Biography

Otto Jungarrayi Sims was born in 1960 at Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community about 290km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. He remembers spending much of his childhood travelling in the surrounding country of this region. Otto finished high school in Yuendumu and has continued his studies through the indigenous college in Alice Spring where he got a bachelor in Business. He has worked for Yuendumu Council and the Tanami Goldmine in the 1990’s. Otto paints his father’s, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, stories, that were passed down to Paddy by his parents, and their parents before them for millennia. These stories relate directly to Otto’s country at Kunajarrayi and Yanjilpirri, its features and flora and fauna. Otto has painted for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1990, and was elected to its executive committee in 2002 and Chairman of the art centre in 2007. In March 2008 Otto travelled to Bahrain for the opening of a Warlukurlangu group exhibition at the La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art. This was Otto’s first trip overseas. Otto has a passion for hunting Kiparra (Bush turkey), and can often be seen driving down backroads around Yuendumu in his four wheel drive.