Judy Watson Napangardi

Pandanus Aboriginal Art strives to bridge the gap between remote Indigenous art communities and the wider populous by featuring a superb collection of works from some of the nation’s most renowned Aboriginal artists. With an extensive collection of paintings, artifacts, and sculptures from renowned and emerging artists, Pandanus is a proud distributor of works from this pivotal aspect of Australian culture.

Judy Watson Napangardi was a senior painter in the Yuendumu community (Tanami Desert) known for her distinctive and vibrantly colourful style which was influenced by her established and highly regarded sister, Maggie. Maggie was instrumental in guiding her to develop her own unique style and applying it to her own unique totemic subject matter, of which “Mina Mina” was a major focus.

Feel free to peruse Pandanus Aboriginal Art’s collection of this important figure in the Aboriginal contemporary art movement, and contact us if you have any further enquiries about this exciting artist or our specially-curated collection.

Watson Napangardi’s work utilised the ‘dragged dotting’ style of painting. She received widespread acclaim for her work and became renowned for her use of detailed lining, bright colours, and carefully, intricate composition to detail, especially in her paintings of the land she called Mina Mina. Her work has been featured at exhibitions throughout the world, including the Venice Biennale.

The range of Judy’s paintings subject matter is interesting. Her “Hair String Belt Dreaming” paintings are mostly very large in scale and originally, were painted in black on a white ground with judicious usage of red. These works have a significant energy and rhythm that reflects the women in ceremony who are wearing the hair-string belts created for the occasion. Hair string belts are sacred subject matter for women across much of the Australian continent, and especially in Central Australia. Over time, Judy introduced colour into this style that is unique to her.

Her paintings feature at many museums throughout Australia and overseas, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.