Eubena with her husband and family travelled up the Canning Stock Route to Billiluna Station before following the mission as it moved around, until arriving at its present site at Balgo Hills. Before his death, her husband Gimme helped Father Piele with a Kukatja (Eubena and Gimme's second language) dictionary, to which Eubena also contributed. Today she is one of the few people alive who maintains a full vocabulary of this language. Despite living at the mission and tending herds of goats, Eubena continually traveled back to her country, living in and from the land for extended periods. Her extraordinary hunting instinct, which remains today, combines with an effortless energy when she is out in the country.
Eubena started painting with her second husband Wimmitji in the mid 1980's. Their work shared a luminous and intricate complexity along with a love of the warm reds, oranges and yellows that continues to be Eubena's signature today. Eubena's reputation grew, as one half of the famous painting duo at Balgo, but also as a solo artist in her own right. Eubena has a spontaneity and strength of brush mark that carves the paint, leaving rhythmical tracks across the canvas. Her work resonates with the power of place and pride in country that Eubena has been able to maintain throughout her life, a life that has evolved from hard, proud desert nomad to an artist feted in Australia and overseas. A regal character, she is both iron strong and unfailingly generous. Painting is like her second language and she paints persistently with passion and dedication.
Subjects and Themes
Kinyu Spirit dogs, Tjukarra (rock holes), and Tjumu (soaks) along the Canning Stock Route, Watikutjarra (two men dreaming), Malu (kangaroo dreaming), Kantilli (bush raisins) and Purra (bush tomato), Tingari Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime Ancestral journeys), Women's Law ceremonies, Goanna, mouse, moon and dingo dreaming, Karnaputta and Kunarwaritji
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
EXHIBITIONS
Individual exhibitions
2002 Eubena Nampitjin, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2000 Eubena Nampitjin and Lena Nyadbi, Tineriba Gallery, Adelaide
1998 Kinyarri: My Country, Alcaston House Gallery, Melbourne
Group exhibitions
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2002 19th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2002 Balgo Hills Artists 2002, Art Mob, Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart
2002 Art from Balgo, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2002 Balgo Hills: An Artist's Survey, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2002 Big Colour, My Country, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2001 Opening Exhibition, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2001 Beyond Wings, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
2001 All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2001 18th NATSIAA, 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
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 , Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2000 17th NATSIAA, Museum Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
2000 Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2000 Waltja - Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2000 Accents Australiens, l'Espace Adamski Designs, Paris, France
2000 Balgo Art, Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs
2000 Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2000 Dreaming in Colour: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo, Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Bahr, Speyer, Germany
1999 16th NATSIAA, Museum Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1999 Aboriginal Art, IHK, Würzburg, Germany
1999 30th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1999 Mularrpa (True) Balgo, Framed, the Gallery, Darwin
1999 Miliynyin, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney (special feature)
1999 Miliynyin, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
1998 Ngurrara: My Own Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1998 15th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1998 The Laverty Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
1998 A Thousand Journeys, Helen Read Collection, touring exhibition
1998 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, touring exhibition
1997 Yarrtji, Six Women's Stories from the Great Sandy Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
1997 In Place (Out Of Time): Contemporary Art in Australia, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
1997 14th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1997 Big Balgos: Recent Paintings by Warlayirti Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1997 New Paintings by Balgo Women, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Daughters of the Dreaming: Sisters Together Strong, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
1996 Songlines XV: Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
1995 Stories: A Journey Around Big Things, Work by 11 Aboriginal Artists, touring, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum für Völkerkunde Leipzig, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Ludwig-Forum für Internationale Kunst Aachen, Germany
1995 Two Men Dreaming: New Art from Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1995 Landscape as Language: Australian Perspectives, Fine Art Gallery, Brisbane
1994 Wirrimanu: Australian Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills WA, Channing Gallery, Santa Fe, USA, in association with Adrian Newstead, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1994 Power of the Land: Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993 Images of Power: Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1993 Australian Aboriginal Art, Salon de Sud-Est, City of Lyon, in conjunction with Dettinger Mayer Gallery; toured Gallerie Nurnaga, Neuchatel, France; Pujol Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
1992 65e Salon du Sud-Est, Palais des Expositions, Lyon, France
1992 Flash Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1992 Eubena and Wimmitji, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1991 Paintings by Senior Women from the Western Desert, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Aboriginal Women's Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and travelling
1991 Warlayirti Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1991 Some Aboriginal Women: a survey of Contemporary Women's Art, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1991 Mulun: the Art of the Great Sandy Desert, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990: from Australia, touring Glasgow, Swansea and Manchester, UK
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 from the Robert Holmes a Court Collection, touring USA
1990 The Singing Earth, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
1990 Eubena Nampitjin and Wimmitji Tjapanarti, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1990 Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 from Australia, Tagari Lia: My Family Festival, Third Eye Centre, Scotland
1990 Paintings from Balgo WA, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1989 Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria
1989 Warlayirti Artists: Continuing Links with Land, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1986 Art from the Great Sandy Desert, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Awards
1998, Winner of Telstra Open Painting Award, 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
Bibliography
2002, McCulloch, S. The World from a Feminine Perspective, The Australian, 25 March
2001, Borham, Susan (Editor-in-chief), Australian Art Collector Issue 15, Jan-March 2001, Australia's 50 Most Collectable Artists (p.57); Collector's Dossier: Yupinya Nampitjin (p.100), Gadfly Media Publications, Sydney.
1995, Brody, A., Krempel, U., Bahr, E., (eds), Stories, Eine Reise zu den grossen Dingen, exhibition catalogue, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Germany.
1994, Dream Journeys Calendar, image reproduction
1994, Johnson, V., The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW.
1991, Glowczewski, B., Yapa Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et Lajamanu, Lebon Gallery, Paris
1989, Ryan, J., Mythscapes: Aboriginal Art of the Desert from the National Gallery of Victoria, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
