Tjayanka Woods

Last updated

Tjayanka Woods
Bornc. 1935
Kaḻayapiṯi, South Australia
Occupation(s) Painter, weaver
Years active2000–present
Organization(s)Irrunytju Arts
Papulankutja Artists
Style Western Desert art

Tjayanka Woods is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She was one of the pioneers of the art movement across the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, which began in 2000. [1] She is best known for her paintings, but also a craftswoman who makes baskets and other woven artworks. Her paintings are held in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, [2] National Gallery of Victoria, [3] and the National Gallery of Australia. [4] [5]

Woods was born about 1935. [6] She was born close to Kaḻayapiṯi, a rock hole in the Great Victoria Desert of South Australia. [7] She grew up living a traditional, nomadic way of life in the bush with her family, before any contact with Euro-Australian society. [8] They often camped at Kaḻayapiṯi, and Woods and the other girls would gather bushfood together. She learned to carve basic tools and decorative objects, and to burn traditional patterns into the wood (this is called puṉu. She also learned to spin hair string on a hand-spun spindle and weave head rings and ceremonial belts from hair and feathers. [7]

Woods began painting in 2000, after moving to Irrunytju. The women there opened an art centre as a community-owned economic project, called Irrunytju Arts. From the beginning of her career, Brown often painted with her friend Anmanari Brown. When Brown's husband died in 2007, the two women left Irrunytju and went to live at Papulankutja, on Ngaanyatjarra lands. Here, they painted for Papulankutja Artists. In April 2010, the two women held their first solo exhibition together at the Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne. [1] Woods has had two of her paintings chosen as finalists for the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, in 2006 and 2008. [9] [10]

Woods' paintings are mostly about the Minyma Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Sisters Dreaming), which is her personal Dreaming. They are structured like maps drawn in the sand, tracing the journey of the two sisters around the edge of the canvas. She paints in earthy colours, and uses solid and dotted lines in concentric circles to depict the journeys and activities of figures in the story. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

Nyakul Dawson was an Australian Aboriginal tribal elder and artist. He was one of the earliest Ngaanyatjarra artists to achieve success using Western-style painting techniques. Examples of his work are held in the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makinti Napanangka</span> Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert region (c. 1930 – 2011)

Makinti Napanangka was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She was referred to posthumously as Kumentje. The term Kumentje was used instead of her personal name as it is customary among many indigenous communities not to refer to deceased people by their original given names for some time after their deaths. She lived in the communities of Haasts Bluff, Papunya, and later at Kintore, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-east of the Lake MacDonald region where she was born, on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Danie Mellor is an Australian artist who was the winner of 2009 National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Born in Mackay, Queensland, Mellor grew up in Scotland, Australia, and South Africa before undertaking tertiary studies at North Adelaide School of Art, the Australian National University (ANU) and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. He then took up a post lecturing at Sydney College of the Arts. He works in different media including printmaking, drawing, painting, and sculpture. Considered a key figure in contemporary Indigenous Australian art, the dominant theme in Mellor's art is the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian cultures.

Doreen Reid Nakamarra was an Australian Aboriginal artist and painter. Reid was considered an important artist within the Western Desert cultural bloc. She was a leading painter at the Papunya Tula artist cooperative in Central Australia.

Wintjiya Napaltjarri, and also known as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1, is a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Tjunkiya Napaltjarri; both were wives of Toba Tjakamarra, with whom Wintjiya had five children.

Linda Yunkata Syddick Napaltjarri is a Pintupi- and Pitjantjatjara- speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her father was killed when she was young; her mother later married Shorty Lungkarta Tjungarrayi, an artist whose work was a significant influence on Linda Syddick's painting.

Jimmy Donegan is an Aboriginal Australian artist. His painting Papa Tjukurpa munu Pukara won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2010. He speaks Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. His work is held in several major private galleries in Australia and Europe; the only major public gallery to hold one of his works is the National Gallery of Victoria.

Anmanari Brown is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She was one of the pioneers of the art movement across the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, which began in 2000. Since then, her paintings have gained much success. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Queensland Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Australia.

Wingu Tingima was an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She was born in Great Victoria Desert, and grew up living a traditional way of life in the bush, without any contact with Western civilization. A member of the Pitjantjatjara people, she painted spiritual stories from her Dreaming. Along with her friend and colleague Eileen Yaritja Stevens, Wingu became one of the most well-known artists to paint in the style of the Western Desert.

