Details of Djirrirra Wunungmurra
About
MEDIUM:
Ochres on bark and hollow logs
BIOGRAPHY:
Djirrirra (also known as Yukuwa) assisted her father, Yanggarriny Wunungmurra (1932 - 2003), in his Telstra Award winning painting of 1997 and continually up to his death in 2003. She has also assisted her brother Nawurapu Wunungmurra, but now primarily paints her own works. Her father granted her this authority whilst he was alive.
Her precise hand and geometric style has increasingly attracted enthusiastic interest from the art world. As she came to the notice of Buku-Larrnggay coordinators for her exquisite hand and innovative composition, she was included in her first major exhibition and her first visit to the world outside of Arnhem Land, in a show at Raft Artspace in Darwin in 2006, which featured her and two other Gangan artists Yumutjin Wunungmurra and Waturr Gumana.
In 2007 she was selected for Cross Currents, a major art survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Her rise to a level of notice was cemented when she was awarded the TOGA Northern Territory Contemporary Art Award in 2008. From here she was invited to her first solo show at Vivien Anderson Gallery in 2009. She has lived at the remote homeland of Gangan since she was born (before Western housing was erected), and has three children.
EXHIBITIONS:
2005 - Yakumirri Exhibition, Darwin, NT
2005 - Ngann Girra Festival, Albury Regional Museum
2006 - 'Gangan', Waturr Yumutjin Djirrirra, Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT
2006 - 'Arnhem Land Ochres', Mina Mina Art Gallery, Brunswick Heads
2007 - Galuku Gallery, Festival of Darwin, NT
2007 - 'Bukulungthunmi - Coming Together, One Place', Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT
2007 - 'Cross Currents', Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
2008 - Togart Contemporary Art Award, New Convention Centre, Darwin, NT - Winner
2008 - 'Outside Inside', Bett Gallery Hobart, Tasmania
2008 - 'A Few Real Gems I Have Come Across', Mogo Raw Art & Blues, Mogo, NSW
2009 - 'Larrakitj' - The Kerry Stokes Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA
2009 - 'Woman's Show' Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2009 - 'Buyku', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2009 - 26th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards, MAGNT, Darwin, NT
2009 - Yalari Art Auction, Brisbane
2010 - 'White', Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
2010 - 'The Women's Show 2010', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2010 - 'Indigenous Art of the Northern Territory, from North East Arnhem Land to the Western Desert', Chunshen Cultural Square, Shanghai, China
2010 - '17th Biennale of Sydney, 'Larrakitz', the Kerry Stokes Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW
2010 - 'Returning to Djakapurra', a Collection of Barks and Poles from Yirrkala, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2010 - Djirrirra and Dhuwarrwarr, Bark Paintings at Santa Fe, Shiaoscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, in conjunction with Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2010 - 27th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Awards, MAGNT, Darwin, NT
2010 - 'Yukuwa'- Bark Paintings and Larrakitj, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
COLLECTIONS:
Woodside Energy Ltd Art Collection
Kerry Stokes Collection
Colin & Liz Laverty, Sydney
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
Levi Kaplan Collection, Seattle, WA, USA
Toga Group of Companies
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Parliament House Collection, Canberra
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Bibliography
Catalogue: Cross Currents - Focus in Australian Contemporary Art. A publication by the Museum of Contemporary Art, pp. 132-139
Catalogue: 17th Biennale of Sydney - The Beauty of Distance, Songs of Survival, in a Precarious Age
AWARDS:
2008 - Winner - Togart NT Contemporary Award for 2008
