Acrylic on Linen
61 x 61 cm
A$4,800 Buy Now
Acrylic on Linen
120 x 178 cm
A$24,000 Buy NowAcrylic on Linen
64 x 105 cm
Sold SoldHaven't found what you're looking for?
Contact a consultant about other ways to acquire an artist's artwork.
DOB: c.1930 – 2011
BORN: Lake MacDonald, WA
LANGUAGE GROUP: Pintupi
COMMUNITY: Kintore, NT
Makinti Napanangka was a senior Pintupi woman, born in the area of Karrkurritinyja (Lake Macdonald) around 1930. Her first contact with Europeans was with men travelling on camels near Lupul. She walked in with her family to Haasts Bluff before the Papunya Community was established and now resides at the Kintore Community.
Makinti was introduced to acrylic painting in 1995 as a member of the Haasts Bluff-Kintore painting project which was conducted at Kintore. She commenced painting for the Papunya Tula Artists in 1996, and quickly developed her own style: Makinti’s art is characterised by a more spontaneous approach in illustrating the traditional iconography than that done by previous artists painting at Papunya.
Makinti and her husband, Nyukiti Tjupurrula Makinti, often painted designs associated with travels of Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women). The patterning that feature in her paintings represent the swirling hair-string skirts worn by the Two Women during ceremonies when they reaffirm these mythological stories through dance and song, evident in the flowing rhythms of the lines.
These skirts are woven by the women from human hair using a simple spindle made of two sticks, and are shown as a complex pattern of pale lines over an orange or ochre-coloured background then set off with contrasting colours, often mauve or bright yellow highlights. The works are cheerful and free flowing, intensified at times by the addition of a stray grey-blue line or a patch of crimson, red or purple.
Makinti was not concerned with neatness, or the painstaking ‘dot by dot’ approach of others. Her bands of lines form the sweeping arcs, creating patterns that twist and bend. She was very different even to her Pintupi contemporaries. The impact of her work is haptic, concerned with touching and sensing with fingers, rather than purely visual. The repetition of colour has a rhapsodic effect akin to many bodies in dance and reveals the inner or spiritual power, the essence, of Makinti’s country and cultural identity. Makinti distilled body-painting designs to their quintessential forms, abundant and looping in rhythm and seeming to stretch beyond the frame.
Makinti Napanangka was one of the leading female artists of the Papunya Tula artists. Her work is highly sought after and is represented in major public and private collections. She was named as one of the 50 Most Collectable Australian artists in Australian Art Collector Issue 23, January – March 2003, Issue 27, January – March 2004 and again in Issue 31, January – March 2005. She has been described by Utopia Art’s director as the Central Desert’s “best painter since Emily (Kngwarreye), with no living match in her painterly freedom, and her fearless blend of naive and sophisticated elements”.
Collections
Awards and Recognition
2011 Appointed Member of the Order of Australia
2010 Alice Prize, Alice Springs – Finalist
2010 Western Australian Art Prize – Finalist
2009 TogArt Contemporary Art Award, Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin – Finalist
2009 26th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2009 Desert Mob, Alice Springs – Finalist
2008 25th NATSIAA, Darwin – Winner
2006 Desert Mob, Alice Springs – Finalist
2006 Top 50 Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector Magazine
2005 Top 50 Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector Magazine
2004 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of NSW – Finalist
2004 Top 50 Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector Magazine
2003 Top 50 Collectable Artists, Australian Art Collector Magazine
2003 20th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2003 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne – Finalist
2002 19th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
2001 18th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
1998 15th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
1998 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs – Finalist
1997 14th NATSIAA, Darwin – Finalist
1997 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs – Finalist
History
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2010 New Vision, Utopia Art, Sydney
2007 Makinti, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2004 Makinti, John Gordon Gallery, Coffs Harbour
2003 Makinti Napanangka – A Painter, Utopia Art, Sydney
2002 Recent Paintings, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2001 Makinti Napanangka – New Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney
2000 Makinti Napanangka: New Vision, Utopia Art, Sydney
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2021 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2021 SIGNIFICANT, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2021 Lineage & Legacy, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
2021 Big Names Little Paintings, Cooee Art Gallery, Sydney
2020 Desert Painters of Australia – Two Generations, Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong
2020 A Woman’s Work. Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley, ID, USA
2020 Pintupi Masters – Enduring Dreamings, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Matriarchs, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin
2020 Director’s Choice 2020, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2020 Papunya, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2019 Reverence, D’Lan Davidson, Sydney
2019 Desert Painters of Australia, Larry Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA – from the Steve Martin & Anne Springfield Collections and Kluge-Ruhe Collection of the University of Virginia, USA
2019 Borrowed Scenery, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
2019 Community X, Utopia Art, Sydney
2019 Significant, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2018 Pintupi – Paintings from the Masters of the Western Desert, Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley, Idaho, USA
2018 Significant, D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2018 Three Women, Utopia Art, Sydney
2017 Important Australian Indigenous Art , D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
