Dorothy Napangardi

Dorothy’s paintings were highly sought after by both collectors and curators worldwide. In 1991 she won the Best Painting in European Media, 8th National Aboriginal Art Award; in 1998 the Northern Territory Art Award; and she was “Highly Commended” for the 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 1999. In 2001 Dorothy won the 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award ,presented by Telstra, with her spectacular black and white painting titled, “Salt on Mina Mina”.

Napangardi’s paintings adorn the walls of institutions such as The Australia Council; the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany and the Kelton Foundation in Santa Monica, U.S.A.

Dorothy was first introduced to painting in 1987 by her friend and artist, Eunice Napangardi.She now paints her country, Mina Mina without any traditional iconography from her familial lines, creating her own innovative language to portray her country. Dorothy’s paintings are created by an intricate network of lines that collide and implode on top of each other creating a play of tension and expansion, transporting the viewer through a myriad of intersections. Her view is constantly changing: one painting giving an aerial perspective; the next as if she has placed a microscope to the ground. Dorothy now resides in Alice Springs where she paints full time in her own studio at Gallery Gondwana
Subject & Themes
Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert; wild plum.
Collections
Artbank, Sydney.
Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australia, Australia.
Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany.
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
National 118th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin, NT.
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, Australia.
Queensland Museum, QLD, Australia.
South Australian Festival Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia.
The Australia Council Collection, Sydney, Australia.
The Erskine Collection, NSW, Australia.
The Homesglen Institute of TAFE Collection, Victoria, Australia.
The Kaplan-Levi Collection, Seattle, USA.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, LA, USA..
The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA, Australia.
The Vroom Collection, The Netherlands.
Individual Exhibitions
2006 – Karnta-kurlangu Jukurrpa, Gallery Gondwana, Sydney.
2004 – Dorothy Napangardi, Gallery Gondwana, Sydney; 30 new aquatints by DOROTHY NAPANGARDI, published by Crown Point Press, Port Jackson Press, Melbourne; Peintres Pintupi, Galerie DAD, Mantes-la-Jolie, France.
2001 – Dorothy Napangardi, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; Mina Mina Dorothy Napangardi, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Masterworks, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Vict; Country After Rain, Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT.
2000 – Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri and Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK; Gallery Australis, Adelaide; Recent Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney.
1999 – Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi, Chapman Gallery, Canberra; Treading Softly, Chapman Gallery, Canberra; My Country, Journey of our Ancestors, Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns.
Group Exhibitions
2006 – Dreaming Their Way: Australian Aboriginal Women Painters, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, USA.
2003 – Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW; 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2002-03 Dancing Up Country; the work of Dorothy Napangardi – Museum of Contemporary Art, MCA, Sydney, NSW Australia.
2002 – One Mother, Dorothy Napangardi and Sabrina Nangala, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; Native Title Business – Contemporary Indigenous Art, National Travelling Exhibition, Gurang Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation), QLD, Australia; Melbourne ArtFair 2002, Melbourne, Australia; Kana-kurlangu, Dorothy Napangardi – Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW; Indecorous Abstraction – Contemporary Women Painters, Light Square. Gallery AIT ARTS Adelaide,SA., Australia.
2001 – 2002 – Land of Diversity, The Northern Territory, at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington. 1992 – The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2001 – Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia; Dreamtime-The Light and the Dark, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Vienna, Austria; Dorothy Napangardi Country After Rain, Framed – The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, Australia; 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia; 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia 2001 Mina Mina, Solo, Dorothy Napangardi – Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Australia.
2000-01 – The Art of Place Exhibition, Australian Heritage Commission, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
2000 – Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK; Recent Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Melbourne, Australia; Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Adelaide Festival, Gallery Australis, SA, Australia; 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra; 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia.
1999 – The Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery NSW, Australia; Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, A.C.T. Australia; Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Vivian Anderson Gallery; Painting the Desert, Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, Canberra, A.C.T.; My Country – Journey of our Ancestors, Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns, QLD; 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award, Darwin, Australia; Treading Softly, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, A.C.T. Australia.
1998 – Warlpiri Women, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT. Australia; Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, N.T. Australia; Napangardi Dreaming – Ceremony and Song, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW. Australia; 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT.
1991 – Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs; The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
Awards
2001 – First Prize, 18th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin.
1999 – Highly Commended, 16th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin.
1991 – Museums and Art Galleries Award [Best painting in European media]
Bibliography
Nicholls, Christine, Mundine, Djon, and Webb, Vivienne, Dancing Up Country: The Art of Dorothy Napangardi, Museum of Contemporary Art Limited, Sydney, 2002.
Nicholls, Christine, ‘Dorothy Napangardi’, Art Monthly Australia Number 136, December 2000, Canberra, pp. 8-11.
Winter, Joan., Native Title Business, Contemporary Indigenous Art (Catalogue), Keeira Press, Qld, 2002.