Biography

Warlpiri, b. 1988, Alice Springs, Northern Territory Tasha Nampijinpa Collins is a Warlpiri artist from Yuendumu, a remote community north-west of Alice Springs. She is the granddaughter of Ruby Nakamarra Collins and the daughter of Vanessa Nungurrayi Collins and Christopher Jangala Gallagher. Tasha began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists in 2004, initially attending workshops during school holidays before developing a regular practice after completing school. Dreaming: Ngapa Jukurrpa Tasha paints her father’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), particularly the story associated with Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. This Jukurrpa relates to rain, water sources and the movement of water across Country. The story and its cultural knowledge were passed to Tasha through her father and earlier generations of her family. Style and Technique Tasha combines Warlpiri iconography with a contemporary, individual approach. Circular forms may represent waterholes or important sites, while connecting lines describe the movement of water, ancestral journeys and relationships between places. Her compositions range from clearly structured arrangements of repeated symbols to denser, more fluid fields of line and dotting. Layering and changes in scale create movement across the surface while retaining the underlying geography of the Jukurrpa. Tasha’s Palette Tasha frequently works with bright, contrasting colour. Pink, purple, blue, green, orange and yellow may appear alongside black, white and earth-based tones. Some paintings use a limited palette to emphasise structure, while others build intensity through closely arranged fields of colour. For the Collector Tasha has painted through Warlukurlangu Artists, an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu, since 2004. Works produced through the art centre are documented with an individual catalogue number and certificate outlining the artist, provenance and associated Jukurrpa.