Paddy Japaljarri Sims

Paddy Sims Japaljarri’s country is west of Yuendumu but he has lived in Yuendumu since he was a young single man. Back when there were no clothes, Walpiri people wore hair string belts that they made. When Paddy Sims Japaljarri was young he worked sawing mulga trees for the wood and for fuel for fires. Paddy was also involved with gardening and farming in the Yuendumu district. This included growing watermelons, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and other vegetables. The farm was at Four Mile Bore where they had chickens, pigs, ducks and other animals. Paddy is married to Bessie Nakamarra and he is warringiyi (grandfather). All his life he’s been hunting goanna, kangaroo, emu and other animals each day for bush tucker. Paddy has passed his knowledge on to many of the young men. This has also lead to him working at the Yuendumu school teaching jukurrpa (Dreaming), painting, hunting, traditional dancing and bush tucker and has also helped out on excursions out bush, to Alice Springs and to Darwin. Paddy has been painting for Warlukurlangu (the Art Centre at Yuendumu) for many years.

In 1988 Paddy Sims was selected by The Power Gallery, Sydney University to travel to Paris with five other Warlpiri men from Yuendumu to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ at the Centre Georges Pompidou. The trip took place in May 1989 and the painting was received with worldwide acclaim.
Subject & Themes
Yiwarra (Milky Way), Ngarlkirdi/Warna (Witchetty Grub/Snake), Pirntirna (Woma Python), Liwirringki (Burrowing Skink), Ngaru (Bush Plum), Walpa (Wind ), Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse), Mala (Hare Wallaby), Wakulyarri (Banded Rock Wallaby), Warlu (Fire), Witi (Ceremonial pole), Ngalyipi (Snake vine)
Collections
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery and Museums, Glasgow, Scotland
South Australian Museum, Adelaide
Australian Museum, Sydney
Musee National des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, Paris, France
The Christensen Fund
Kelton Foundation, California, USA.
Group Exhibitions
1985 Araluen, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
1986 Editions Gallery, Perth;
1886 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs;
1986 RSASA Gallery, Adelaide;
1986 Centre Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland
1987 Achille Lauro, Perth
1987 Blaxland Gallery, Sydney
1987 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1988 Anima Gallery, Adelaide
1988 FOE Community Art Space, Melbourne
1988 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane; Dreamtime Gallery, Perth
1988 ‘Dreamings. The Art of Aboriginal Australia’ Asia Society, New York, USA
1988 Chapman Gallery, Canberra
1988 FOE Community Art Space, Melbourne.
1989 FOE Community Art Space, Melbourne
1989 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
1989 ‘Dreamscapes’, Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburgh USA
Chesser Gallery, Adelaide
‘Mythscapes’ National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Hogarth Gallery of Dreams, Sydney
‘Dreamings: Aboriginal Art from the Outback’ Bahti Indian Gallery, Tuscon USA
1990 Dreamings’ South Australian Museum, Adelaide
1990 South Australian Museum Shop, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide
1990 ‘L’ete Australien’, Musee Fabre, Montepellier, France
1990 ‘Dreamscapes’ Rosequist Galleries, Tucson, Arizona USA
1990 Channing, Dale, Throckmorton Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
1990 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin; Dreamtime Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland
1990 Milagros Contemporary Art Gallery, San Antonio, Texas, USA
1990 Friends of the Earth Gallery, Melbourne
1990 Bond University Campus Gallery, Queensland
1990 Hogarth Gallery of Dreams, Sydney
1990 IUNC (showing at Hilton Hotel), Perth
1991’Dreamscapes’, Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburgh USA
1991 Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1991 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
1991 Te Whare Taonga o Aotearoa National Art Gallery & Museum, New Zealand
1991 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin
1991 Emerald Hill Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Hogarth Gallery of Dreams, Sydney
1991 ‘Dreamscapes’, Rosequist Galleries, Tucson, Arizona, USA
1991 ‘Flash Pictures by Aboriginal Artists’ Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1992 The Long Gallery, Hobart
1992 Dreamtime Gallery, Gold Coast, Queensland
1992 Bird in the Hand Gallery, Sewickley, PA. USA
1992 Araluen Gallery, Alice Springs
1992 Alliance Francais, Canberra
1992 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney
1992 Chapman Gallery, Canberra
1993 Adelaide Town Hall, (in association with the Pacific Arts Symposium)
1993 ‘Aratjara’, Hayward Gallery, London UK
