Nyapanyapa Yunupingu

b.1945, Yirrkala, Australia. Passed away 2021, Yirrkala, Australia.

A compulsive maker of multiple gestural marks on any available surface, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu is a major contemporary artist who has transformed popular understanding of Yolngu art. Nyapanyapa has broken free of replicating preordained miny’tji (sacred designs) and ordered sequences of crosshatching that encode meaning. She creates works of intuitive asymmetry, tonal nuance, materiality and gestural freedom that bypass narrative and defy Yolngu precedent.