (Lot 181). The earliest work by the artist to appear at auction has shared a similar fate, albeit in reverse. The collector who purchased the 91.5 x 61 cm Pukunya 1997 for just $1,762 at Deutscher~Menzies in June 2000 (Lot 139) must have felt they had got a real bargain, especially as they watched the artist’s prices rising over the following seven years. The work was consigned to Sotheby’s for sale in October 2008 with a new title, Women's Dreaming at Punkilpirri, and the estimate increased from $1,500-1,800 to $6,000-8,000. This unremarkable work failed to attract a buyer. The most recent addition to her top ten highest results was in 2017, when Water Site at Punkilpirri sold for $13,420 through Deutscher & Hackett. Sotheby’ s have sold eight works for a total of $43,920 while all four of those offered by Lawson~Menzies are recorded in her top 10 results with a combined value of $77,400. Only Christie's, Deutsher~Menzies and Joel Fine art are included amongst the other houses that have offered her works for sale. It is unlikely that Inyuwa Nampitjinpa produced any more than 100 works during the short period she painted. This explains the complete absence of works for auction in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Yet her influence on those women who followed in her footsteps was profound. Her paintings are both rare and undervalued. More than any others, Inyuwa’s paintings, along with those of her daughter Pirrmangka, can be seen as a lively precursor to the paintings of the desert artists further to the west that would emerge shortly after their deaths. Their paintings have a raw painterly quality that is hard to overlook and entirely satisfying to live with. Explore our artworks See some of our featured artworks below ANGELINA PWERLE NGAL - UNTITLED ( BUSH RAISIN MAN) Price AU$3,000.00 ALISON (JOJO) PURUNTATAMERI - WINGA (TIDAL MOVEMENT/WAVES) Out of stock LILY YIRDINGALI JURRAH HARGRAVES NUNGARRAYI - KURLURRNGALINYPA JUKURRPA Price From AU$13,500.00 BRONWYN BANCROFT - UNTITLED Out of stock JOSHUA BONSON - SKIN: A CELEBRATION OF CULTURE Price AU$8,500.00 BOOK - KONSTANTINA - GADIGAL NGURA Price From AU$99.00 FREDDIE TIMMS - MOONLIGHT VALLEY Price AU$35,000.00 NEIL ERNEST TOMKINS - BURN THERE, DON'T BURN THERE Price AU$7,000.00 SHOP NOW

ALPEYT MWERRANGKER | GOOD BLOSSOMS 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 20 October - 10 November 2022 ALPEYT MWERRANGKER | GOOD BLOSSOMS Artists: Artists from Barkly Regional Arts 20 October - 10 November 2022 ALPEYT MWERRANGKER | GOOD BLOSSOMS Artists: Artists from Barkly Regional Arts 20 October - 10 November 2022 17 Thurlow St, Redern, NSW 2016 The Barkly Tableland stretches over 320,000 square km of the Northern Territory, surrounding its largest town and cultural centre, Tennant Creek, located approximately 1000km south of Darwin and 500km north of Alice Springs. Here, Barkly Regional Arts is the area’s main hub for visual artists and musicians, each inspired by the Country under the canopy of vivid blue sky and red dust. From their visual arts and music studios in the heart of Tennant Creek, Barkly Regional Arts does outreach with the area’s remote communities, producing ar t and music that tells the stories of the Barkly, fostering access, development, and recognition of arts in the Barkly. Art made in the Barkly is significant not just as a way of preserving culture, but also as a means by which the community can come together, celebrating culture and Country and, not least, earning an income.The work of the Artists of the Barkly reflects the remote, unforgiving desert landscape and harsh conditions, yet also portrays the charm and magical beauty of the region. The Artists of the Barkly collective represents over fifty artists, living in four remote communities across the Barkly region:Tennant Creek,Wutunugurra (Epenarra), Owairtilla (Canteen Creek) and Kulumindini (Elliott). Alpeyt Mwerrangker meaning Good Flowers or Good Blossoms in Alyawarr, features eleven of the regions most well renowned painters, sharing a remote, rugged landscape and an interest in Country, modern history and life in the Barkly.The artists from each community exhibit a distinctive style, demonstrating the profound influence of the art centre setting. VIEW CATALOGUE EX 243