1993 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1993 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
1993 ‘Dreaming the World’, St. Mungo’s Museum, Glasgow UK
1993 Abershart North, Auckland, New Zealand
1993 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
1993 Jukurrpa, Desert Dreamings – a survey of Central Desert art 1971-1993 Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
1993 CINAFE (Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition), USA
1993 Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane
1993 La Peinture des Aborigenes d’Australie, Musee des Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie, Paris France
1993 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Old Parliament House, Canberra
1993 Warlukurlangu Collection, Parliament House, Canberra
1994 The Assembly Hall of the Territorial Parliament, Tahiti, French Polynesia
1994 Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide (in conjunction with The Adelaide Festival)
1994 Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth, Florida USA
1994 Interamerican Art Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
1994 Chicago Art Fair, Chicago, USA
1994 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney
1995 Cleveland Centre for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
1995 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney
1997 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney
1998 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1998 Raintree Gallery, Darwin
1998 Framed Gallery, Darwin
1998 Desert Designs, Perth
2002 New Paintings from Yuendumu, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London UK
2003 Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony, Outback Gallery, Darling Harbour. Sydney.
2003 Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony, Darwin Entertainment Centre Gallery, Darwin NT
2003 Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony, Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Commissions
1988 The South Australian Museum commissioned the painting of an external mural by six Warlpiri artists.
1991 Prof. H Antes, Berlin, commissioned a 7 x 3 metre canvas by forty two of Yuendumu’s artists. The painting forms part of the 1993 European touring exhibition ‘Aratjara – Australian Aboriginal Art’ curated by Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein Westfalen Dusseldorf West Germany.
1992 The Australian National Gallery commissioned a collection of 14 paintings by the Association’s prominent artists. The collection documents the major Dreamings represented in the current painting movement of the Yuendumu region.
1993 The Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow, commissioned a 4 x 3m canvas by twenty of Yuendumu’s artists. The Dreaming depicted was ‘Munga Jukurrpa’ (Night Sky Dreaming). The canvas was the central feature of a major exhibition on Australian Aboriginal art hosted by the Glasgow Museum in July 1993
1993 The Art Gallery of Western Australia commissioned a series of canvases for their collection. The paintings form part of the ‘Dot and Circle Retrospective’ featuring work from the Central and Western Desert regions, hosted by the gallery in October 1993.
1994 Warlukurlangu Artists Association completed two large works (each 2.15 x 2.85 metres). The project was financed by a grant from the Community Cultural Development Unit of the Australia Council. The paintings are ‘Ngapa Jukurrpa’ (Water Dreaming) and ‘Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa’ (Women’s Dreaming).
1995 ‘Watiyawarnu’ (4 x 3 metres) canvas completed for Warlukurlangu Artists
1996 ‘Cockatoo Creek’ canvas (4 x 3 metres), South Australian Museum
1996 ‘Karrku’ canvas (7 x 3 metres) for Kluge Foundation, USA.
1997 ‘Liwirringki’ (4 x 2.5 metres) for the Gantnor Myer Foundation, Melbourne.
1997 ‘Ngapa’ canvas (7 x 3 metres) completed for the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Festival of the Dreaming.
Bibliography
Caruana, W. (ed.) Windows on the Dreaming. Aboriginal Paintings in the Australian National Gallery. Ellsyd Press, Sydney 1989
Caruana, W Aboriginal Painting, Thames and Hudson (World Art Series), London 1993
Ryan, J. Mythscapes. Aboriginal Art of the Desert The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1989.
Sutton, P. (ed.) Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia Viking, New York 1988.
Symonds, M.; Portley, C.; Phillips, R. “The Visual Arts” (Fourth Edition), Jacaranda Wiley, Brisbane, 1992
Warlukurlangu Artists Yuendumu Doors Kuruwarri Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra 1987.
Johnstone, C (Dir) The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings From Tim And Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand 1990
O’Ferrall, M ‘Jukurrpa, Desert Dreamings – a survey of central desert art 1971- 1993’, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1993

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