Lorna Fencer Napurrula (1920-2006)

261A  Mt  Scanzi  Road      Kangaroo  Valley  NSW  2577  Australia     T: +612 4465 1494     www.galeriaaniela.com.au

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Lorna Fencer Napurrula, born around 1920 at Yartula Yartula is a Senior Warlpiri artists and a Custodian of her land. Lorna is among a small group of women who produced the first paintings at Lajamanu. Please View full Biography Australian Encyclopedia Aboriginal Artists dictionary of biographies page 262.

 
 

Artist:     Lorna Fencer Napurrula (B.192o -2006)
Title:
     Yam Story  2003
Medium: 
Acrylic on Belgian linen
Image Size:
97.5 x 105
cm
Framed
Size: 130 x 140 cm
Price (framed): $28,000 - include a contemporary Gold leaf frame

How to BUY             About buying art

NOTES:
This is a
beautiful painting by late Lorna Fencer, her use of vibrant colours and layering creates an exuberance and depth to her work, not often seen in painting of this region, more typically known for its dot work.

Lorna's
 work depicts the food ceremonies originating from Dreaming stories  involving the travels of the Napurrula and Nakamarra and some Dreamings from her father’s country Wapuurtarli

Awards
1997 Gold  Coast City Art Award, Queensland;
1998 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;

Prices may change without a prior notice. To purchase please contact us

 

Lorna Fencer Napurrula Biography

Born:                           around 1920, or 1927
Died:                           December, 2006
Region:                       Tanami Desert
Community Centre:      Lajamanu
Art Centre or Agency:  Warnayaka Art Centre
Outstation or Country: Yumurrpa, near Yuendumu
Language Bloc:            Ngarrkic
Language:                   Warlpiri
Social Affiliations:         Napurrurla subsection

Medium/ Form:  Chromacryl students acrylic, Reeves Liquicryl on pre-primed unstretched cotton duck, on canvas pre-primed art board, acrylic paint on Coolamons, Kudurru [fighting stick], acrylic paint on quartz rock chunks and slate, bean tree wood acrylic paint on canvas.

Subjects and Themes:   Yarla, Wapirti and Marlujarra.
Paints: Sweet potato,"ngalatji" little white flower, bush tomato, bush yam.  

Commissions:
1997- John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria  

Lorna Fencer Napurrula, born about 1920 at Yartula Yartula is a Senior Warlpiri Custodian. View Lorna Fencer Curriculum Vitae page 262 Australian Encyclopedia Aboriginal Artists dictionary of biographies. Lorna Fencer was among the many Warlpiri people forcibly relocated to Lajamanu along Hookers Creek, where a government settlement had been established. This country is the traditional land of the Gurindji Aboriginal people. Despite relocation, Lorna Fencer retained her cultural identity through ceremony, story telling and painting her art. Lorna Fencer Napurrula inherited stories about the land Yumurrpa located south of the Granites Mine Area in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. Lorna is among a small group of women who produced the first paintings at Lajamanu.

Awards
1997 Gold  Coast City Art Award, Queensland.
1998 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

 

Collections Held:

Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands
The
HOOD Museum of Art (Hanover, N.H.) http://hood.museum@dartmouth.edu
Christensen Collection, held by Museum of Victoria, Melbourne
http://www.nmwa.org/exhibition/artists.asp?exhibitid=141
Alice Springs Art Price Collection (Alice Springs, Australian Northern Territory) http://www.aliceprize.com/2002prize.html
Richard Kelton Foundation (Santa Monica)
National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, USA)
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide)
Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane)
Art Bank (Sydney)
Laverty Collection (Sydney)
National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne)

Christensen Collection at Museum of Victoria
Victorian Art Centre (Melbourne)

Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth)
Homes
a Court Gallery and gallery Collection (Perth)
Anthropology Art Museum (Perth)
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Museum & Art Gallery Northern Territory (Darwin)
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra)
Australian Heritage Commission Collection, Canberra
Japan Palace (Tokyo) http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/fr/presse/communiques/translation/comtranslationen.html
Margaret Carnegie Collection
Gold Coast Art Gallery Ars Centre, QLD
Queensland National Art Gallery (Brisbane)
Gantner Myer Collection of Aboriginal Art
Leeuwin Estate Western Australia
P
rivate and corporate collections around the world

 

Exhibitions:


1988 People, Place and Art, Hilton International Hotel, Adelaide, South Australia
1988, People, Place and Art, Hilton International Hotel, Adelaide, South Australia
1991, Aboriginal Art, Australian Embassy, Washington USA
1991, Paint Up Big: Warlpiri Women's Art from Lajamanu, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court of Australia Canberra, ACT
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court of Australia;
1991 Aboriginal Art, Australian Embassy, Washington, USA;
1991 Paint up Big Warlpiri Women’s Art from Lajamanu, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;

1994, Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu, Batchelor College, Tennant Creek, Northern Territory
1994 Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu exhibition, Australian North Territory; 1996, All About Art, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1996 Rainbow Serpent, Vaucluse, NSW;
1996 All About Art, Melbourne
1997, Women's Body Paint, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997, Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997, Me Warlpiri, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1997 Yumarlpa Stories exhibition, Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne;
1997 Women’s Body Paintings from Lajamanu, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
1997 Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997/8, John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1998, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
1998, Yulyulu, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1998, 6th Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne
1998, Warnayaka Warlpiri, Karen Brown Gallery, Darwin
1998 Me Warlpiri exhibition Melbourne;
1998 6th Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne;
1998 John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, Australian National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne;
1998, Wild Warlpiri Women, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney
1999, Australian Embassy in Washington D.C
1999, United Nations Building New York, USA
1999, Yapa, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
1999 St Valentine’s Exhibition, Brisbane;
1999 Tracks Across the Landscape exhibition, Land Rover Showroom, Sydney
1999 Yapa exhibition, Melbourne
2000, Lajamanu, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
2000, Opening of Yuwayi Art Centre, Yuwayi Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2001, Little Gems, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
2001 A Tribute to Lorna Napurrula Fencer, Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2002, Lorna Napurrula Fencer, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, Western Australia
2002, Lorna Napurrula Fencer - The Big Picture, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2002, Lorna Fencer - Inner Spring - New Works from the Tanami, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney
2003, 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
2003 Yumarlpa Stories, Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2004, The Dancers - Warlpiri Women, Art Mob, Hobart; Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Melbourne.21st Telstra National Aborigainal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
2005, Lorna Napurrula Fencer: Recent Paintings, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney; All About Yumarrpa, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2005, Decouvrir, Rever, Investir, Australian Embassy, Paris, France
2005,  Lorna Napurrula Fencer passed away in December 2006.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula main stories (Dreamings) she paints are about the gathering and growth of bush foods such as the Yarla (Yam), Wapirti and Marlujarra. These Dreamings (stories) entitle her to paint subjects such as the bush yam (sweet potato), ngalatji (little white flower), bush tomato, berry, caterpillar (luju), wallaby, onion, water and particular men's stories including boomerangs. The Yarla is an important Dreaming for the Warlpiri women, and a staple food source in the Western Desert. Here Lorna renders it in her distinctive expressive style. Along with visually describing the Yarla, some paintings contain information about when to gather this food source and how to find it. The use of vibrant colours and layering creates an exuberance and depth to her work, not often seen in painting of this region, more typically known for its dot work.

Selected Bibliography:
Glowczewski, B., 1991, Yapa, Peintres Aborigenes de Balgo et Lajamanu, Lebon Gallery, Paris, Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C), Ryan, Judith - Paint up Big Warlpiri Women's Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Isaacs, J - Spirit Country - Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, Hardie Grant Books, South Yarra, Victoria, Ryan, Judith. Colour Power - Aboriginal Art Post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2004.

© Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies


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