In association with Kayili Artists & Warakurna Artists, we are very pleased to offer this exceptional major work, All of Patjarr, by senior artist, Nola Yurnangurnu Campbell.

This work was one of the finalist pieces in the prestigious 2019 Telstra NATSIAA (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards). Throughout her career, Nola has regularly been selected as a finalist in the highly competitive Telstra NATSIAA.

All of Patjarr maps her traditional Country in the remote Gibson Desert, W.A. where her art centre, Kayili Artists is located. As a representation of the three diverse and significant Dreaming sites in her Country, Nola pays homage to her experiences of walking between these places with her family as a young girl. Her paths are traced across the gestural brushwork in blue and pink dotted lines.

Much like vanitas paintings of the 17th century, paintings of traditional Country are loaded with symbolic meanings which may not also be evident to the initiated viewer. Each rondel represents a precise geographical location, which in turn is associated with sacred songs and ceremonial performances specific to that site. Those who are initiated into the culture can read these paintings like maps and books; they know the deeper meanings buried below the paint surface. The rest of us, meanwhile, must content ourselves with what information the artist makes publicly available and to accept that while the artist has chosen not to fully decode the symbols for us, they are authentic representations of the artist's deeply held worldview and sacred truths.

Nola Yurnangurnu Campbell has been a leading Western Desert painter since the early 2000s. Her distinctive expressive style has won her a place in many public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, Western Australian Museum, and The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. She has been included in several significant museum exhibitions, including the Canning Stock Route Project "Ngurra Kuju Walyja" which toured nationally and internationally. Campbell has also participated regularly in major art awards and has been a Telstra NATSIAA finalist four times.