• Born: c1925                                                                                                                                           
• Region: Tanami Desert
• Community: Lajamanu
• Language: Warlpiri

Judy Watson Napangardi was “born bush” around 1925 on Mt Doreen Station, northwest of Alice Springs. Judy grew up living the traditional life of a Warlpiri girl, travelling throughout her tribe’s ancestral lands, in particular around the Mina Mina area between the Gibson and Tanami Deserts. She took up painting in 1986, initially being taught by her elder sister, noted artist Maggie Watson Napangardi. Over time Judy and Maggie moved from the use of discreet dots in their paintings to a distinctive drag and dot technique where the brush does not leave the canvas as they paint. Some say that this technique mimics the style of dancing typical of Warlpiri women as they drag their feet through the dust.. Typical of many Warlpiri artists, Judy uses a vibrant array of colours in her paintings and amazingly achieves a cohesiveness of expression that defies the broad colour spectrum used. Since Maggie passed away, Judy took over responsibility for the dreamings surrounding the important women’s ceremonial sites at Mina Mina. Judy continually returns to the themes from these Dreamings and often represents multiple themes on one canvas. Most commonly, she now paints images associated with snake vine, native truffle (or bush mushroom as Judy calls it), desert oak and sites where the Napangardi and Napanangka women gather.

Judy Watson Napangardi is presently on the board of Warlurkurlangu Artists, the Warlpiri community art body based in Yuendumu where she now lives with a number of her 10 children. Although diminutive in stature and now well into her 80s, Judy exudes gravitas, has the bodily strength of a much younger woman and the inner strength one often sees in senior law women. She remains an inspiration to those around her. Judy was listed in the Australian Art Collector Magazine as one of Australia’s top 50 artists.

EXHIBITIONS

July 1990 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin

December 1990 I.U.N.C. (showing at Hilton Hotel), Perth

December 1990 ‘Women’s Exhibition’. The Women’s Gallery, Melbourne

September 1991 Darwin Performing Arts Centre, Darwin

January1992 The Long Gallery, Hobart

* November 1992 Hogarth Gallery of Dreams, Sydney

* April 1993 Adelaide Town Hall, (in assoc. with The Pacific Arts Symposium)

* July 1993 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

August 1993 Northern Territory Art Award, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs

* September 1993 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne

October 1993 CINAFE (Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition), U.S.A.

January 1994 Armstrong Gallery, Florida

June 1994 “Echoes of the Dreamtime”, Osaka, Japan

March 1995 SOFA, Miami, U.S.A

October 1995 SOFA, Chicago, U.S.A

November 1995 Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

November 1997 Hogarth Gallery, Sydney

January 1998 Art Gallery “Culture Store” Rotterdam, The Netherlands

March 1998 ‘A Thousand Journeys’, Tin Shed Gallery, University of Sydney

April 1998 ‘Kurrawarri – Kirli’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

June 1998 Framed Gallery, Darwin

July 1998 Desert Designs, Perth

March 1999 International Women’s Day Exhibition, Watch This Space, Alice Springs

July 1999 Desert Mob Show, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

* October 1999 ‘Mina Mina’, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney

* May 2000 “jangku yinyi”, Carey Baptist Grammar School, Melbourne

May 2000 Beaver Galleries, Canberra

July 2000 Shell Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle

* July 2000 Kurawari, Desart Gallery, Sydney

September 2000 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

October 2000 “Marking the Paper”, Desart Gallery, Sydney

October 2000 ‘Journey to the North West’, Palya Art, Sydney

* October 2000 ‘Wayuta’, The Desart Janganpa Gallery, Alice Springs

January 2002 ‘Warlukurlangu Artists Cooperative of Yuendumu’, Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seatlle USA

March 2002 ‘New Works from Warlukurlangu’ Indigenart, Perth WA

* April 2002 ‘Warlukurlangu Artists Cooperative of Yuendumu’ One Union Square Lobby, Seattle, USA

* July 2002 ‘New Paintings from Yuendumu’ Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London

April 2002 Indigenart Perth

# July 2002 ‘Warlukurlangu Collection’ Parliament House, Canberra

September 2002 Onshore Art Barwon Heads Victoria

December 2002 Bellas Gallery Brisbane

# April 2003 Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne

May 2003 Black and White. Colour. seeing country in two ways Counihan Gallery, Melbourne

May 2003 ‘Yimi Pirrijirdi – Strong Stories’ Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne

* June 2003 ‘The Colours of Mina Mina’ Judy Watson and Betsy Lewis, Raft Gallery, Darwin

August 2003 “Desert Mob” Araluen Art and Cultural Centre Alice Springs

August 2003 20th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin

* October 2003 Kurruwarri Wirijarlu – Big Story’ Hogarth Gallery, Sydney

* October 2003 Kurruwarri Pipangka – Designs on Paper’ CDU Gallery

November 2003 True Blue Christmas 2003, Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT

* February 2004 ‘Painting Country’, Thornquest Gallery, Queensland

* February 2004 Little Warlu, Big Stories, Hot Little paintings by Big artists of Yuendumu, Australia’s NT & Outback Centre, Sydney

* February 2004 ‘Painting Country’, Thornquest Gallery, Queensland

March 2004 ‘Divas of the Desert” Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs

March 2004 ‘Dreaming Stories’, Indigenart, Perth

* April 2004 ‘New Works from Yuendumu’, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane

August 2004 ‘Big Country’ Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT

September 2004 ‘Desert Mob’ Araluen Centre, Alice Springs

* denotes exhibitions of entirely or predominantly Warlukurlangu paintings.

# denotes non-commercial exhibitions.

PUBLICATIONS

Australian National University Crossing Cultures: Art from the Boxer Collection. ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra 2000

Morphy, H. ‘Aboriginal Art’ Phaidon Press Limited, London,1998.

Morphy, H. and Boles, M.S. (eds.) ‘Art from the land’ University of Virginia Press, Virginia, U.S.A., 1999.

COMMISSIONS

Janganpa/Mawurrji Jukurrpa (Native Possum & Mawurrji Dreaming)

11 x 1 metre large collaborative Canvas for the foyer of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

COLLECTIONS

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht

Gordon Darling Foundation, Canberra

Flinders University Art Museum, Melbourne

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

National Gallery of Victoria

South Australian Museum, Adelaide

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Bibliography:

Birnberg, M. & Kreczmanski, JB. (2004 ed). Aboriginal Artists: Dictionary of Biographies. JB Publishing Company S.A.