Biography

Jeffrey Jangala Gallagher was born in 1970 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. He was born into a family of well-known Warlukurlangu artists. In 1978 he moved to Nyirripi with his family, where he attended the local school.

Jeffrey began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu and Nyirripi in 2021. He paints his father’s and grandfather’s Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) – Ngarlikirlangu and Lukarrara Jukurrpa (Desert Fringe-rush Seed Dreaming), Jukurrpa stories relating directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. The have been passed down through the generations for millennia. He uses an unrestricted palette, blending his own patterns with ancestral motifs to depict his traditional Jukurrpa.

When not working, or painting, he loves to play sport and hunt with his family and friends.