Curatorial+Co. presents The Colour of Country – a collaborative offsite exhibition in our Woolloomooloo gallery with the National Indigenous Art Fair (NIAF), co-curated by Dunghutti/Gomeroi curator Nioka Lowe-Brennan, from 2–19 July 2025.

Ann was born in Alice Springs and grew up in Papunya where she attended school. Her mother is Jocelyn Nampitjinpa, a Warlpiri woman and her father is Benny Tjapatjari from Warakurna in the NPY lands of Western Australia. Ann remembers a long time ago, when her father would walk with camels to Hermannsburg with rations for the people. There was a film made about her father, “Benny and the Dreamers” (1992) that tells the story of Benny and other Pintupi men.

Ann met her husband and fellow painter, Joseph Lane, a long time ago when he worked as a stockman between Glen Helen, Haasts Bluff and Pupunya. The two lived between Haasts Bluff, Papunya and Kintore as they raised their three children. For a time, they also lived at Pirrnpirrnga (desert bore) outstation, where her father is from. Ann says she has been painting for a long time now. She remembers sitting and painting at the old Ikuntji Art Centre with the old men and women, amongst them, Eunice Napanangka Jack and Mitjili Napurrula. She remembers that they used to make a fire inside the art centre and sometimes sleep there overnight. Ann painted for Papunya Tula artists for some time, but has been painting for Ikuntji now since 2001. She predominantly paints the Tjukurrpa from her father’s country, Pirrnpirrnga – Desert Bore, depicting the surrounding tali tali (sand hills) with bold lines, overlayed with fine dot work in varying colours. Her father, Benny, used to paint that same story. Ann is now the only one in her family that paints. She regularly comes in to the art centre and paints for hours at a time, often with husband Joseph Lane sitting with her, sometimes painting too.

This painting depicts the ‘pin pin’ desert bore outstation near Kintore. This is her father’s Tjukurrpa and country. Pirrnpirrnga has mountains, rocks and a big rock hole, where there is always water. In the Tjukurrpa the snakes are travelling around the sand hill country, looking for water. Ann remembers visiting this country and seeing her aunty singing by those rock holes.

Joyce Dixon was born in 1977 at Papunya, and has been painting since she was around 10 years old. She paints her country, Karrinyarra (Mount Wedge), which is around two hours’ drive north of Haasts Bluff. This is the country of the Napaltjarri women and Japaltjarri men. She was raised partly by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Paddy Tjungarrayi Carroll, two senior lawmen and renowned artists of the Papunya Tula art movement of the 1970s, and much of Joyce’s childhood was spent steeped in the artistic traditions of this area. Joyce paints a number of stories, including the Snake and Water Dreaming (Ngapa Tjukurrpa), the Witchetty Grub and Snake Dreaming, Bush Onion and Bush flowers. She has inherited these stories from senior relatives on both her mother’s and father’s sides.

She is married to Henry Multa, the brother of Douglas Multa (traditional owner of Haasts Bluff). Joyce lives between her husband’s community Ikuntji, her community (Papunya) and Alice Springs.

This work appears courtesy of Ikuntji Artists.