Makinti Napangangka

Born: c.1930 – 2011
Region:  Central Desert
Community: Kintore
Outstation: Kaakuratinja
Language: Pintupi
Subsection: Napanangka

Makinti Napanangka is one of the leading women artists from the Western Desert working with Papunya Tula Artists.

Makinti Napanangka was a Pintupi speaker who was born sometime around 1930 in the Lake MacDonald region. She and her family walked in to Haasts Bluff before the Papunya Community was established. She began painting in the mid 1990s and quickly developed her own distinctive style and painted regularly with the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative from 1996. Makinti’s work incorporates designs associated with the travels of the Kungka Kutjarra (two women). The wandering lines that so often feature in her paintings depict the swirling hair string skirts worn by women during ceremonies associated with certain sites. While the patterning refers to the skirts, the flowing rhythms of the lines hint at the songs and dances of the Pintupi women’s ceremonies. While most of Makinti’s imagery is related to the Kungka Kutjarra, it can also refer to the Kuningka – the western quoll – which is represented by circles.

Collections:
Art Gallery of New South Wales. Macquarie Bank Collection. Museums & Art Galleries of the N.T. National Gallery of Victoria. Queensland Art Gallery.

Individual Exhibitions:
2003 – Emerge, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory; 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2002 – 19th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2001 – Dreamtime: the Dark and the Light, Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Vienna; Desert Flowering: Aboriginal Art from Private Collections, Manawatu Gallery, New Zealand; Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Dreamscapes-Contemporary Desert Art, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark; Papunya Tula 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT; 19th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT; Dreamtime-Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Essi Collection,Vienna, Austria .
1998 – 15th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award.1998, Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, N.T.; 14th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Art Award.1997 – Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin.

Select Bibliography:
ISAACS, J.Spirit Country, Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, Hardi Grant Books, 1999. Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales,Australia 2000. Aboriginal Art 2001 exhibition catalogue, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2001. Desert Flowering, exhibition catalogue, Manawatu Art Gallery, North Island, New Zealand, 2001. Dreamscapes- Contemporary Desert Art exhibition catalogue, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark, 2001. Sammlung Essl Dreamtime-Contemporary Aboriginal Art exhibition catalogue, Essi Collection, Vienna, Austria, 2001. Ryan, Judith (editor), Colour Power – Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2004 (C).Bardon, Geoffrey; Ryan, Judith; Pizzi, Gabrielle; Stanhope, Zara., Mythology and Reality – Contemporary Aboriginal Desert Art from the Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Heidi Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne.

Artworks