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Lilly Kelly Napangardi was born circa 1948 in the Haast Bluff region of the
Northern Territory. She lived at the newly established settlement of
Papunya for much of her early life, relocating to Mt Liebig with her
husband in the early 1980's.
Lilly Kelly Napangardi is from
Mount Liebig, and is a senior law woman of the
Watiyawanu community, Haasts Bluff. Lilly moved
to Papunya in the 1960's, and was later noted
for the assistance she gave to her husband, the
painter Norman Kelly. She began painting in the
1980's.
Lilly Kelly
Napangardi hypnotic 'Sand Hills' paintings are
made up of fine dots and dashes, their muted
tones building up a mysterious, hidden
topography of her land.
Lilly Kelly
Napangardi holds authority
over the "Women Dreaming " story associated with Kunajarrayi.
Throughout this time Lilly assisted her
husband Norman Kelly with his paintings, becoming an artist in her own
right in 1986 when she began painting for Papunya Tula artists.
AWARDS
1986 Telstra NATSIAA
Art Award
2002 Telstra NATSIAA Art Award
2003 Telstra NATSIAA Art Award
Lilly Kelly
Napangardi work is represented by major collections throughout the world
visit
www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/indigenous_australian_art/lily_kelly_napangardi
COLLECTIONS:
National Museum of
Australia,
Canberra
National Museum of Australia, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery
Art Bank, Sydney
Art Gallery of Western
Australia
Richard
Kelton Foundation Santa Monica USA
Art Gallery of South
Australia
Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane
Art Bank, Sydney
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
Homes
a Court Collection, Perth,
Australia
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern
Territory, Darwin
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Kerry Stokes collection,
Perth
Kelton Foundation USA
Thomas Vroom Collection Amsterdam
James Erskine
Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund Contemporary
Aboriginal Art
Lilly
depicts stories from the Haasts Bluff and Kunajarrayi region, her
traditional country, for the Watyawanu Art Centre. Lilly portrays commanding
innovative interpretations of her traditional country. Her most recent
works are skillful representations of sand hills in their various forms.
Lilly's works are in high demand and are represented in major private
and public collections throughout the world.
She is a senior law
woman of the Watiyawanu community, in the Haasts Bluff area of the
Northern Territory, 325 kilometers north-west of Alice Springs. She
holds authority over the Women's Dreaming story associated with
Kunajarrayi, and is now teaching younger women traditional dancing and
singing.
Lily Kelly Napangardi Sandhills of Kintore
area 2003 is in the collection of Australian National Gallery of Queensland
www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/indigenous_australian_art/lily_kelly_napangardi
Her subjects include her country's sand hills, its winds and the
desert environment after rain, especially the sandhills of the Kintore
and Connistan areas. Her paintings often note the seasonal changes in
this sandy landscape, and the crucial waterholes found in the rocks in
the area. In this mysterious and elemental landscape, the features, such
as rock holes and even mountain ranges, seem to appear and disappear
with the changing winds and blowing sands. Water marks this land, as the
run-off from the rains makes a pattern of lines and striations down the
surface of the sand hills. Napangardi notes the finest microcosmic
details but embeds these into a macrocosmic view of the landscape. The
ephemeral nature of this drifting, changing country is Lily Kelly
Napangardi's key subject, and the viewer, walking in front of her
painting, can sense something of the immersive experience of her
country.
Selected
Exhibitions
1999
Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs
2000 Graham Marshall
Gallery, Adelaide
2001 Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs;
2002 Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs.
2002 Telstra Awards;
2003 Telstra Awards
2003 Neil Murphy Indigenous
Art showing at Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2003
Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide;
2003 Telstra Awards; 2003 Neil Murphy Indigenous Art Span Galleries,
Melbourne;
2003 Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs;
2004 Neil Murphy Indigenous Art showing at Span
Galleries, Melbourne,
2004 Mary Place Gallery, Sydney;
2004 Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide
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