Details of Elizabeth Nyumi
About
BIOGRAPHY
Nyumi's mother belonged to the country of Nynmi near Kiwirrkurra on the Pintupi side. Her father was from Alyarra in the region of Ngaanyatjarra. When Nyumi was only a very young child her mother died tragically at the Kanari soakwater close to Jupiter Well. As a young girl, Nyumi lived a nomadic existence with her family group in their country, before walking up the Canning Stock Route into old mission with her father and family group as a teenager. Here she was given clothes and taken to Billiluna Station and trained as a domestic worker and subsequently travelled to many station houses around the region working for the wives of the station managers.
Nyumi is a very strong culture woman and dancer and an enthusiastic teacher of culture to children, ensuring the traditional dances and songs are kept alive. Nyumi had four daughters and three of them are still living and beginning to paint, which is strongly encouraged by Nyumi. Brandy Tjungurrayi and Patrick Olodoodi, both senior Law men and recognised artists, are Nyumi's older brothers.
Nyumi commenced painting in 1987 and began to emerge as a leading artist in the late 1990s. Her paintings are mainly concerned with the country of abundant bush food belonging to her family. Initially she worked with a thick brush, covering the canvas in emanating lines in muted tones. Her style has now developed to using a multitude of dotting to build up fields of texture but retains her signature motifs of small camps, coolamons and bush tucker trees and scrubs. Nyumi has had solo exhibitions in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and she has travelled interstate and overseas to attend openings of her exhibitions. In 2004 Nyumi became the first artist represented by Warlayirti Artists to be selected for the Biennale of Sydney.
MEDIUMS
Professional acrylic on canvas and linen
Printmaking
Glass
THEMES
Parwalla, her country and it's abundant bush foods
Purra (bush tomato)
Rockholes and soaks
Coolamons and digging sticks
Kantilli (bush raisin)
Minyali (seed)
Nynmi (Jupiter Well) and it's Tjukurrpa story of the old woman who likked and ate a snake with her two children
Tingari
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 Singing and Dancing up the Country, Raft Gallery, Darwin, NT
2006 Elizabeth Nyumi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2005 Elizabeth Nyumi, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2004 Elizabeth Nyumi, Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT
2004 Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
2003 Elizabeth Nyumi, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2002 Elizabeth Nyumi, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
2001 Parwalla, Raft Artspace, Darwin, NT
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 Balgo Survey, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2010 Ingalimpa Tjuntu - Singing Songs - We Sing the Country and that's how we find the way', ReDot Fine Art Galleries, Audi Forum Building, Tokyo
2010 Balgo Prints, Northern Editions, Darwin
2009 'Desert Aboriginal Acrylic Painting: Tradition, Boldness and Colour Explosion", Novotel Darling Harbour
2009 Mixed Show, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2008 Balgo Survey, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2008 Balgo 2008, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2008 Mixed Show, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
2007 Survey, They Might Be Giants, Woolloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
2006 Balgo 2006, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2006 Recent Works, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
2006 Balgo Survey Show, ReDot Gallery, Singapore
2006 Warlayirti Suite Print Exhibition, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2006 Survey, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne, VIC
2006 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs, NT
2005 Balgo 2005, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2005 Glass from the Sand Country, Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2004 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs, NT
2004 Recent Works, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
2004 21st NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
2004 Balgo a Go Go, Grantpirrie, Sydney, NSW
2004 Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, NSW
2004 Balgo 4-04, Warlayirti Artists, Balgo, WA
2003 Eight by Three, Scott Livesey Art Dealer, Melbourne, VIC
2003 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for Arts, Alice Springs, NT
2003 20th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
2003 Purtatjanirri Kamu Warrmala, Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT
2003 Balgo Brilliance, Art Mob, Hobart, TAS
2003 Palya Minyirri, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast, QLD
2002 30th Alice Prize, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2002 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2002 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2002 Desert Mob, Arulen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2002 Art from Balgo, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT
2002 Balgo Hills: An artist's survey, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW
2002 Balgo Hills Artists 2002, Art Mob, Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart, TAS
2002 Big Colour My Country, Thornquest Gallery, Gold Coast, QLD
2001 Aborigena Arte, Australiana Contemporuneu, Torino, Palazzo Bricherasio, Italy
2001 Desert Mob, Araulen Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2001 18th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
2001 Kutjungka, Bett Gallery, Hobart, TAS
2001 Balgo Works, Staedtische Gallery, Wolsfburg, Germany
2001 Recent Works by Artists from Balgo Hills, Ochre Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2001 Balgo Artists Return to Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2001 Spirituality and Australian Aboriginal Art, Alcaston Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2001 Past Modern: an exhibition of Kimberley Landscapes, Short Street Gallery @ Australia
Square, Sydney, NSW
2000 This Earth for Us, Australia Dreaming at the Commonwealth Institute, Bristol/Edinburugh, UK
2000 The Westside: Images in Ochre and Colour, Coo-ee II Exhibiting Gallery, Yuwayi Art
Precinct, World Square, Sydney, NSW
2000 Balgo Hills, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, VIC
2000 17th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
2000 Melbourne Artfair 2000, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, VIC
2000 Waltja Family, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW
2000 Fifth National Indigenous Heritage Art Award & the Art of Place, Old Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT
2000 Balgo Art, Gondwana Gallery, Alice Springs, NT
2000 Balgo Hills Aboriginal Paintings, Bett Gallery, Hobart, TAS
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Leverkusen, Germany
2000 Aboriginal Art, Galerie Baehr, Dormagen, Germany
1999 16th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
1999 Mularrpa (True) Balgo, Framed, the Darwin Gallery, Darwin, NT
1999 Miliynyin, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW
1999 Miliynyin, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
1998 Ngurrara: My own Country, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW
1998 15th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
1997 Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT
1997 Balgo Paintings, Seywald Gallery, Salzburg, Austria
1997 New Paintings from Balgo Artists, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
1997 14th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin, NT
1997 New Painting by Balgo Women, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
1997 Dreamings: Aboriginal kunst uit Australie, Eusebius, Arnhem, The Netherlands
1993 Wirrimanu: the Art of Balgo Hills, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1992 Warlayirti Artists' Homelands, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1990 Songlines: Paintings from Balgo Hills, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
1989 Warlayirti Artists: Continuing Links with Land, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia
National Gallery of Victoria
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Artbank
The Holmes a Court Collection
Morven Estate
Helen Read Collection
Harland Collection
Aboriginal Art Museaum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
The Laverty Collection
Bibliography
Who's Who of Australian Women, 2006, 2007. Bahr, Crown Content Pty Ltd, Melbourne
Bahr, E., (ed), 2000, The Unseen in Seen, exhibition catalogue, Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer, Germany
Carlos, I., (ed), 2004, On Reason and Emotion, exhibition catalogue, Biennale of Sydney Ltd, Sydney
Cowan, J., 1999, Balgo - New Directions, Gordon & Breach Arts International Limited (Craftsman House, Sydney)
Cowan, J., 1994, Wirrimanu - Aboriginal Art from Balgo Hills, Gordon & Breach Arts International Limited (Craftsman House, Sydney)
Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, NSW
Kleinert, S. & Neale M., (eds), 2000, The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art & Culture, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne
Watson, C., 2003, Piercing the Ground, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle
Watson, C., 1999, 'Touching the Land', Art from the Land, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
West, M., (ed), 2001, Telstra presents the 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, exhibition catalogue, Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Williamson, S. & Togni, S., 2004 Abundance - The Art of Elizabeth Nyumi, Art & Australia Vol. 41 No.4, Art & Australia Pty Ltd, Paddington
