Dorothy Napangardi Robinson

Dorothy Napangardi Robinson

Born: 		  	c. 1956 
region:			Tanami Desert, NT
Community:		Yuendumu 
Outstation:		Pikilyi 
Language:		Warlpiri 
Social Affiliation:   	RNapangardi subsection

Awards:
1991 - Museums and Art Galleries Award [Best painting in European media] National Aboriginal 
Art Award, Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin.
1999 - Highly Commended, 16th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of NT, Darwin. 
2001 - First Prize, 18th NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin. 

Collections:
Artbank, Sydney. 
Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australia, Australia. 
Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. 
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 
National 118th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin, NT. 
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia. 
National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, Australia. 
Queensland Museum, QLD, Australia. 
South Australian Festival Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia. 
The Australia Council Collection, Sydney, Australia. 
The Erskine Collection, NSW, Australia. 
The Homesglen Institute of TAFE Collection, Victoria, Australia. 
The Kaplan-Levi Collection, Seattle, USA. 
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, LA, USA.. 
The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA, Australia. 
The Vroom Collection, The Netherlands. 

Exhibitions:
Individual Exhibitions: 
2001 - Dorothy Napangardi, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, 
    Melbourne; Mina Mina Dorothy Napangardi, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs; 
    Masterworks, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Vict; Country After Rain, 
    Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT. 
2000 - Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri and Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca 
    Hossack Gallery, London, UK; Gallery Australis, Adelaide; Recent 
    Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson Gallery, Melbourne; 
    Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney. 
1999 - Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi, Chapman Gallery, Canberra; 
    Treading Softly, Chapman Gallery, Canberra; My Country - Journey of our 
    Ancestors, Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns. 

Group Exhibitions: 
2003 - Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW.
2002-03 Dancing Up Country; the work of Dorothy Napangardi - Museum of 
     Contemporary Art, MCA, Sydney, NSW Australia.
2002 - One Mother, Dorothy Napangardi and Sabrina Nangala, Gallery Gondwana, 
     Alice Springs; Native Title Business - Contemporary Indigenous Art, National 
     Travelling Exhibition, Gurang Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation), QLD, 
     Australia; Melbourne ArtFair 2002, Melbourne, Australia; Kana-kurlangu, 
     Dorothy Napangardi - Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW; 
     Indecorous Abstraction - Contemporary Women Painters, Light Square. Gallery 
     AIT ARTS Adelaide,SA., Australia.
2001 - 2002 - Land of Diversity, The Northern Territory, at Hogarth Galleries, 
     Paddington. 1992 - The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, 
     Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 
2001 - Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia; Dreamtime-The 
     Light and the Dark, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Vienna, Austria; Dorothy 
     Napangardi Country After Rain, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, Australia; 
     31st Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 
     Australia; 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, 
     Australia 2001 Mina Mina, Solo, Dorothy Napangardi - Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, 
     Australia.
2000-01 - The Art of Place Exhibition, Australian Heritage Commission, Old 
     Parliament House, Canberra.
2000 - Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca Hossack 
     Gallery, London, UK; Recent Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson 
     Gallery, Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Melbourne, Australia; 
     Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Dorothy Napangardi 
     and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Adelaide Festival, Gallery Australis, SA, Australia; 
     5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, 
     Canberra; 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia.
1999 - The Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery NSW, Australia; 
     Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, A.C.T. Australia; 
     Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Vivian Anderson 
     Gallery; Painting the Desert, Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, 
     Canberra, A.C.T.; My Country - Journey of our Ancestors, Ancient Earth 
     Indigenous Art, Cairns, QLD; 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait 
     Islander Award, Darwin, Australia; Treading Softly, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, 
     A.C.T. Australia.
1998 - Warlpiri Women, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT. Australia; 
     Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, N.T. Australia; Napangardi 
     Dreaming - Ceremony and Song, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW. Australia; 15th 
     National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT. 
1991 - Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, 
     Alice Springs; The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and 
     Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 

Select Bibliography:
Winter, Joan., Native Title Business, Contemporary Indigenous Art (Catalogue), Keeira Press, Qld, 2002.

Birnberg & Kreczmanski, Aboriginal Artists dictionary of biographies, JB Publishing. (C)

Nicholls, Christine, Mundine, Djon, and Webb, Vivienne, Dancing Up Country: The Art of Dorothy Napangardi, 
Museum of Contemporary Art Limited, Sydney, 2002.
 
Nicholls, Christine, 'Dorothy Napangardi', Art Monthly Australia Number 136, December 2000, Canberra, pp. 8-11.
 
Colin Laverty et al., Beyond Sacred, Hardie Grant, Prahran, 2008

© Discovery Media, Documentation Pty Ltd, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies


Salt at Mina Mina:

Dorothy's painting, Mina Mina depicts a major women's ceremonial site known 
as Mina Mina, the artist's custodial country, located near Lake McKay in the 
Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. During the Jukurrpa 
(The Dream Time), ancestral women of the Napagardi and Napanangka subsection groups
gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks, kuturu that emerged from the ground.
They then proceeded east, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known 
as Jankinyi. A large belt of eucalyptus trees, Casuarina Decaisneana, now stand 
wherethese digging sticks once were. 

Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous 
soakage areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as clay pans. As water 
soaks into the ground, small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, 
becoming delineated by salt. In her paintings of Mina Mina her striking 
design of white dotting, Dorothy depicts the encrustations of salt stretching 
infinitely onward, etched with the tracks of the women as their paths stretch 
on, crossing and merging, telling their stories. The artist's fascination 
with rigid geometrics coupled with linear movement pulls the eye of the 
viewer up and down, inwards and outwards, pushing it from one point to the next.