Maxie Tjampitjinpa

A forerunner of contemporary Aboriginal art, Maxie Tjampitjinpa is distinguished for his tonally and texturally complex canvases rooted in traditional symbolism and folklore. The artist produced some of the first paintings devoid of the esoteric symbology that had hitherto been characteristic of the genre. Bearing some resemblance to the abstract expressionist tradition, his canvases are often densely inhabited by layers of prints and mark-making, the scattering of warm hues recalling the acute landscape of the West-Australian desert, narrating spiritual fables and dreamscapes. Tjampitjinpa’s remarkable use of color and evocative motifs creates images charged with notions of the sublime and the surreal.

Born in the New Territories of Northern Australia circa 1945, Tjampitjinpa first learned to paint under Mick Wallankarri Tjakamarra, one of the founders and most senior artists of the movement. He went on to win the 1984 Northern Territory Art Award, and has exhibited extensively at prestigious Australian as well as international institutions, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne; Queensland Museum, Brisbane; Sydney Opera House Exhibition Hall, Sydney; Carpenter Centre for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Massachusetts; and Kerava Art Museum, Finland. His work can be found in the collections of the Australian National Gallery; Auckland City Art Gallery; Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Gallery of Western Australia; Macquarie Group Collection; Mecenat Collection; The Kasumi Co. Collection, Japan; and The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles.