George Tjungurrayi
George Tjungurrayi was born i n the desert in the vicinity of Kiwirrkura in approximately 1943. George walked into Papunya with another young man along a freshly graded road, after living at Mukula west of Kiwirrkura.
He commenced painting for Papunya Tula Artists in the early 1980s.
George Tjungurrayi was named among the Top 50 of Australia's Most Collectable Artists in Australian Art Collector Issue 23 - January - March, 2003.
His work is held in the collections of major public galleries including the NGA, NGV, AGNSW and AGSA, and has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally.
George Tjungurrayi (b. c. 1943–1947) is a highly respected senior Pintupi artist. Born around Walawala near Kiwirrkura in Western Australia, he spent his childhood in this region. In his late teens Tjungurrayi left the Gibson Desert and moved between Mt Doreen, Yuendumu and Papunya, where he settled from the early 1960s. During this period Tjungurrayi worked in a variety of jobs; as a fencer, butcher and as a guide to a Welfare Branch patrol of Pintupi country.
In 1976 Tjungurrayi and his oldest brother Willy Tjungurrayi began painting with Papunya Tula Artists guided by senior Pintupi painters including Uta Uta Tjangala and Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi. Over the course of his career he developed his own style which focused on the Tingari Cycle, topographical depictions of his Country and areas of cultural significance to Pintupi culture.
From the 1970s Tjungurrayi, his wife Nanupu Nangala and their five children moved throughout the region settling in Kintore in the early 1980s where he continues to live and work.
Solo exhibitions of Tjungurrayi’s work include Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney (2016); Pulka Canvas, Utopia Art, Sydney at The Depot Gallery, Sydney (2013); Space & Place, Utopia Art, Sydney (2011); Between the Lines, Utopia Art, Sydney (2008); Paintings from Mamultjulkulnga and Kirrimalunya, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne (2003); New Fields, Utopia Art, Sydney (2002); and George Tjungurrayi – first solo show, Utopia Art, Sydney (1997).
Selected group exhibitions include Desert Painters of Australia: Works from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia and the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield, Gagosian, NY, 2019; Desert Painters of Australia Part II with Works from the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Springfield, Gagosian, Beverly Hills, 2019; Desert Painters of Australia Two Generations, Gagosian, Hong Kong, 2020; Abstraction of the World, Duddell’s x Biennale of Sydney, Duddell’s, Hong Kong (2017); Sublime Point: The Landscape in Painting, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gymea (2014); Volume One: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2012); Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2010); and Western Desert Satellites, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2006).
Tjungurrayi's work is held in a number of national and international collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin; University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Groninger Museum, Netherlands; and the Musée de Quai Branly, Paris. His work was included in the 21st Biennale of Sydney in 2020.
