Across an extended career of almost sixty years, Naminapu Maymuru-White was one of the first Yolŋu women to paint miny’tji (sacred creation clan designs); later diversifying her practice to include painting, carving, screen-printing, weaving, linocuts, and batik work.
This exhibition presents Naminapu’s recent intricately realised bark paintings – including her largest bark work to date, measuring almost 2.5m² – and larrakitj (memorial poles), which tell ancestral stories from the Maŋgalili clan, namely of two Guwak men who drowned at sea and destined themselves as offerings to the night sky, where they, and subsequent Maŋgalili souls, are seen today in the Milky Way.
Naminapu Maymuru-White, Milŋiyawuy (Nami), 2021, bark painting, 139 × 90cm. Courtesy the artist, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, Yirrkala and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney
Sullivan+Strumpf
3 February to 12 March 2022
Sydney
