Born 1st July 1921, Tjinjadpa, West of Jupiter Well. D 11/03/2013
Skin: Nampitjin
Languages: Purtitjarra, Mantjilytjarra, Wangkajungka and Kukatja
Themes: Tjumu soak water, Tjukarra rock holes, Watikujarra two men
dreaming, Malu kangaroo dreaming, Kantilli bush tomato, Law women ceremonies Goanna, mouse, moon and dingo dreaming Karnaputta
Eubena (Yupinya) became best known of Warlayirti Artists' many painters. She was one of the most esteemed law women in the community, being consulted and deferred to on all questions of law. Mukaka, Eubena's mother, taught her Maparn (healer/witchdoctor) skills before she passed away, when Eubena was just a young girl. The family travelled and hunted, performing ceremonies and law for the upkeep of their country and their own spiritual preservation. Nomadic life was harsh and most of her extended family had passed away or moved to other parts of the country. Eubena talked of many 'sorry' times.
Eubena with her husband and family travelled up the Canning Stock Route to Billiluna
Station before following the mission as it moved around, until arriving at its present site at Balgo Hills. Before his death, her husband Gimme helped Father Piele with a Kukatja (Eubena and Gimme's second language) dictionary, to which Eubena also contributed.
Eubena became one of the few people alive who maintained a full vocabulary of this
language. Despite living at the mission and tending herds of goats, Eubena continually
traveled back to her country, living in and from the land for extended periods. Her
extraordinary hunting instinct remained throughout her life in which she showed effortless energy even when elderly when out in the country.
Eubena started painting with her second husband Wimmitji in the mid 1980s. Their work shared a luminous and intricate complexity along with a love of the warm reds, oranges and yellows that continued as Eubena's signature colours. Her reputation grew, as one half of the famous painting duo at Balgo, but also as a solo artist in her own right. Eubena had a spontaneity and strength of brush mark that carves the paint, leaving rhythmical tracks across the canvas. Her work resonates with the power of place and pride in country that Eubena was able to maintain throughout her life, a life that has evolved from hard, proud desert nomad to an artist feted in Australia and overseas. A regal character, she was both iron strong and unfailingly generous. Painting was like her second language and she painted persistently with passion and dedication, reaching. high level of acclaim for her beautiful, powerful works.
Solo exhibtions
2000 Lena Nyadbi and Eubena Nampitjin, Tineriba Gallery, Adelaide Festival of the Arts,
Adelaide 1998 Kinyarri: My Country, Alcaston House Gallery, Melbourne (sell
out) 2002 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne
Awards
1998 Winner of Telstra Open Painting Award, 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Exhibitions
Gantner Myer Collection
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Kaye Archer Collection
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
The Holmes a Court Collection
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA
Laverty Collection
Kluge Ruhe Collection, USA
ArtBank
Western Mining Corporation Collection
Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle
Williams Collection
Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam
Harland Collection
Ken Thompson and Pierre Marecaux Collection