Elizabeth Nyumi

Elizabeth Nyumi currently lives at Kururrungku (Billiluna), an outlying community from Balgo Hills. Elizabeth’s mother belonged to the country of Nynmi (Jupiter well) near Kiwirrkurra on the Pintupi side. Tragically she died quite young from a dingo bite at the Kanari soak water close to Jupiter Well. Her father was from Alyarra in the region of Natajarra. Elizabeth Nyumi was living a nomadic existence with her family group on the Canning Stock Route before walking into Old Mission with her father after her mother had died. Here she was given clothes and taken to Billiluna and trained as a house worker, cleaning the floors with rags, washing dishes and raking the grounds. She subsequently travelled to many station houses around the region working for the wives of the station owners.

Elizabeth Nyumi is an enthusiastic teacher of culture to the children of Billiluna, ensuring the traditional dances and songs are kept alive. Nyumi is a very strong culture woman and dancer, always ensuring traditional ceremonies and ritual are upheld. Nyumi advises the nursing staff at the health clinic about traditional bush medicines and she is also knowledgeable about carving coolamons and digging sticks.

Elizabeth Nyumi’s paintings are mainly concerned with the country of abundant bush food belonging to her family. In her maturity as a painter she initially worked with a thick brush, covering the canvas in emanating lines in muted tones. Her style has now developed to using a multitude of dotting to build up fields of texture but retains her signature motifs of small camps, coolamons and bush tucker trees and scrubs. Elizabeth Nyumi has travelled to the Netherlands overseas and to Sydney, Perth, Darwin and Alice Springs for exhibitions of her work. She is a vibrant and active member in the community.
Subject & Themes
Pawalla her country and it’s abundant bush foods, Purra (bush tomato), Rockholes and soaks, Coolamons and digging sticks, Kantilli (bush raisin), Minyali (seed), Nynmi (Jupiter well) and it’s Tjukurrpa story of the old woman who killed and ate a snake with her two children, Tingari.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Artbank
The Holmes a Court Collection
Morven Estate
Helen Read Collection
Harland Collection
The Laverty Collection
Individual Exhibitions
2002 Elizabeth Nyumi, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Sydney
2001 Parwalla, Raft Artspace, Darwin
Group Exhibitions
2002 30th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002 Desert Mob, Arulen Centre, Alice Springs
2002 Art from Balgo, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Spring
2002 Balgo Hills: An artist’s survey, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2002 Balgo Hills Artists 2002, Art Mob, Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart
2002 Big Colour My Country, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2001 Aborigena Arte, Australiana Contemporuneu, Torino, Palazzo Bricherasio, Italy
2001 Desert Mob, Arulen Centre, Alice Springs
2001 18th NATI Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2001 Kutjungka, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2001 Balgo Works, Staedtische Gallery, Wolsfburg, Germany
2001 Recent Works by Artists from Balgo Hills, Ochre Gallery, Collingwood, Victoria
2001 Balgo Artists Return to Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Alcaston Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2001 Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley Landscapes, Short Street Gallery in conjunction with Australia Square, Sydney
2000 This Earth for Us, Australia Dreaming at the Commonwealth Institute, Helen Read Touring Exhibition London, Bristol & Edinburugh, UK
2000 The Westside: Images in Ochre and Colour, Coo-ee II Exhibiting Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney
2000 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2000 17th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin 2000 Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2000 Waltja – Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2000 Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award & the Art of Place, Old Parliament House, Canberra
2000 Balgo Art, Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs
2000 Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Leverkusen, Germany
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Dormagen, Germany
1999 16th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1999 Mularrpa (True) Balgo, Framed, the Darwin Gallery, Darwin
1999 Miliynyin, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1999 Miliynyin, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
1998 Ngurrara: My own Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1998 15th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin 1997 Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
1997 Balgo Paintings, Seywald Gallery, Salzburg, Austria
1997 New Paintings from Balgo Artists, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC
1997 14th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT
1997 New Painting by Balgo Women, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Dreamings: Aboriginal kunst uit Australie, Eusebius, Arnhem, The Netherlands
1993 Wirrimanu: the Art of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington NSW
1992 Warlayirti Artists’ Homelands, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington NSW
1990 Songlines: Paintings from Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
1989 Warlayirti Artists: Continuing Links with Land, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington NSW