Gannon House Gallery has worked with Lily Kelly Napangardi for the last 15 years. Over this time, she has become one of our more popular and sought after artists. Napangardi was born c.1948 in the Haasts Bluff region of the Northern Territory of Australia. In her earlier years, Napangardi lived with her family at Papunya, but later moved to Mount Liebig, 325 km west of Alice Springs and known as Watiyawanu. She is a respected senior law woman in Watiyawanu, and the custodian of the stories associated with Kunajarrayi.
Lily Kelly Napangardi began painting in the early 1980s. In 1986 she won the Northern Territory Art Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Painting and in 2003 she was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). In January 2006, The Australian Art Collector magazine included Napangardi in its Australia’s 50 most collectable artists list.
Subject
Napangardi’s paintings are of her country, especially of the sandhills (Tali) around Watiyawanu. She uses white and sometimes red, blue, or yellow dots on a black or red background. She uses veils of fine dots applied with fine bamboo skewer tips to achieve her representation of the shifting sand in the desert. Her minimalist style has gained the attention of many private collectors and her work is included in many of the the larger public galleries.
Collections
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and in the collections of The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, CA, USA, The Kerry Stokes Collection, Australia, Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Corrigan Collection, Sydney, Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice Art Bank, Sydney, Holmes A Court Collection, Perth, James Erskine Art Collection, Sydney and Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund for Contemporary Aboriginal Art.