Nyapanyapa Yunupingu - prints, carvings & barks:
Nomad Art from 1-30 June 2008 and 6 June - 4 July 2009
Nyapanyapa
is quite remarkable. She is perhaps the artist of the region most
remote from the market she creates for. In this sense her art is really
quite pure for it is without any consideration or desire to understand
what happens beyond point of sale to her art centre. Through an
increasing interest in her work these things may change.
She is a widow, a wife of the late Djapu clan leader Djirrin Mununggurr. She is a ceremonial woman and a battler without material possession. She is a classificatory sister to star artist Gulumbu and traveled once to Adelaide for the 2005 Festival with her kin for a critically acclaimed crying performance in honour of her deceased sister and senior artist Gaymala.
Nyapanyapa’s prints, especially her whacky and boldly coloured screen prints have been a hit for 10 years. Many of her editions have been in many exhibitions around the world. She started to paint on bark in 2007.
Nyapanyapa's work has been more valued for the spontaneity and texture of her hand. She expresses her capacity to live in the moment in the freeness of her mark making. There is no calculation or even regard for the audience in her renditions. Their final appearance is almost random. They are an expression of the movements of her hand as they happen to have taken place on that particular day.
In 2008 Nyapanyapa attracted critical acclaim when she won the Wandjuk Marika 3D Memorial Award at the annual Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. This installation of video and print reflected on an incident from the 1970's when Nyapanyapa was badly gored by a buffalo.
Image: Nyapanyapa working at Buku-Larrnggay Mulka ©2008
View Nyapanyapa Yunupingu artwork on the online gallery >>
 Garrangali the Crocodiles Nest, natural pigments on bark, 101x38 cm, © Buku-Larrnggay Mulka 2008 |
 Baru ga Miyapunu (Crocodile and Sea Turtle), natural pigments on bark, 101x38 cm, © Buku-Larrnggay Mulka 2008 |
Gunytjulu, screenprint © Buku-Larrnggay Mulka 2008 |
|
