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Elizabeth Nyumi

Born: c. 1947 Location: Parwalla Skin: Nungurrayi Language Pintubi

Selected details of artist’s working life

Mediums

Professional acrylic on canvas and linen
Printmaking
Glass

Themes

Parwalla her country and it’s abundant bush foods
Purra (bush tomato)
Rockholes and soaks
Coolamons and digging sticks
Kantilli (bush raisin)
Minyali (seed)
Nynmi (Jupiter well) and it’s Tjukurrpa story of the old woman who killed and ate a snake with her two children
Tingari

Biography

Nyumi’s mother belonged to the country of Nynmi near Kiwirrkurra on the Pintupi side. Her father was from Alyarra in the region of Ngaanyatjarra. When Nyumi was a very young child her mother died at the Kanari soakwater close to Jupiter Well. As a young girl, Nyumi lived a nomadic existence with her family group in their country, before, as a teenager, walking up the Canning Stock Route into old mission with her father and family group. Here she was given clothes and taken to Billiluna Station and trained as a domestic worker and subsequently travelled to many station houses around the region working for the wives of the station managers.

Nyumi is a very strong culture woman and dancer and an enthusiastic teacher of culture to children, ensuring the traditional dances and songs are kept alive. Nyumi had four daughters and three of them are still living and beginning to paint, which is strongly encouraged by Nyumi.  Brandy Tjungurrayi and Patrick Olodoodi, both senior Law men and recognised artists, are Nyumi’s older brothers.

Nyumi commenced painting in 1987 and began to emerge as a leading artist in the late 1990s. Her paintings are mainly concerned with the country of abundant bush food belonging to her family. Initially she worked with a thick brush, covering the canvas in emanating lines in muted tones. Her style has now developed to using a multitude of dotting to build up fields of texture but retains her signature motifs of small camps, coolamons and bush tucker trees and scrubs. Nyumi has had solo exhibitions in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and she has travelled interstate and overseas to attend openings of her exhibitions. In 2004 Nyumi became the first artist represented by Warlayirti Artists to be selected for the Biennale of Sydney.

Solo Exhibitions

2008    Balgo Survey, Redot Gallery, Singapore
2007    Survey, They Might Be Giants, Woolloongaba Art Gallery, Brisbane
2006    Balgo
2006    Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2006    Recent Works, Short Street Gallery, Broome
2006    Singing and Dancing up the Country, Raft Gallery, Darwin
2006    Elizabeth Nyumi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2005    Elizabeth Nyumi, Aboriginal and Pacific Art, Sydney
2004    Elizabeth Nyumi, Raft Artspace, Darwin
2004    Biennale of Sydney, Sydney
2003    Elizabeth Nyumi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002    Elizabeth Nyumi, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Sydney
2001    Parwalla, Raft Artspace, DarwinGroup Exhibitions
2006    Balgo Survey Show, Redot Gallery, Singapore
2006    Warlayirti Suite Print Exhibition, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2006    Survey , Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2006    Desert Mob, Aruluen Art Center, Alice Springs
2005    Balgo 2005, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2005    Glass from the Sand Country, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
2004    Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs
2004    29th Annual Shell Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
2004    Recent Works, Short Street Gallery, Broome
2004    Balgo Prints, Northern Editions, Darwin
2004    21st NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2004    Over the Top, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle
2004    Balgo a Go Go, Grantpirrie, Sydney
2004    Balgo 4-04, Warlayirti Artists, Balgo
2003    Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2003    Eight by Three, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne
2003    Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs
2003    20th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2003    Purtatjanirri Kamu Warrmala, Framed Gallery, Darwin
2003    Balgo Brilliance, Art Mob, Hobart
2003    Palya Minyirri, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2002    30th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2002    Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002    Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
2002    Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2002    Desert Mob, Arulen Centre, Alice Springs
2002    Art from Balgo, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Spring
2002    Balgo Hills: An artist’s survey, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2002    Balgo Hills Artists 2002, Art Mob, Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart
2002    Big Colour My Country, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast
2001    Aborigena Arte, Australiana Contemporuneu, Torino, Palazzo Bricherasio, Italy
2001    Desert Mob, Arulen Centre, Alice Springs
2001    18th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2001     Kutjungka, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2001     Balgo Works, Staedtische Gallery, Wolsfburg, Germany
2001    Recent Works by Artists from Balgo Hills, Ochre Gallery, Collingwood, Victoria
2001    Balgo Artists Return to Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2001    Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Alcaston Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2001    Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley Landscapes, Short Street Gallery in conjunction with Australia Square, Sydney
2000    This Earth for Us, Australia Dreaming at the Commonwealth Institute,  Helen Read Touring Exhibition London, Bristol & Edinburugh, UK
2000    The Westside:  Images in Ochre and Colour, Coo-ee II Exhibiting Gallery, Yuwayi Art Precinct, World Square, Sydney
2000    Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2000    17TH NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
2000    Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2000    Waltja – Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2000    Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award & the Art of Place, Old Parliament House, Canberra
2000    Balgo Art, Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs
2000    Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2000   Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Leverkusen, Germany
2000   Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Dormagen, Germany
1999    16th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
1999    Mularrpa (True) Balgo, Framed, the Darwin Gallery, Darwin
1999    Miliynyin, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1999    Miliynyin, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
1998    Ngurrara: My own Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
1998    15th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
1997    Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
1997    Balgo Paintings, Seywald Gallery, Salzburg, Austria
1997    New Paintings from Balgo Artists, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1997    14th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin
1997    New Painting by Balgo Women, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
1997    Dreamings: Aboriginal kunst uit Australie, Eusebius, Arnhem, The Netherlands
1993    Wirrimanu: the Art of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1992    Warlayirti Artists’ Homelands, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington
1990    Songlines: Paintings from Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
1989    Warlayirti Artists: Continuing Links with Land, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington

Collections

National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Museum of Contemporary Art
Artbank
The Holmes a Court Collection
Morven Estate
Helen Read Collection
Harland Collection
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Laverty Collection

Bibliography

Who’s Who of Australian Women, 2006,  2007. Bahr,Crown Content Pty Ltd, North Melbourne

Bahr, E., (ed), 2000, The Unseen in Seen, exhibition catalogue, Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer, Germany

Carlos, I., (ed), 2004, On Reason and Emotion, exhibition catalogue, Biennale of Sydney Ltd, Sydney

Cowan, J., 1999, Balgo – New Directions, Gordon & Breach Arts International Limited (Craftsman House, Sydney)

Cowan, J., 1994, Wirrimanu – Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, Gordon & Breach Arts International Limited (Craftsman House, Sydney)

Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW

Kleinert, S. & Neale M., (eds), 2000, The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art & Culture, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne

Watson, C., 2003, Piercing the Ground, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle

Watson, C., 1999, ‘Touching the Land’, Art from the Land, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

West, M., (ed), 2001, Telstra presents the 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, exhibition catalogue, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Williamson, S. & Togni, S., 2004 Abundance – The Art of Elizabeth Nyumi, Art & Australia Vol. 41 No.4, Art & Australia Pty Ltd, Paddington