Joy Nangala Brown Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1966 -

Joy Nangala Brown was born on 4th July 1966 in the hospital at Alice Springs, in Australia's Northern Territory. Her childhood was mostly spent at Yuendumu, although did several years of schooling in Alice Springs, some 290 km away, at Yirara College. Joy moved to Nyirripi , about 130kms west of Yuendumu in the early 1980s and has lived there ever since, although she travels back and forth to Yuendumu to visit family.

Joy has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Yuendumu since 2006. Joy paints her father's and grandfather's Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings passed down to her by her mother and father, who in turn received them from their parents. They relate directly to the land and its features, and the plants and animals that live on it.

Joy is the daughter of the successful Pintupi artist Pegleg Jampijinpa, and grew up with his art work around her. She is married to Jay Jay Spencer, the adopted son of another highly successful artist from Yuendumu, Paddy Japaljarri Stewart. They have a daughter and a son, and grandchildren. Her daughter Debbie Napaljarri Brown also paints with Warlukurlangu Artists.

Joy enjoys hunting for goannas and bush tucker, playing cards and singing in the church choir in her spare time.


Group Exhibitions

2006 Warlpiri Artists of Yuendumu, Japingka Gallery, WA
2007 Nyirrpi, New Work, Alison Kelly Gallery, Melbourne, VIC
2007 Emerging, Gallery Gondwana, Sydney, NSW
2007 Desert Mob, Baguette Gallery & Suzanne O'Connell Gallery
2007 Yuendumu & Kimberley - Twin Indigenous Show, United Gallery, Sydney
2007 Couples, painting partners from Yuendumu & Nyirrpi, Gadfly Gallery, Perth, WA
2007 Vivid Visions, Cooee Aboriginal Art, Sydney
2008 Artists of Nyirripi & Yuendumu, Japangka Gallery, Fremantle, WA
2008 Warlukurlangu Artists, La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art, Bahrain UAE
2008 Opening Doors into Colourful Dreamtime, Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
2008 Representations of Country, Artitja Fine Art, Perth, WA
2008 Desert Stories, Artitja Fine Art, Perth, WA
2008 New Directions, Gecko Gallery, Broome, WA
2008 Warlukurlangu Wonders, Warlpiri Paintings from Yuendumu, Art Mob, Tasmania
2010 Circles in the Sand, Kluge-Ruhe Collection, Virginia USA
2010 McCulloch & McCulloch/Jive Art, Noosa, QLD
2011 From Salt Water to Salt Contemporary, McCulloch's Indigenous Art@ Salt Contemporary, Queenscliff, VIC