Striking canvases come from Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, whose father Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri was the founder and master of the Central Desert’s modern movement. Nungurrayi worked with him to create important celebrated work, and has since become Australia’s top contemporary painter, featured in the National Gallery of Australia and the Museum of Art of the Northern Territory. She is best known for her “Grandmother’s Country,” vibrant symbols pop from the black background: concentric lines represent plenty, where food and water are abundant and human life flourishes; “U” shapes are the impressions left by the people who sat on the sand; lines show inbound and outbound paths of ancestors who have been on the soil for tens of thousands of years. Ancestors, according to Aboriginal belief, created the universe and remain omnipresent. Women are the primary gatherers of bush tucker, food native to Australia, and these three Grandmother’s Country works show the painter’s delight at the bounty: yams, honey ants, berries and waterholes, all in the form of mesmerizing dots, lines, curves, squiggles and more.
Sign in to your account
Sign up
Forgot your password?
No problem! Enter your email and we'll send you instructions to reset it.