Gabriella POSSUM NUNGURRAYI - Women Collecting Bush Foods
ADG: 4716
DescriptionStory of painting - Women Collecting Bush Foods
Gabriella has painted a story about women (depicted as U shapes) collecting bush foods in the desert with an abundance of bush foods against a lively, dotted background indicating the changing vegetation of the desert landscape. The painting depicts a story associated with collecting bush foods including plants and animals which are an important food source for Aboriginal people.
Gabriella POSSUM NUNGURRAYI - Biography
Born 1967
Language Anmatyerre
Country Mt. Allan, N.T.
Region Yuelamu community, 280km northwest of Alice Springs
Dreamings Women’s Ceremonies; Bush Tucker (Black Seed and Exploding Seed from the Mt. Allan area); Goanna; Serpent; Seven Sisters Dreaming (Milky Way Dreaming); Grandmother’s Gold Country Dreaming.
Born in Mt Allan, Gabriella Possum is the elder daughter of the renowned painter, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri (c.1933-2002), who taught her to paint. Gabriella attended Yirara College in Alice Springs. Gabriella designed several record covers and also some T-shirts for CAAMA. Gabriella has a high profile in many Australian commercial galleries and is represented in a number of commercial galleries overseas. Gabriella lives with her husband and children near Melbourne, Victoria.
Awards and Commissions
1983 Alice Springs Art Prize
1991 Professional Development Grant, Aboriginal Arts Unit, Australia Council for the Arts
2008 Commissioned to paint a 20 metre art installation depicting Grandmother’s Country for the 2008 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. This installation was awarded a Gold Medal.
Selected Exhibitions
1987 Exhibition in Brisbane with her father Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, sister Michelle Possum and brother-in-law Heath
1988 Aboriginal Dot Painting, Melbourne
1992 Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney
1992 Washington DC, U.S.A.
1993 Berne, Switzerland
1998 Sztuka Aborygenow (Art of the Aborigines), Warsaw, Poland
1999 Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
1999 Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne
2000 United Nations, New York
2001 Mia Mia Gallery, Melbourne
Selected Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Holmes a Court Collection, Perth
Richard Kelton Foundation Collection, Santa Monica, USA
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Winterthur Collection, Switzerland
Ranking Most Important Australian Indigenous Artists (both living and deceased)
2011 Ranked 60/100