Biography

Janita Nampijinpa Gallagher was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located approx. 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation; an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre, in 2006. Warlukurlangu Artists is located in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Since 2005 Warlukurlangu has dropped off canvas and paint for artists in Nyirripi. Janita continued to paint through the art centre until 2013, when she moved to Kintore, a small Aboriginal community with a population of about 400, located 127 km south west of Nyirripi, near the NT/WA border the Tropic of Capricorn.

Janita mainly paints her parent’s  Jukurrpa, in particular Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming). These dreamings relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. They were passed down to her parents and their parents before them for millennia.  Janita uses traditional designs and icons with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.