Molly Napurrurla Tasman

Born: c. 1936
Language group: Warlpiri
Active: Lajamanu, Northern Territory

Molly Tasman Napurrurla lives in Lajamunu and is a member of the Warlpiri language group. She began painting in 1986, producing works of mixed media painted on cardboard, and later using acrylics on canvas. Her art depicts Dreaming stories associated with her surrounding country, such as seed, marsupial mouse, tree, snake and wallaby, and the style of her work is close in origin to the designs applied on bodies during women’s rituals.

Napurrurla is dedicated to the preservation of her culture & works tirelessly to this end. Her artistic talents are widely respected amongst her peers & those who know her. Art is a way of preserving and expressing culture in a meaningful way.

Napurrurla loves to paint and finds a lot of freedom in this form of expression, showing her gentle feminine personality in her work which is delightful to most viewers of the art she creates. Napurrurla is a desert lady who has travelled her dreamtime stories whose creations are from her soul.

Napurrurla’s art has been featured in exhibitions all over Australia since 1992, and she was a finalist in the 2008 & 2011 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. She has exhibited throughout Australia, the USA and France.

Subject & Themes
Marsupial mouse, tree, seed, snake, wallaby.

Collections
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Group Exhibitions
1990, Paint Up Big: Warlpiri Women’s Art of Lajamanu, National Gallery of Victoria
1994, Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu, Batchelor College, Tennant Creek, NT
2003, Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony, Outback Gallery, Sydney
2003, Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony,Darwin Entertainment Centre Gallery, Darwin, NT
2003, Yilpinji, Love, Magic and Ceremony,Alcheringa Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Bibliography
Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London.
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales.

Artworks

Seed Dreaming - 2011 - BBB0026
Molly Napurrurla Tasman
  • $450.00
Seed Dreaming - 2013 - BBB0028
Molly Napurrurla Tasman
  • $795.00