Pantjiya Nungurrayi was born in the bush near Haasts Bluff circa, prior to the mission being established. Her first contact with Europeans was a young girl, when she and her family met with men who were travelling by camel and distributing rations.
During the Government relocation Pantjiya moved from Haast Bluff to Papunya and married George Maxwell Tjangala (Jangala), a well known artist who also painted for Papunya Tula Artists. Together they had five sons and three daughters. Following the death of her husband, Pantjiya returned to her traditional homeland of Kiwirrkurra.
Pantjiya Nungurrayi only began painting in the mid nineties, working for Papunya Tula Artists since 1996, painting a very distinctive style using the three traditional colours of black, white and yellow ochre.
Pantjiya Nungurrayi's work is widely and continuously exhibited worldwide and is highly collectable.
Exhibitions:
1996 Papunya Tula Artists Pty. Ltd. Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
1999 Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia.
1999 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2000 Utopia Art Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2000 Framed Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
2000 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2000 'Pintupi Women', Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
2001 Palm Beach Art Fair, Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
2001 Art House Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2001 'Art of the Pintupi', Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, South Australia,
2001 Indigenart, Subiaco, Western Australia, Australia.
2001 'Pintupi Exhibition', Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
2001 'Pintupi Women From Kintore', Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
2001 'Kintore and Kiwirrkura', Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2002 'Pintupi Mens' and Womens' Stories', Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
2002 19th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT
2002 'Pintupi Artists', Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
2002 Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2003 'Pintupi Art 2003', Tony Bond Aboriginal Art Dealer, Adelaide, South Australia,
2003 'Recent Paintings By The Women Artists Of Kintore And Kiwirrkura', Gallery Gabrielle
Pizzi, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2003 'Pintupi Art From The Western Desert', Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
2004 'Works from Kintore and Kiwirrkura', Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2004 'Ma Yungu/Pass It On', Framed Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
2005 'Pintupi Women', Indigenart, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
2005 'Papunya Tula - the next generation', Walkabout Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2005 'Aboriginal Art of the Australian Desert', Anima Mundi Gallery, Lyons, Colorado, USA.
2006 'A Particular Collection', Utopia Art Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
2006 'Paintings By Papunya Tula Artists', Suzanne O'Connell Gallery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Collections:
Artbank
Papunya Tula Artists
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Aboriginal Art Museum, The Netherlands.
Select Bibliography:
Mellor D. & Megaw V. Twenty-Five Years and Beyond, Papunya Tula Paintings, exhibition catalogue,
Flinders Art Museum, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, Flinders Press, 1999.