Tjumpo Tjapanangka

Tjumpo Tjapanangka is a senior law man, Maparn (healer) and Aboriginal artist based in Balgo Hills . Incredibly fit and strong for his age, Tjumpo attributes this to his diet of bush food. He speaks adamantly of his childhood in the desert hunting for goanna, porcupine, wallaby, pussycat and the construction of spinifex and mud shelters for the wet season. He came to Balgo Hills as a result of the local priest, Father Alphonse, sending people out into the bush with supplies of flour, sugar and tea to attract Aboriginal people to the mission. Shortly afterwards, in 1948, a large group of people from the west, east, north and south came to live at the old mission at Tjumuntora.

Tjumpo Tjapanangka began painting in 1986, and being very sociable, loves to meander and chat between painting. His work resonates with power through the formal application of paint. An inventive painter, Tjumpo’s work has varied from monumental works incorporating contrasting visual motifs, to more tightly woven smaller pieces. He is a highly respected law man and is busy with ceremony across the entire central desert area during the law season.
Subject & Themes
Water, rainmaking, soaks, Wati Kutjarra (two men dreaming), Rainbow snakes, Bandicoot, flying ant, dingo spirit,kangaroo, Tingari
Collections
Gantner Myer Collection
Morven Estate
Art Gallery of Western Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
The Holmes a Court Collection
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection
Group Exhibitions
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2001 Indigenous Highlights from the State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia
2001 26th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
2001 Balgo Men, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2001 Balgo Works, Staedtische Gallery, Wolsfburg, Germany
2001 Balgo Artists Return to Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley Landscapes, Short Street Gallery in conjunction with Australia Square, Sydney
2000 The Westside: Images in Ochre and Colour, Coo-ee II Exhibiting Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney
2000 Olympic Exhibition, Coo-ee Exhibiting Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney
2000 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2000 Marking the Paper: limited edition prints on paper, Desart, Sydney
2000 Waltja – Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2000 Hot Press: Recent Prints from Central Austalia and the Kimberley, Beaver Galleries, Canberra
2000 Balgo, Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs
2000 Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2000 Claiming Title: Australian Aboriginal Artists and the Land, Carleton College, Minnesota, USA
2000 Dreaming in Colour: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA
1998 15th National ATSI Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1997 Big Balgos: Recent Paintings by Warlayirti Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1997 Dreamings, Arnhem, The Netherlands
1996 Balgo Hills: Art of the Place, Derek Simpkins Gallery of Tribal Art, Vancouver, BC, Canada
1995 On the Trail of the Kingfisher: Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, Western Desert, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1995 Two Men Dreaming: New Art from Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1995 New Works by the Artists of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1994 Art of the Rainbow Snake, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993 Tjurkurrpa Desert Dreamings: Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
1991 Aboriginal Paintings from the Desert, Union of Soviet Artists Gallery, Moscow, and Museum of Ethnographic Art, St Petersburg, Russia
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra
1990 Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Dreamtime Gallery, Broadbeach
1990 Paintings from Balgo WA, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1990 Songlines: Paintings from Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, touring the USA
1990 L’ete Australien a Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France
1989 Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria
1989 Warlayirti Artists, Bikumarri Gallery, Fremantle
1989 Warlayirti Artists: Continuing Links with Land, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
Awards
1999 Special Commendation, East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra Arts Council, Kununurra
Bibliography
1994 Johnson, V., The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville NSW
1993 Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings: Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth