Born c1964
Region Central and Western Desert
Thomas Tjapaltjarri (born c.1964) is a Pintupi artist from the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. He is one of the renowned “Pintupi Nine” -a family group who lived a traditional nomadic life in the Western Desert until making first contact with Western society after arriving at Kiwirrkurra in 1984.
Soon after settling in the community, Thomas began painting, drawing on the cultural knowledge and ancestral stories he had inherited while living on Country. His work forms part of the rich tradition of Western Desert art, expressing a profound connection to Pintupi law, ceremony and landscape.
Characterised by precise dotting, restrained palettes and elegant geometric compositions, Thomas’s paintings primarily depict the Tingari Cycle – ancestral narratives that recount the journeys of creation beings across the desert. While these works reference important ceremonial sites and travels through Country, much of their deeper cultural significance remains known only to initiated members of the Pintupi community.
Today, Thomas Tjapaltjarri’s paintings are held in significant public and private collections in Australia and internationally, and he is recognised as an important contemporary artist of the Western Desert tradition.