bim bam byron bay
Lilly Kelly Napangardi

Lilly Kelly Napangardi

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born:                  1948
State:                  NT

Region:               WesternDesert

Community:        Mt Liebig, Papunya
Outstation:         around Haasts Bluff
Language:          Warlpiri / Luritja
Social Affiliation: Napangati subsection

Lilly Kelly Napangardi is a senior law woman of the Mt Liebig community, in the Haasts Bluff area of the Northern Territory, 325 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

Lilly Kelly was born at Haasts Bluff in 1948. She moved to the newly established settlement of Papunya in the 1960's. During her time there, Lilly began painting,
notably assisting with works by her husband Norman Kelly. Lilly returned to Mt Liebig with her husband in the early 1980's. Lilly began painting in her own right in the early 1980's, winning the Northern Territory Art Award for painting in 1986, and the General Painting Category at the 20th NATSIAA Telstra awards in 2003.

Lilly holds authority over the Women's Dreaming story associated with Kunajarrayi.
She is now teaching younger women traditional dancing and singing associated with
this Dreaming, and has become one of the senior Law Women of the community.
Lilly has three children and eleven grandchildren.

Lilly's paintings of country, especially the sandhills of the Kintore and Coniston areas, often depict the winds and the desert environment after rain. Her paintings can mark
the seasonal changes in this sandy landscape, and the crucial waterholes found in the area. There is the finest microcosmic detail embedded into a macrocosmic view of the landscape. It is the ephemeral nature of the drifting, changing country that is Lilly Kelly's key subject.

AWARDS

1986 Winner of the Northern Territory Art Awards 2003 Winner, National Aboriginal Art Awards, Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin.

EXHIBITIONS
Solo
2003 Span Galleries, Melbourne

Selected Group
Desert Mob Show, Alice Springs 2000/2001/2002/2003
Graham Marshall Gallery, Adelaide 2002/2003
Telstra Awards 2003

COLLECTIONS
Kelton Foundation, USA
Holmes A Court Collection, Perth
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Thomas Vroom Collection
Artbank, Sydney
James Erskine Collection

 

bim bam byron bay
Cnr Fletcher & Lawson Street   Byron Bay NSW Australia  Tel: 02 66808813