Dorothy Napangardi
Warlpiri people NT c.1952-2013
Sandhills 2008
Acrylic on canvas
76 x 120 cm
BCEC Art Collection
Dorothy Napangardi was a distinguished Warlpiri artist from Mina Mina in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. She began painting in the late 1980s as part of the Warlukurlangu artists community at Yuendumu. Renowned for her intricate, minimalist compositions, Napangardi developed a highly individual style using fine lines, dots and rhythmic patterns to depict her ancestral Country and the Mina Mina Dreaming.
Her work often maps the journeys of ancestral women, balancing precise geometry with a strong sense of movement and spatial depth. Celebrated both in Australia and internationally, Napangardi was a finalist in the Wynne Prize multiple times and won the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2001.
Her paintings are held in major public and private collections worldwide.
Sandhills can be viewed on Plaza Level.