Kumanjayi (Walala) Tjapaltjarri

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Selected works

FW22542 Tingari Study III	FW22543 Tingari Study IV	FW22544 Tingari Study V
FW22546 Tingari Study VII	FW22547 Tingari Study VIII	FW22548 Tingari Study IX
FW22549 Tingari Study X	FW10428 Tingari	FW7919 Tingari (gold & silver series)
FW8439 Tingari window 3 (1/1)

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Bio

Born: c. 1960s Western Desert NT
Language: Pintupi
Country: Wilkinkarra
Region: Kiwirrkurra WA

Dubbed the Pintupi Nine, The Lost Tribe or Last Nomads by international news outlets, Walala, his two brothers and three sisters lived a traditional, nomadic way of life in the Gibson Desert near Lake Mackay (WA/NT border) having no contact with non-Aboriginal people until 1984. After the death of the patriarch of the family a few years earlier, the group went in search of relatives on the outskirts of the Pintupi community of Kiwirrkurra.

Walala began his artistic career in 1991 in the classic Pintupi dot and circle style, and – like his brothers (also internationally renowned artists Warlimpirrnga and Thomas Tjapaltjarri) – he chose to depict men’s Tingari designs. These Tingari forms relate to men’s ceremonial ground and body painting.

Though his earlier work employed the tight dotting reminiscent of Papunya Tula artists (such as Yala Yala Gibbs, Willy & George Ward Tjungurrayi) he quickly developed his own distinctive approach to painting, abstracting and simplifying the Tingari designs with a minimalist use of colour and his unique style evolved as boldly graphic. He was celebrated with exhibitions across Australia and overseas.

Trips to Brisbane in 2001 and 2004 for drawing workshops further amplified this stylization. Ink works on paper from the period appear almost calligraphic. Whilst in Brisbane, Walala also began collaborating with Campfire Group Artists on sculpture projects. The subsequent sculpture series were mapped from Walala’s drawings and translated – via scans and laser-cutting technologies – into (limited edition) welded steel and timber forms.

In 2022 a reinvigoration of these sculpture projects saw the creation of new Tingari arrangements, sand cast in bronze with rich, earthy patinas.

Walala’s works are held in numerous private, corporate and public collections nationally and internationally.

Story/Statement

TINGARI

Tingari ancestors are believed to have travelled through the Western Desert creating sacred sites and handing down responsibility of the continuity of all laws and ceremonies. Tingari gathered and performed at sacred sites, and this songline ritual of both ceremony, and more recently dot/circle/line painting, remain part of this continuing tradition. The (Men’s) Tingari designs are iconoclastically embedded into the essential traditions of the Western Desert art movement of the Pintupi.

Solo Exhibitions
2024 The White Desert (featuring Walala Tjapaltjarri 2001–2024), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2022 Walala Tjapaltjarri Tingari Arrangements, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Walala Tjapaltjarri Self-portrait, Fondation Opale, Lens, Switzerland
2005 Smoke: Campfire Group and Other Commissioned Works, Despard Gallery, Hobart; FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane; Kimberley Art, Melbourne
2004 New Sculpture, Maunsell Wickes Gallery, Sydney
2003 Tingari, Japingka Gallery, Perth
2002–04 Walala and Campfire Group, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2001 Sculptures from the Tingari Cycle, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Tingari Cycle, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1998 Tingari – Men’s Business, Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney
1998 Walala Tjapaltjarri Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1998 Tingari Cycle: New Works by Walala Tjapaltjarri, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane

Group Exhibitions
2021 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Central Focus, Art Mob, Hobart
2019 An Exhibition on Tjapaltjarri Brothers from the Indigenous Lost Tribe, Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2019 Defining Tradition | The Colourists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Defining Tradition: The First Wave & Its Disciples, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2019 Sculpture Projects, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Pintupi Artists of the Western Desert, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
2018 Three Brothers, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2014 Intermission, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2011 Eclectica III: Red July, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2009 Sculpture + Works on Paper, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Blue: A Group Exhibition, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Three Large Rooms, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2000 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
2000 Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
2000 The Art of Place Exhibition, Australian Heritage Commission National Tour
2000 Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra
2000 Landmarks Exhibition, Dar Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse
2000 Walala Tjapatjarri and Dr George Tjapaltjarri, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
2000 My Country – Journeys of Our Ancestors, Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns
2000 Lines, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Recent Works by Walala Tjapaltjarri, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1999 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin
1999 Painting the Desert, Alliance Française de Canberra and the French Embassy, Canberra
1999 Spirit Country, The California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco, USA
1998 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1998 Tingari – My Dreaming, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
1997 14th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Commissions
2007 Tingari Sculpture, Private residence, Brisbane
2003 Tingari Sculpture, Crown Casino, Melbourne
2002–05 Tingari Sculpture, Private commissions, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane

Selected bibliography
1996 Nangara – The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Ebes Collection, The Gallery of Dreamings, Melbourne, Victoria
1999 Spirit Country, The California Palace of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco, USA – Jennifer Isaacs
1999 Painting the Desert, Alliance Française de Canberra and the French Embassy – Maud Girard-Geslan and Luc Chailleu
2000 Beyond the Fatal Shore, Producer: Robert Hughes for Oxford TV, BBC & ABC

Collections (selected)
AMP Investments, Sydney
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Artbank, Sydney
Axiom Funds Management, Sydney
CNC International Corporation, Sydney
Corrigan Collection, Sydney
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Perth
El Paso Energy International Co., Houston, Texas
Epic Energy Australia, Brisbane
Flinders University, Adelaide
Fondation Burkhardt-Felder Arts et Culture, Môtiers, Switzerland
Ganter Myer Aboriginal Art Collection
Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne
Hastings Funds Management, Melbourne
Kaplan & Levi Collection, Seattle, USA
Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica
Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice
Various private and public collections

Past exhibitions

SOLO

The White Desert (featuring Walala Tjapaltjarri)

Tingari Arrangements 2022

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