2016 Artist’s Hand: Collectors’ Eye – The Angel Gift, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2015 Papunya Tula Artists – Indigenous Paintings from Australia’s Western Desert, Brumby Ute Gallery, Aspen, CO, USA
2015 Tarnanthi – Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
2015 Wynners, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2014 Parcours Des Modes, Arts d’Australie, Stephane Jacob, Paris
2013 Crossing Cultures, The Owen and Wagner collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA
2013 Community V, Utopia Art, Sydney
2013 Papunya Tula Artists: Masters of the Western Desert, Harvey Art Projects USA, Sun Valley, ID, USA
2012 Ancestral Modern, Australian Aboriginal Art from The Kalplan & Levi Collection, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA
2012 Crossing Cultures, The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian Art, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, USA
2012 All Our Relations, 18th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2012 Interconnected, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 Good company, Utopia Art, Sydney
2012 PTA 40th Anniversary Show, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2012 Unique Perspectives – Papunya Tula Artists and the Alice Springs Community, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2011 Up Close and Personal: works from the collection of Dr Peter Elliott AM, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2011 Revival In Small, Artkelch, Freiburg, Germany
2011 40 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2011 Aboriginal Art 2011, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2011 Pintupi Trails 2011, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2010 Museum III, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Significant Women Artists from the Western Desert, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2010 PTA NOW, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Tradition And Innovation – Papunya Tula 2010, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2010 Aboriginal Art 2010, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2010 Papunya Tula Artists: Art of the Western Desert, Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley, ID, USA
2010 Ngurra Kutju Nugurrara – Belonging to One Country, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2010 Community, Utopia Art, Sydney
2010 Nyakula Kanyini Piintapalyalpayi Kamu Walytja Tjanampa Lurrtju – Caring For Artists And their Families, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2010 Papunya Tula Women’s Art, Maitland Regional Gallery, Maitland, NSW
2009 All About country: Aboriginal Art from The Central and Western Desert, Artkelch, Freiburg, Germany
2009 Papunya Tula Classics, Utopia Art, Sydney
2009 Pro Community – Papunya Tula Artists, Kunstwerk, Eberdingen-Nussdorf; Art Bar71, Berlin; VDMA, Frankfurt; Artkelch, Freiburg, Germany
2009 Painting The Country, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2009 Six Hands, Utopia Art, Sydney
2009 Nganana Tjungurringanyi Tjukurrpa Nintintjakitja – We Are Here Sharing Our Dreaming, 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York
2009 Pintupi 2009, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2009 Community – The Heart Of Papunya Tula Artists, Utopia Art, Sydney
2009 Nganampatju Kanpatja Winki, Nganampatju Yara Wilkii – All Our Paintings, All Our Stories, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2009 Size Matters, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2009 Mythology & Reality: Contemporary Aboriginal Art From The Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, VIC
2008 Black & White: Inspired by Landscapes, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
2008 Australian Abstraction, Utopia Art, Sydney
2008 Papunya Tula – Recent Works, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA
2008 Papunya Tula Artists 2008, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2008 New Paintings from Papunya Tula Artists, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2008 David Larwill and the Western Desert Artists, Stephan Weiss Studio, New York
2008 Virtuosity: The Evolution of Painting at Papunya Tula, The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
2008 Desert Prophets, Indigenart, Perth
2008 Paint, Raftspace, Darwin
2008 Ngurra Yurru Kulintkjaku – Always Remembering Country, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2008 Aboriginal Art 2008, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2008 Marrkangku Yara Palyantjaku Ngurrangka – Making Strong Paintings At Home, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2008 Pairs of Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney
2007 Papunya Tula, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA
2007 Gifted: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, The Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
2007 Papunya Tula Artists – Big Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney
2007 Australian Abstraction, Utopia Art, Sydney
2007 Papunya Tula 2007, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2007 Papunya Tula Women, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane
2007 Group Show, Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane
2007 Recent Paintings 2007, Cross Cultural Art Exchange, Darwin
2007 Pintupi Art 2007, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2006 A Particular Collection, Utopia Art, Sydney
2006 Well Represented, Utopia Art, Sydney
2006 Melbourne Art Fair 2006, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2006 Luminous – Contemporary Art From The Australian Desert, Bathurst Regional Gallery, Bathurst, NSW
2006 Papunya Tula Artists 2006, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2006 PTA, Utopia Art, Sydney
2006 Pintupi, Hamiltons Gallery, London
2006 Dreaming Their Way, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
2006 Luminous – Contemporary Art From The Australian Desert, Manning Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2006 Papunya Tula Artists – Recent Paintings, Harriet Place, Darwin
2006 Luminous – Contemporary Art From The Australian Desert, Grafton Regional Art Gallery, NSW
2006 Pintupi Art 2006, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2006 Pintupi Dreamtime, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2006 Yawulyurru kapalilu palyara nintilpayi, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2006 Aboriginal Art 2006, Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne
