Lorna Fencer Napurrula is a Senior Warlpiri Custodian, and has been painting since 1986. Lorna was born circa 1920 at Yartula Yartula. Nearby is the land inherited by Lorna, Yumurrpa located south of the Granites Mine Area in the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. Lorna is among a small group of women who collectively produced the first paintings at Lajamanu.
Lorna Fencer was among the many Warlpiri people forcibly relocated to Lajamanu along Hookers Creek, where a government settlement had been established. This country is the traditional land of the Gurindji Aboriginal people. Despite relocation, Lorna Fencer retained her cultural identity through ceremony, story telling and painting her art.
Lorna’s work depicts the bush foods of her country originating from Dreaming stories taught to her involving the travels of the Napurrula and Nakamarra skin (or kinship) and some Dreamings from her father’s country of Wapuurtarli. Her main Dreamings are about the gathering and growth of bush foods such as the Yarla (Yam), Wapirti and Marlujarra. These Dreamings entitle her to paint subjects such as the bush yam (sweet potato), ‘ngalatji’ (little white flower), bush tomato, berry, caterpillar (luju), wallaby, onion, water and particular mens stories including boomerangs.
The Yarla is an important Dreaming for the Warlpiri women, and a staple food source in the Western Desert. Here Lorna renders it in her distinctive expressive style. Along with visually describing the Yarla, some paintings contain information about when to gather this food source and how to find it.
The use of vibrant colours and layering creates an exuberance and depth to her work, not often seen in painting of this region, more typically known for its dot work.
Awards
1997 Gold Coast City Art Award, Queensland.
Exhibitions
Solo:
1999 - St Valentine’s Exhibition, Brisbane; ‘Tracks Across the Landscape’, Land Rover Showroom, Sydney; ‘Yapa’, Melbourne 1998; ‘Me Warlpiri’, Melbourne 1997.
Group:
2003 - Yumarlpa Stories Original & Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery, Melbourne
2001 - A Tribute to Lorna Napurrula Fencer, Original &Authentic Aboriginal Art Gallery,Melbourne..
1999 - United Nations Building, New York, USA
1998 - 6th Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne
1998 - John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, NGV, Melbourne
1997 - Women’s Body Paintings from Lajamanu, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1997 - Recent Acquisitions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1996 - All About Art, Melbourne
1996 - Rainbow Serpent, Vaucluse, NSW
1994 - Yapakurlangu Wirrkardu, NT
1991 - Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court of Australia
1991 - Aboriginal Art, Australian Embassy, Washington, USA
1991 - Paint up Big Warlpiri Women’s Art from Lajamanu, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1988 - People, Place and Art, Hilton International Hotel, Adelaide, SA.
Collections:
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth, WA
Christensen Collection (housed at Museum of Victoria)
Museum & Art Galleries of the N.T, Darwin
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Perth Museum, WA
Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra
Artbank, Sydney
Laverty Collection, Sydney
Margaret Carnegie Collection
