Biography

Vanessa Napanangka Poulson was born in 1983 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. In 2012 Vanessa moved to Alice Springs with her sister, Veronica Napanangka Poulson  and they still reside there.

Vanessa began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation; an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre, in 1998. She paints her Father’s Jukurrpa, in particular Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) and Jardiwanpa Jukurrpa (Ancestral Snake Dreaming). These dreamings relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. They were passed down to her father by his father and his father’s father before him for millennia. Vanessa uses traditional designs and icons with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.