Graham Tjupurrula

Graham Tjupurrula was born in 1975 and is the grandson of well known Aboriginal artists, Helicopter Tjungurrayi. Graham is a young talented emerging artist, who has only recently taken his hand to painting, with great success. Graham is a Pintupi man with family connections from Kintore and Kiwirrkurra. He travels extensively between these communities visiting family members.

Graham began painting in 2001, his artwork is heavily influenced by the old Pintupi artists who use a very restricted colour palette (usually ochre colours which can be found naturally in the desert). The imagery employed by these artists has a deep cultural resonance with the traditional Dreaming stories of the area. Graham uses acrylic paints to depict the men’s “Tingari” stories. The surface narratives are often termed the “Dreaming”, however are only one level of the paintings true significance, often under the top layer of paint are secret men’s stories. His main subjects not only include “Tingari”, but also rock holes around Lake McKay in Western Australia.

In 2003, after only a few short years of painting, one of his artworks was used by Australia Post on a commemorative stamp for international postage, along with fellow Western Desert artists, Ningurra Napurrulla and Naata Nungurrayi.

Graham has held two exhibitions in Alice Springs and Sydney through his work with Papunya Tula Artists. Central Art has available one of his Tingari Dreaming paintings which recounts the journey of the Tingari ancestors during the Dreamtime. They travelled over the land of the Western Desert, creating and shaping sacred ceremonial sites, performing ceremonies and instilling the lore and culture to the Pintupi people. This particular painting is a good example of Pintupi art, with the use of traditional colours naturally found in the desert, thick paint with traditional iconography.