Aboriginal Art

groups. He was involved in building the old stone houses which were at the old Balgo mission.

Tjungurrayi began painting in 1986 with works included in the major survey exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of NSW 2000 and other important exhibitions.

His works have attracted strong interest for their unique combination of Kiwirrkura and Balgo styles and are highly distinctive for their luminescent colouration of oranges, yellows and usually a blueish violet highlighted with white.

With these colours, he creates geometric patterns of thin panels of squared arches, concentric circles and waves that drift across the canvas. The optical, geometric patterns of the Kiwirrkura style are given a new life by the brilliant colouration and denser application of paint, more often seen in the work of Balgo artists.

Tjungurrayi’s paintings relate to the events of the Tingari sites from which he has inherited his dreaming stories and the travels of these men and the designs of ceremonies associated with the Wanawarra (rainbow snake) that lived in
that area.

Selected Collections:
Art Gallery of NSW
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Holmes a Court Collection
South Australian Museum
Artbank