In this series, we introduce the nine artists behind Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, on view at The Phillips Collection June 2–September 9, 2018.

Installation view of works by Angelina Pwerle in Marking the Infinite. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

ANGELINA PWERLE
Born c. 1946, Utopia, Northern Territory
Lives and works in Utopia, Northern Territory
(Anmatyerr/Australian)

Detail of Angelina Pwerle’s “Bush Plum”

Angelina Pwerle lives at Camel Camp, a small outstation in the Utopia region of Australia’s eastern desert. Outstations are remote communities of one or two small buildings that arose in the 1970s as Aboriginal people began leaving government settlements and missions to establish communities on traditional lands. Like many of her peers, her artistic career began with the establishment of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group in 1977. A decade later, she participated in the landmark exhibition A Summer Project, which brought the art of Utopia to national attention. Pwerle’s work is in many significant public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and the National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan.

Gulumbu Yunupingu, Ganyu (Stars), 2003, Earth pigments on bark, 70 7/8 x 31 1/2 in. Collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl © The estate of Gulumbu Yunupingu, courtesy Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala. Photo: Sid Hoeltzell

The infinite reaches of space are a primary inspiration for Gulumbu Yunupingu, whose first depictions of stars date to 1999. Stars are frequently found in Yolngu ceremonial painting and relate to significant Dreaming narratives, such as the sisters Guthayguthay and Nhayay who became stars in the Milky Way, and the seven sisters who traveled by canoe, named Djulpan. These stories were taught to Yunupingu by her father, Mungurrawuy. Rather than literally depict these narratives, the artist conceives the stars as a metaphor for the unity of humanity: “We are just like the stars. All gathered close together. We are really as one like the stars.”

This work is on view in Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia through September 9, 2018.

In this series, we introduce the nine artists behind Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia, on view at The Phillips Collection June 2–September 9, 2018.

Installation view of work by Yukultji Napangati in Marking the Infinite. Photo: Lee Stalsworth

YUKULTJI NAPANGATI
Born c. 1971, Wilkinkarra (Pintupi) / Lake Mackay (English), Western Australia
Lives and works in Kiwirrkurra, Western Australia
(Pintupi/Australian)

Long after other Pintupi had moved to government-run settlements, Yukultji Napangati and her eight family members remained in the Great Sandy Desert, living an isolated nomadic life. In 1984, however, they emerged near the remote Kiwirrkurra community in Western Australia, many of them making contact with the Western world for the first time. Napangati started painting in 1996, inspired by senior women such as Wintjiya Napaljtarri, while frequently assisting her husband Charlie Ward Tjakamarra. Following his death in 2005, Napangati emerged as a prominent figure in her own right, perfecting the stark linear style characteristic of contemporary painting at Kiwirrkurra. Napangati has been included in more than 80 exhibitions in Australia and internationally, and her works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and the Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane.