Biography

Warlpiri / Luritja, b. c. 1948 Lily Kelly Napangardi is a senior artist from Watiyawanu / Mount Liebig, west of Alice Springs. Born in the Haasts Bluff region, she later lived at Papunya before moving to Mount Liebig with her husband, Norman Kelly, also an artist. She began painting in the early 1980s and became one of the most recognised painters of the Mount Liebig school. Dreaming & Country: Tali / Sandhills Lily’s principal subject is Tali, or Sandhills, connected to Country around Haasts Bluff, Mount Liebig, Papunya and Kintore. Her paintings refer to the sandhill country, waterholes and travelling routes known through family and ancestral connection. She is also associated with women’s Dreaming stories connected to Kunajarrayi. Style and Technique Lily’s paintings are built through extremely fine dotting and repeated linear movement. Her best-known works often use rows of small white dots across dark grounds, creating the optical effect of wind moving across sandhills. The surface is quiet but highly controlled: the composition depends on spacing, rhythm and restraint rather than overt iconography. Lily’s Palette Lily is most closely associated with restrained tonal palettes, particularly white on black, with occasional use of red, yellow, ochre and soft earth tones. The limited palette gives the work its depth and allows the sandhill structure to emerge through dotting alone. For the Collector Lily Kelly Napangardi is a senior Mount Liebig artist whose work is represented in major public and private collections in Australia and internationally. She won the Northern Territory Art Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Painting in 1986 and was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2002 and 2003. Her work is held in collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Musée du quai Branly, Groninger Museum, Artbank, and the Holmes à Court Collection.