Pulpurru Davies is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. Most of her early life was spent living nomadically in the desert, until she and her family were settled at Warburton in the late 1960s. Part of her life in the bush was featured in the documentary People of the Australian Western Desert (1966). She has since become one of the earliest and most successful Ngaanyatjarra artists.

Maringka Baker is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. She lives in the Pitjantjatjara community of Kaṉpi, South Australia, and paints for Tjungu Palya, based in nearby Nyapaṟi.Maringka is known for her paintings. Maringka paints sacred stories from her family's Dreaming (spirituality). As well as the important cultural meanings they carry, her paintings are known for being rich in colour and contrast. She often paints the desert landscape in bright green colours, and contrasts it against reds and ochres to depict landforms. She also uses layers of contrasting colours to show the detail of the desert in full bloom.

Angkaliya Curtis is an Australian Aboriginal artist. She paints animals from the central Australian desert.

Tiger Palpatja was an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands.

Harry Tjutjuna is an Aboriginal artist from central Australia. He belongs to the Pitjantjatjara people. Tjutjuna began painting in 2005. He held his first solo exhibition in 2007, in Darwin. His work is now held in several major public galleries in Australia, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the National Gallery of Australia. His painting Ninuku Tjukurpa was a finalist for the Togard Contemporary Art Award in 2009. In 2010 and 2011, another of Tjutjuna's paintings, Wati Nyiru munu Wati Wanka, was chosen as a finalist in both the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards, and the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daisy Andrews</span> Australian artist (c. 1934 or 1935–2015)

Munmarria Daisy Andrews, known professionally as Daisy Andrews, was an Australian artist originally from the Walmajarri desert tribe. After taking up artwork later in life – initially illustrating the personal stories of fellow community members – Andrews began exhibiting her paintings in group and solo showings across Australia. She was known for her vividly red landscapes showcasing the mountain ranges of the Great Sandy Desert. In 1994, she received the main Telstra award from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA) for her painting Lumpa Lumpa landscape.

Barbara Mbitjana Moore is an Anmatyerre woman who grew up in Ti-Tree in the Northern Territory, moving later to Amata in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. In April 2003, Moore began painting at Amata's Tjala Arts, and, since then, has received widespread recognition. Moore won a National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2012 and has been a finalist in many other years. Moore has also been a finalist for the Wynne Prize.

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Yunupingu created works of art that drastically diverge from the customs of the Yolngu people and made waves within the art world as a result. Due to this departure from tradition within her oeuvre, Yunupingu's work had varying receptions from within her community and the broader art world.

Narputta Nangala Jugadai (1933–2010) was an Aboriginal Australian artist born at Karrkurutinytja, who later lived at Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji) in the Northern Territory. Her language group was Pintupi/Pitjantjatjara, and her Dreaming was "Snake", "Jangala, Two Men" and "Two Women". She was a senior artist in her community at Ikuntji and prominent among the Ikuntji Women's Centre painters. She was the wife of the painter, Timmy Tjungurrayi Jugadai, and mother of Daisy Jugadai Napaltjarri and Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri.

Malaluba Gumana is an Australian Aboriginal artist from northeast Arnhem Land, who has gained prominence through her work in painting and the production of larrakitj, the memorial poles traditionally used by Yolngu people in a mortuary ceremony.

Betty Muffler is an Aboriginal Australian artist and ngangkari (healer). She is a senior artist at Iwantja Arts, in Indulkana in Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, South Australia, known for a series of works on large linen canvases called Ngangkari Ngura .

References

  1. 1 2 Knight, Mary (8 April 2010). "Anmanari Brown & Tjayangka Woods". Aboriginal Art Directory. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  2. ↑ "Western Desert Satellites". Perth: Art Gallery of Western Australia. 2006. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "Tjayanka Woods". Collection Online. National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  4. ↑ "Woods, Tjankaya". Collection Online. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Kungka Ranganka (Seven Sisters)". Collection Online. National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  6. ↑ The exact year of Tjayanka Woods' birth is not known. The National Gallery of Australia estimates that she was born some time between 1933 and 1937. [5]
  7. 1 2 3 "Tjayanka Woods". Design and Art Australia Online. College of Fine Arts. 19 October 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  8. 1 2 Josephine Tovey (20 March 2008). "Two late starters find themselves in the pink". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney: Fairfax Media.
  9. ↑ "Room brochure" (PDF). 23rd Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
  10. ↑ "Sales list" (PDF). 25th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.