Isobel Major Nampitjinpa was born in Alice Springs Hospital in 1957. She is the daughter of Punata Stockman Nungurrayi and her late husband Peter Major Tjangala, and the granddaughter of Papunya Tula ar st Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. Isobel has a twin sister Shiela and another sister Maggie. Isobel paints the dreaming stories that have been passed down to her from both sides of her family. Isobel mostly paints her grandmother’s dreaming from west Kintore and east of Kiwikurra, a place called Yumarri. This is the story of a forbidden love story between 2 people of the wrong skin. Isobel is married to Patrick Poulson and they have 4 children; Peter, Rosemary and the twins Sharnie and Sheranna. Isobel has worked as an Arts Worker at Papunya Tjupi since it’s beginning in 2007. Since 2015 Isobel has been a Director of Papunya Tjupi and in 2016 was also nominated to sit on the Execu ve Board of Desart, the governing body for central Australian art centres.
Group Exhibitions
2016 Papunya Tjupi Arts : Incinerator Art Space, Honey Ant Gallery, Sydney
2015 Streets of Papunya: The Reinvention of Papunya Painting : UNSW Galleries 2015 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair : Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin
2015 New Narratives: Papunya Tjupi Prints with Cicada Press 2006-2014 : Kluge-Ruhe Museum – UVa Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
2014 Desert Mob : Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2014 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair : Darwin Convention Centre
2013 Desert Mob : Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2013 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair : Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin
2012 Papunya Tjupi Artists : IDAIA and Galerie Karin Carton, Versailes, Paris, France 2012 Desert Mob : Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs
2012 Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair : Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin
2011 Desert Mob : Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
2011 New Prints from Papunya Tjupi Arts : Nomad Arts, Canberra and Darwin
2011 Papunya Power : Art Mob Gallery, Hobart
2011 Papunya Tjupi : Mina Mina Gallery, Queensland
2011 Kuwarritja Tjutaku Papunya Tjupinya : Chapman Gallery, Canberra 2011 UNSW International Showcase : UNSW, Kensington, Sydney
2010 Desert Stories Papunya Tjupi Now : Gecko Gallery, Broome
2010 Papunya Power : ArtMob, Hobart
2010 Thukurrpa: Papunya Tjupi Arts : Mossenson Galleries, Melbourne 2010 Desert Mob : Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
2009 Building Papunya Tjupi : Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
2009 Papunya Tjupi Group Show : Gecko Gallery, Broome
2009 Papunya Tjupi : Honey Ant Gallery, Sydney
2008 Were talking about Papunya again : Art Mob, Hobart
2007 Papunya Tjupi: A new beginning : Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Paddington