Biography

Dr David Malangi was born in central Arnhem Land at the mouth of the Glyde River and died in 1999. He was a Manharrju man and first began painting in ernest after WWII. He is now known around the world for his artistic style and became one of the leading lights of Arnhem Land art after his inclusion in the Musee National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie in Paris in 1966 and the international exhibition at the Biennale of Sydney in 1979. For some he is best known for the image that featured on the now out of circulation Australian one-dollar note and the controversy over his rights to the image used on the note.

In 1979, he became a founding member of the Ramingining Arts and Crafts centre, later called Bula Bula Arts. This enabled him to paint full time and through this community he was selected to collaborate in "The Aboriginal Memorial" a group of 200 hollow log coffins now on permanent display in the National Gallery of Australia.

Five years after his death, a major retrospective exhibition of his works, No Ordinary Place: The Art of David Malangi, was held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and toured to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.