Around 1945, George Ward Tjungurrayi was born near sacred Lakarra in Western Australia. Like many other Pintupi, he came to Papunya in the wake of one of Jeremy Long’s Welfare Branch Patrols in 1963. George spent a lot of time looking at the work of his brothers Yala Yala Gibbs and Willy Tjungurrayi, who had become two of the most important painters of Papunya Tula in Kintore. George, who considers himself a true ‘bush man’ moved deeper into the desert to Kiwirkurra and in 1984 he began painting for Papunya Tula Artists. His subjects include classical grids of circles that tell the stories of his country and ancestors (Tingari). He also paints many Snake (Python) and Kuningka (Western Quoll, a carnivorous marsupial) Dreamings. After the death of his brother Yala Yala in 1998, George devoted himself increasingly to painting, and gradually developed a distinctive, personal style. The immense salt lake Kaakuratintja (Lake MacDonald) often takes precedence in his paintings. The combination of meticulous, geometric designs in George’s work, paired with the somewhat shaky, volatile dot-work results in exciting, vibrant and ever moving surfaces. In 2004 George won the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Wynn Prize for landscape painting.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2018 'East meets West', SmithDavidson Gallery, Okt - Dec, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018 ‘Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection’, Blanton Museum- University of Texas, Austin, USA
2016 ‘The Art of Humanity’, The Pratt Institute, Imago Mundi, New York, USA
2015 ‘Map of the New Art’, Imago Mundi, Venice, Italy
2014 ‘Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity - Dakar’, Dak’Art 2014, 11th edition of the Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal
2013-2014 'Vivid Memories - An Aboriginal Art History', Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France
2013 Venice Biennale 2013, Imago Mundi, Venice, Italy
2012 ‘Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA
2012 ‘Unique Perspectives: Papunya Tula Artists and the Alice Springs Community’, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia
2007 Pintupi Mixed Exhibition, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2006 ‘Western Desert Satellites’, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
2006 ‘Right Here, Right Now: Recent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Acquisitions, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
2006 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2006 Yawulyurru kapalilu paylara nintilpayi’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2005 Pintupi Show, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2005 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2005 ‘Aboriginal Vision in Contemporary Australian Art’ (Collection of Margaret Levi & Robert Kaplan), Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle USA
2004 ‘Binocular: looking closely at Country’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts - University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2004 ‘Talking About Abstraction’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts - University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2004 Papunya Tula Artists, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2004 Pintupi Artists, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2003 20th Telstra NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
2003 ‘The Desert Mob Art Show’, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia
2003 ‘Kintore, Kiwirrkurra’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2003 ‘Pintupi Artists’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2002 ‘Pintupi Artists’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2001 ‘Kintore, Kiwirrkurra’, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
2000 ‘Pintupi Men’, Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
2000 ‘Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2000 'Art of the Aborigines', Leverkusen, Germany (in cooperation with Aboriginal Art Gallery Bahr, Speyer)
1998 ‘The Desert Mob Show’, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
1998 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
1997 Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
1997 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
1996 Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
1996 ‘Nangara, The Australian Aboriginal Art Exhibition’, Brugge, Belgium
1996 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
1996 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Australia
1996 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia
1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival, Papunya Tula Artists, Adelaide, Australia
1995 Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Australia
1995 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia
1995 'Dreamings' – Tjukurrpa’, Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands
1991 Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
1990 ‘Friendly Country - Friendly People’, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs, Australia
Born in Lakarra, Western Australia on November 30th, 1944