Alcheringa Gallery
665 Fort Street
Victoria, BC, Canada
TEL: (250) 383-8224
FAX: (250) 383-9399
email alcheringa
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 Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka
Lucy Yukenbarri is an Aboriginal artist from Balgo Hills in Western Australia, Lucy is a respected senior custodian with a vast knowledge of the waterholes in the Great Sandy Desert. She began painting in 1989. Lucy's early works followed standard Balgo Hills methods of forming lines by means of rows of dotting and of outlining icons in a similar way. A quietly creative artist, she then moved to another technique using single colour fields of dotting, later going on to a next step of painting her dots so closely together that they converged, creating dense masses of pigment on the surface of the canvas. This, together with her exploration of the visual possibilities of black icons for waterholes and soakwaters and of dark green and blue, gave her work a distinctive style, producing effects unique in desert Aboriginal art. As a result, her work became sought after in the marketplace.
Today, Lucy Yukenbarri works diligently at her paintings that are boldly covered in thick paint. She concentrates on painting the soaks and rock holes of her country, also the numerous types of bush food including Kantilli (bush raisins) and Pura (bush tomato).
Lucy laughs as she describes herself as a wild one in her youth, running away from ceremonial business into the bush. There is also the story of the long walk in from the desert to the mission when they would stop at the wells along the track to pump for water. Once at the mission, she helped make the bread and later began painting. She has travelled extensively with her painting (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Perth, Darwin, Kununurra), however prefers to stay in Balgo with her family. Lucy Yukenbarri holds many ceremonial responsibilities in the keeping of traditional law.
Subjects and Themes
Goanna, bush turkey, bush fruit, Camp sites, waterholes.
Kamitji country, rocks, Tingari, four women, two women
Collections
ArtBank, Sydney
Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Queensland
Campbelltown City Art Gallery
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
The Holmes a Court Collection
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
Parliament House Art Collection
Alice Springs Art Foundation, Araluen Centre
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection
EXHIBITIONS
Individual exhibitions
2003 Always Together Painting, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1999 Tjurrnu: Living Water, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Group exhibitions
1989 The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1990 Warlayirti Artists, Birukmarri Gallery, Freemantle, WA
1991 Paintings by Senior Women from the Western Desert, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
1993 Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach, Qld; 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1994 Power of the Land Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria
The Eleventh National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1997 L’Art des Aborigènes d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Galerie de Stassart, Bruxelles
L’Art des Aborigènes d’Australie, Arts d'Australie, Stéphane Jacob / Espace Paul Riquet, Béziers
1999 Australie – Art, Arts d'Australie Stéphane Jacob / J.L. Amsler - Bastille, Paris
2002 An Artists Survey, Balgo Hills, at Hogarth Galleries, Paddington
Awards
1999 1999 Waringarri Arts Award, East Kimberley Art Awards, Kununurra Arts Council
2000 Highly Commended, 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
Bibliography
2001, Finnane, K, Alice Prize: Immense diversity of humanity, Alice Springs News, Vol 8, issue 40, Nov 7, Pg3
1994, Johnson, V, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW
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Pieces by Lucy Yukenbarri Napanangka:
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