Born in 1956, Dorothy Napangardi is a Warlpiri woman from Mina Mina, a significant women's site in a remote area of the Northern Territory, situated approximately 400 km north west of Alice Springs. She lived a traditional life style until the early 1960's when her family group walked in to the pastoralist station of Mt Doreen. She began painting in 1987, after she had moved from her home in the outback to Alice Springs. There, she enrolled at the Institute for Aboriginal Development to learn to use Western painting materials, and in 1990 began exhibiting at Gallery Gondwana in Alice Springs.

Her paintings refers to the Mina Mina site, which is a highly significant site as it is recognized as the point of origin for Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa (Women's Dreaming) for both the Kukuja and Warlpiri. Containing two large clay pans and numerous water soakages the land is quite fertile. It is also thought to be the place where the digging stick originated, emerging from the ground during the era of creation. Highly patterned and intricately woven designs detail her signature style. Using more traditional colours (browns, greens, ochres contrasted against black and white) she creates depths and perspectives, leading the eye in to highly detailed maps and journeys of her Dreamings.

According to renowned artist Kathleen Petyarre, in a comment published in the catalogue for Napangardi's major survey show at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003: "In a way it reminded me of Auntie Emily Kngwarreye's work, the way she put down her Yam (Dreaming); same idea. Not same dreaming - Dorothy has different Dreaming - same idea in a way, but different Dreaming. . . . Not same brushstroke, different stroke. Dorothy painting always reminds me of women dancing, really in formation, dancing for ceremony."

Her works have featured in exhibitions throughout Australia, the U.S.A. and Europe where she is regarded as one of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Dorothy won the prestigious Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 2001. A retrospective of her work was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney entitled Dancing up Country (Dec 02- March 03). Her life and work are documented in the book about her entitled "Dancing Up Country". Her work has risen in prominence and in 2004 at Sotheby's Melbourne auction (26/07/2004) a work entitled Karntakurlangu (Synthetic polymer paint on linen, 122 x 152 cm) with an estimate of $40,000-60,000 sold for $129,750.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2005-06
Dorothy Napangardi, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

2004
Ngati Jinta (One Mother), Gallery Gondwana at the Depot Gallery, Sydney Australia

2003
Mina Mina-My Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Australia
Indecorous Abstraction 2-New Contemporaries Gallery, QVB , Sydney, NSW
Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW
Dancing Up Country; the work of Dorothy Napangardi, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney
Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW

2002
Kana-kurlangu Dorothy Napangardi - Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney
Melbourne ArtFair 2002, Melbourne, Australia
One Mother, Dorothy Napangardi and Sabrina Nangala, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs

2001
Dorothy Napangardi, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia
31st Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia
18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award', Darwin, Australia

2000
Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Melbourne, Australia
Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi', Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London,
Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Adelaide Festival, Gallery Australis, SA,
17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia
Recent Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

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
Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australia, Australia
Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
Queensland Museum, QLD, Australia
Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany.
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, LA, USA.
The Kaplan-Levi Collection, Seattle, USA.
The Vroom Collection, The Netherlands
The Erskine Collection, NSW, Australia
The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA, Australia
The Australia Council Collection, Sydney, Australia
South Australian Festival Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia
The Homesglen Institute of TAFE Collection, Victoria, Australia

AWARDS

2001 First Prize, '18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award', Darwin, NT. 1999 Highly Commended, 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, 1998 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, N.T. 1991 Best Painting in European Media, 8th National Aboriginal Art Award, Darwin, N.T.