Nancy Ross Nungurrayi

Nancy Ross Nungurrayi Paintings

 Quick Facts: 

  • Date of Birth: c. 1935

  • Date of Death: 2010

  • Place of Birth: Karrku, near Kiwirkurra, Western Australian desert country (also recorded as the Pollock Hills area)

  • Language Group: Pintupi

  • Art Centre: Papunya Tula Artists

  • Style of Art: Contemporary Aboriginal painting, acrylic on linen, using concentric circles, songlines and U-shape figures

  • Aboriginal Art Status: Senior Pintupi artist and respected Elder of Kintore

  • Themes: Marrapinti, Karrku, Wala Wala, Pulyulnga, Wirrulnga, women's ceremony and Tingari songlines

  • Family: Sister of artists Naata Nungurrayi and George Tjungurrayi; mother of Marlene Nampitjinpa; aunt of artist Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa

Nancy Ross Nungurrayi was a respected Pintupi Elder and one of the leading Aboriginal art painters to emerge from Kintore, part of a family that shaped the Papunya Tula movement across two generations. Her aboriginal painting practice captured the sacred women's sites, ceremonies and songlines of her Country in bold, layered colour, work now held in major collections across Australia and internationally.

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 Early Life and Family 

Nancy Ross Nungurrayi was born around 1935 at Karrku, a large hill south of Kiwirkurra in the Western Australian desert, roughly 800 kilometres west of Alice Springs, in the area also known as the Pollock Hills. As a child, she lived at Wala Wala with her parents, moving through Country that would later become central to her painting. She and her family were among the last groups of Aboriginal people brought in from the bush to Papunya by the Native Welfare patrol.

Nancy later travelled through this same desert region with her husband, until his death, after which she walked to Mount Liebig carrying her first child, Marlene Nampitjinpa. She went on to live in Kintore for the rest of her life, and passed away peacefully at home in 2010.

Nancy came from one of the most celebrated artistic families to emerge from the Western Desert painting movement. She was the sister of Naata Nungurrayi and George Tjungurrayi, both highly regarded Papunya Tula artists in their own right, and the mother of Marlene Nampitjinpa. Her nephew, Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa, also became a recognised artist. Painting in this family was very much a shared inheritance, with Nancy and Naata in particular often depicting the same significant sites from their shared Country.

 Dreaming Stories and Style 

Nancy began painting with Papunya Tula Artists in 1996, depicting the culture and topography of the region stretching from Marrapinti to Wala Wala, Pulyulnga and the sites around Kiwirrkura and Wirrulnga, Country she knew intimately from her own life.

Her paintings depict the holy places of the Tjukurrpa, or Dreamtime, around her homeland, using a visual language built from concentric circles, songlines and figures. Concentric circles refer to specific ceremonial sites, while the parallel lines connecting them represent songlines, the paths sung by the ancestral Tingari as they journeyed from one sacred place to another. In many works, women are represented using large U-shapes, standing for the body paint designs worn during women's ceremony.

One of Nancy's most significant and frequently painted sites is Marrapinti, also closely associated with her sister Naata's work, where ancestral women gathered for ceremony and searched for a native bush tomato called kumparrpa, ground into a paste and cooked in hot coals. She also painted the story of Karrku, her own birthplace, a name that refers to a red ochre colour found there, along with scenes of women grinding wangunu, a native grass seed used to make traditional bread, set against curving depictions of tali (sandhills) and puli (rocky outcrops).

 Significance and Legacy 

Nancy Ross Nungurrayi holds an important place in the history of the Papunya Tula movement as one of the senior Pintupi women whose work helped establish the reputation of Kintore's painters on the national stage. In 1999, she joined her sister Naata and other senior Pintupi women, including Ningura Napurrula, in creating the collaborative work "Kintore Women's Painting," later included in the landmark exhibition Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. She also took part in the Kiwirrkura Women's Project, a collaborative painting later auctioned to raise funds for Kintore community housing.

By the time of her passing in 2010, Nancy had established herself as one of the leading artists of Kintore and a deeply respected Elder, her work sought after by collectors both in Australia and internationally. Her legacy sits alongside that of her sister Naata Nungurrayi and brother George Tjungurrayi as part of one of the defining artistic families of the Western Desert movement, with her paintings continuing to represent the sacred women's sites, ceremonies and food-gathering traditions of Pintupi Country for audiences who encounter them long after her death.

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Nancy exhibited extensively throughout her career and beyond, both as part of group presentations of Papunya Tula artists and in dedicated international shows, including:

 Artworks and Exhibitions 

Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (featuring "Kintore Women's Painting")

Papunya Tula Women's Art, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, 2011

Nancy Nungurrayi at Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney and Berlin, 2017

Land and Landscape in Aboriginal Art, Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, London, 2015

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, New York, 2015

Redot Fine Art Gallery at Art Stage, Singapore, 2015

Découvrir, Rêver, Investir: L'Art Aborigène d'Australie, Australian Embassy, Paris, 2005

Bond Aboriginal Art, Adelaide, 2006

 Documented Nancy Ross Nungurrayi artworks include: 

Marrapinti – "Kungka Tjuta" (Many Women) (2004), acrylic on Belgian linen

Wirrulnga (2001), acrylic on linen

Women's Dreaming (2003), synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

Kintore Women's Ceremony at Ngaminya (2002), acrylic on Belgian linen

Dream Time Tjukurrpa (2006), synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

Several untitled acrylic on linen works depicting sites including Marrapinti and Karrku

 Collections 

Nancy's work is held in major public and private collections across Australia and internationally, including:

National Gallery of Victoria

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Queensland Art Gallery

Art Gallery of South Australia

Art Gallery of Western Australia

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

Flinders Art Museum, Flinders University, Adelaide

University of the Sunshine Coast

Artbank, Sydney

Holmes à Court Collection, Perth

Kelton Foundation, USA

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Every artwork in this collection is created by Aboriginal artists with the cultural authority to paint these stories, supporting artists and their communities directly.

Browse authentic Nancy Ross artworks and other Aboriginal art for sale, backed by clear provenance and a direct connection to Country, at Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery.

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