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An Aboriginal Icon

 

Mitjili is one of the most highly represented Aboriginal female artists in Australian National Galleries. Her unique style makes her stand out from all other contemporary Aboriginal painters, and this has a had a direct impact with her popularity all over the world.

Mitjili is a Pintupi woman from the Haasts Bluff region, located 200 km west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She is half sister to Turkey Tolson, another well-known Pintupi painter. She married Long Tom Tjapanangka at Papunya in the 1960s and they later lived at Haasts Bluff. She now lives at Mt Liebig with Long Tom.

Mitjili began painting at the Ikuntji Women's Centre in 1992. She paints her father's country called Uwalki which lies in the Gibson Desert near the Kintore Ranges, west of Haasts Bluff. This country is characterised by red sandhills, bushes and trees.

Since working with the Ikuntji artists she has developed a very strong and distinctive personal style based on her paintings of trees and country at Uwalki. She was taught some of her key imagery by her mother drawing patterns in the sand.

This style has gained her a strong following within Australia and internationally with regular sellout exhibitions. Mitjili's work was included in the exhibition "Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art" at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco 1999, and featured in the prestigious Adelaide Biennial 2000, Beyond the Pale.

 

Major Exhibitions:

· Australian Heritage Commission. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra 1993, 1994, 1996,

· Australian High Commission –  Hotel Shangri-la, Singapore 1994

· Yiribana, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1994.

· Ikuntji: New Art from the Western Desert, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, 1995

· Aboriginal Art Galerie Bähr, Speyer, Germany, 1997

· Aboriginal Art, Goteborgs Konstforening, Göteborg, Sweden, 1997

· Dreamings, Arnhem, The Netherlands, 1997

· Culture Store, Art Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1998

· Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy, 1998

· Hilton Hotel Art Gallery, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1998

· Zeichen des Seins. Paintings of the Australian Aborigines, Urban Gallery ADA, Meiningen, Germany, 1999, 2001.

· Galerie Knud Grothe, Charlottenlund, Denmark 2001

 

Major Collections:
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Artbank
Baillieu Myer, de Young Museum, San Fransisco, USA.
Art Gallery of South Australia, SA.
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, NT.
National Gallery of Victoria, Vic.
National Gallery of Australia, ACT
Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA.
Private collections, Australia & overseas.

 

Biografical References:

McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 119.

Isaacs, J Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art , 1999, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, USA.
Art Almanac , (cover), December 1999/ January 2000.

Neale, M Yiribana: an introduction to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection of the AGNSW , ex.cat, 1995, Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW.

Strocchi,M Ikuntji: Paintings from Haasts Bluff 1992-94 , 1995, IAD Press, Alice Springs, NT.

 

 

PAINTINGS CURRENTLY IN STOCK

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