Barney Daniels Jungurrayi

Born at Haasts Bluff in the mid '50s, his mother was an Anmatyerre woman from Napperby and his father Warlpiri. Barney Daniels Tjungurrayi received some European schooling at Mungana, a settlement about five miles out of Alice Springs.

The snake, blue tongued lizard, Bush Fire, Centipede, Witchetty Grub and Bush Tucker Dreamings are the totems handed down to Barney from his fathers, Tjapaltjarri. Passed down over the generations from father to son this provides a direct link to his Dreamtime ancestors.

Barney Daniels Tjungurrayi is a prolific and highly creative artist. A member of the Lurtja people, his early life was spent learning traditional ways of survival, law and ceremony. He began to paint in the mid 80's and he describes himself as self taught. Barney is exceptionally innovative with colour and the creation of atmospheric moods.  

The stippled brushwork of the background often sets the mood of the painting which invariably lays the groundwork for the recurring theme of the cycle of life, death and regeneration.

He has had Solo And Group exhibitions in many Galleries both in Australia and overseas. For example, ‘Dot and Circle’ Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 1985, ‘Art Dock’ Noumea New Caledonia 1990, and ‘Tjukurrpa’ Museum fur Volkerkunde Basel 1992. He is included in a number of collections: The Ganguin Museum, Flinders University Art Museum, Longbeach Museum California, Malcom Forbes Collection New York, The Holmes a Court Collection, Artbank Sydney, Jinta Desert Art Gallery Sydney, Aboriginal Desert Art Gallery Alice Springs, Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia Melbourne.