Yinarupa Nangala

Yinarupa Nangala (b.1948) is a senior Western Desert painter originally from Mukula, in Western Australia. She paints her traditional lands at ‘Ngamurru’, which is located in the Kiwirrkurra region. 

She has famous connections to the Aboriginal Art world – she is the daughter of Anatjari Tjampitjinpa, one of the first Papunya artists of the Central Desert art movement. Yinarupa Nangala was married to Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, and is sister in law to George Ward Tjungurrayi and Willy Tjungurrayi.

Yinarupa uses a classic Pintupi style to render her paintings of her birth country at Mukula, to the south-west of Jupiter Well in Western Australia. She clearly marks the iconography of the landmarks and sites used by her people, then in-fills the remaining spaces using fine dot painting using warm, pale colours. The painting takes on a movement of its own, as the viewer’s eye shifts across the vast number of signs and markings with hundreds of shimmering dots.

She was awarded the General Painting prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Art Awards in 2009. It was major recognition for the artist who had been painting since 1996.