2005 Pintupi Women, Indigenart, Perth
2005 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2005 New Ideas, Utopia Art, Sydney
2005 Luminous – Contemporary Art From The Australian Desert, Manly Art Gallery And Museum, Sydney
2005 New Works From The Western Desert, Indigenart, Perth
2005 from big things little things grow, Utopia Art, Sydney
2005 Pintupi Artists, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2005 Papunya Tula Artists – new work for a new space, Utopia Art, Sydney
2005 Strong and Stately, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2005 Museum II, Utopia Art, Sydney
2005 Aboriginal Vision In Contemporary Australian Art, Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA, USA
2005 Pintupi Art 2005, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2005 Living Legends of the Western Desert, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney
2005 Celebrating 20 Years, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, travelling exhibition, Wollongong City Art Gallery, NSW
2005 Celebrating 20 Years, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, travelling exhibition, Cairns Regional Gallery, QLD
2004 Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
2004 Pintupi Artists, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2004 Pintupi Art 2004, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2004 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2004 Mythology & Reality, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
2004 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
2004 Ma Yungu/Pass It On, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2004 Depth Of Field – Anamorphosis, Utopia Art, Sydney
2004 Colour Power – Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2004 Celebrating 20 Years, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, travelling exhibition, National Archives of Australia, Canberra
2004 Celebrating 20 Years, Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, travelling exhibition, RMIT, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2004 All About Papunya, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2004 Aboriginal Art 2004, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2003 Recent Paintings By The Women Artists Of Kintore And Kiwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2003 International Abstralaction: Making Painting Real, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA
2003 Pintupi Artists, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2003 Pintupi Art From The Western Desert, Indigenart, Perth
2003 Pintupi Art 2003, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2003 Papunya Tula Selected Paintings, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
2003 Papunya Tula Masters, The Depot Gallery, Sydney
2003 Masterpieces From The Western Desert, Gavin Graham Gallery, London
2003 Framed Gallery, Darwin
2003 Aboriginal Art 2003, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2002 The Year In Review, Utopia Art, Sydney
2002 William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
2002 Spring Exhibition 2002, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2002 Saluting Papunya, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2002 Pintupi Men’s and Women’s Stories, Indigenart, Perth
2002 Pintupi Artists, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2002 Paintings From Our Country, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2002 Next Generation – Aboriginal Art 2002. Art House Gallery, Sydney
2002 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
2002 Art Born Of The Western Desert, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Comunidad de Madrid touring exhibition, Spain.
2001 Size Doesn’t Matter, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
2001 Pintupi Exhibition, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2001 Papunya Tula 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Chapman Gallery, Canberra
2001 Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, FL, USA.
2001 Kintore and Kiwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2001 Indigenart, Perth
2001 Dreamtime: the Dark and the Light, Kunst der Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Vienna
2001 Dreamscapes-Contemporary Desert Art, Mostings Hus, Frederiksberg, Denmark
2001 Desert Flowering, Manawatu Art Gallery, North Island, New Zealand.
2001 Art of the Pintupi, Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide
2001 Aboriginal Art 2001, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2001 Kintore and Kiwirrkura, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2001 Aborigena, Palazzo Bricherasio, Turino, Italy.
2000 Utopia Art, Sydney
2000 Pintupi Women, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
2000 Papunya – Tula Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2000 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
2000 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2000 Framed Gallery, Darwin
1999 Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibition, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1998 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne
1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1998 14th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Art Award, RMIT University, Melbourne
1998 14th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Art Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Surfers Paradise
1998 nineteen ninety eight, Utopia Art, Sydney
1997 Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1997 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1996 Papunya Tula Women, Utopia Art, Sydney
1996 Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs
1996 Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Harvey Galleries was founded by the Harvey family in 1994 with an eye to establish a dynamic and inclusive contemporary art space on the North Shore of Sydney. For almost three decades we have expanded our reach to over three gallery locations and an ever expanding stable of the best artists Australia has to offer.
Harvey Galleries acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which our galleries stand. The Guringai people (Seaforth), the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney), and the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation (Melbourne).
We pay our respect to Elders past and present.
Always be the first to know about exhibitions, events and new art releases.
