Lily Kelly Napangardi - Sandhills AENALKA10163MM

Provenance: Purchased for $21,000 in 2010 from Art Equity

Price: $21,000

ArtVals welcomes genuine offers through the Enquire/Acquire button

Lily Kelly Napangardi:

c.1948 – Present (Indigenous Australian)
Language Group: Luritja
Country: Mount Liebig (Watiyawanu), Northern Territory

Lily Kelly Napangardi: Mapping the Desert, A Visionary of Sandhill Dreaming

Lily Kelly Napangardi (c.1948–) is a senior Watiyawanu woman and one of the most esteemed artists of the Western Desert. Born in the Haasts Bluff region of the Northern Territory and later based at Mount Liebig (Watijawanu), she belongs to the Watiyawanu language group and is revered as both an artist and a cultural custodian within her community.

Lily’s artistic practice is grounded in her deep spiritual connection to the desert landscape. Her primary subject is the Tali (Sandhills) Dreaming, depicting the undulating dunes around her Country with a profound sensitivity to rhythm, movement, and space. Working in a monochromatic palette of white-on-black or muted ochres, she uses finely applied dots to build vast, shimmering fields that convey both the physical topography and the unseen forces of the land.

Emerging as a painter in the late 1980s, Lily’s work quickly drew critical acclaim for its formal elegance and meditative depth. Unlike the more symbol-based storytelling of many of her male contemporaries, her paintings are immersive and abstract, evoking a sensorial encounter with the desert — the wind shifting sand, the pulse of Country beneath the surface.

Lily’s contribution to contemporary Indigenous art has been internationally recognised. She was twice a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards and has exhibited widely in Australia, Europe, and the United States. Her work plays a pivotal role in expanding the vocabulary of Western Desert painting, offering a uniquely feminine and intuitive vision of Country.

Today, Lily Kelly Napangardi stands among the most influential artists of her generation. Her paintings, marked by quiet power and meticulous craftsmanship, continue to captivate audiences and collectors across the globe.

Major Collections Holding Lily Kelly Napangardi’s Work:

• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

• Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

• Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane

• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

• Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, USA

• Fondation Opale, Switzerland

• Artbank, Australia

• Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris

• The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth

• Hank Ebes Collection, Melbourne

• Numerous private and corporate collections in Australia, Europe, and North America