Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

Untitled 2016
Bark painting

Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a member of the Gumatj Clan and Yolngu people. She lives in Yirrkala, Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and is a senior artist from a family of cultural leaders. Yunupingu’s oeuvre is marked by her departure from the conventions of Yolngu art, which was divided between sacred works connected intimately with Yolngu spiritual beliefs and purely decorative art. These paintings on bark are not defined by sacred law but represent the memories and experiences of the artist’s life. They use traditional earth pigments (ochre) painted onto bark in layers; red and black as a ground with luminescent white rrark (cross-hatching) and figurative elements.