Makinti Napanangka

About

Makinti Napanangka (c. 1930–2011) was born at Mangarri, near the Kintore community, on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Makinti started painting when she was already well past middle age. Her first painting was made in the Haasts Bluff community, in 1994. She later moved to Kintore, and her style transformed from the tight, brightly colored roundels in her early work to the long, quivering arcs by the early 2000s. In 1999, Makinti underwent a cataract operation, which led to the evolution of the thick, expressive lines and more vivid hues that characterize her mature painting style.

Makinti’s paintings commemorate Pintupi women’s performative and ritual traditions depicting ceremonies and dances in nymparra (hand-spun string skirts made from human hair). Expressive lines of color evoke the energetic movements of the hair-string skirt dances and the fleeting desert mirages that glaze the hot earth where they are performed.

Makinti was selected for the landmark Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2000. In 2011 her work was recognized when she was posthumously named a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to the arts and women painters of the Western Desert art practice.

Exhibitions

Desert Painters of Australia
Two Generations

September 24–November 7, 2020

Hong Kong

Desert Painters of Australia Part II
With Works from the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield

July 26–September 6, 2019

Beverly Hills

Desert Painters of Australia
Works from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia and the Collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield

May 3–July 3, 2019

976 Madison Avenue, New York

From the Quarterly

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2026

The Summer 2026 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Ellen Gallagher’s Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish (2026) on the cover.

Jenny Saville a Ca’ Pesaro

In this video, Jenny Saville sits down inside her first major exhibition in Venice to discuss how the great Venetian artists of the past and the city’s heritage influence her work. The show brings together more than thirty canvases and works on paper from the 1990s to the present, tracing the development of her practice, which is deeply rooted in the history of painting.

The Reflection of Bronze: Giuseppe Penone and Adam D. Weinberg

On the occasion of his exhibition The Reflection of Bronze at Gagosian, New York, Giuseppe Penone and curator Adam D. Weinberg sit down to discuss the genesis of, and their collaboration on, the show.

Alex Israel: Upside Down

Ahead of Alex Israel’s exhibition of four new Fin sculptures at Gagosian, London, the artist spoke with Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean (2010), about the ocean, surfing, and Los Angeles.

Simon Hantaï: The Paradox of the “last studio”

On July 9, Simon Hantaï: the last studio opens at Gagosian, Gstaad. Curated by Anne Baldassari, the show comprises sixteen of the artist’s dernier atelier (last studio) paintings of 1982–85. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, copublished by Gagosian and Skira, which features an essay by Baldassari and an extensive portfolio of previously unpublished photographs by Édouard Boubat. Here, we share the introductory chapter from the publication.

James Turrell: Lifting the Veil

An exhibition at Gagosian, Hong Kong, brings together three of James Turrell’s Glasswork pieces along with site plans, photographs, and models of his Skyspaces and Roden Crater. Here, Alice Godwin explores the history of the Glassworks and their relationship to the artist’s wider practice.

Derrick Adams: View Master

On April 16, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, opened the first midcareer survey of Derrick Adams’s multidisciplinary practice. Covering over twenty years of work, the exhibition, titled View Master, brings together the artist’s painting, sculpture, collage, performance, and video, as well as a vibrant new commission created for the museum’s façade. Ahead of the opening, Adams met with Tessa Bachi Haas, cocurator of the survey, to discuss his formative experiences with television, the impact of his work in arts education on his practice, and the importance of taking a more complex, more joyful, and more expansive approach to Black American life and culture.

Giuseppe Penone: The Reflection of Bronze

Adam D. Weinberg has been working with Giuseppe Penone on an exhibition of the artist’s new sculptures, The Reflection of Bronze, that opens at Gagosian, New York, on April 22. The works explore the character and possibilities of bronze. Here, Weinberg considers Penone’s enduring engagement with the alloy and addresses the conceptual underpinnings of the exhibition’s three-room structure.

A Tremendous Generosity: Jeff Koons on Marcel Duchamp

Jeff Koons tells Alison McDonald about his appreciation for the pioneering artist and thinker Marcel Duchamp.

On Walter De Maria: Donna De Salvo and Lucy Raven

The Singular Experience at Gagosian’s Le Bourget gallery is the largest exhibition of Walter De Maria’s work in France in several decades. Organized by Donna De Salvo, senior adjunct curator at Dia Art Foundation, the exhibition marks the first time De Maria’s final sculpture, Truck Trilogy (2011–17), is being shown outside of the United States. Here, De Salvo speaks with artist Lucy Raven about her evolving kinship with De Maria and more.

Henry Moore: Monumental Nature

Laura Bruni writes about a major exhibition celebrating the work of the British sculptor Henry Moore at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London.

A Revolution in Jewels: Pomellato at Palais de Tokyo

The exhibition Pomellato, Le Joaillier Révolutionnaire opened at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, on June 24. The Italian jewelry house’s trailblazing advertising campaigns—created by some of the most consequential names in photography—act as the narrative arc of the exhibition, curated by Alba Cappellieri. Here, Sarah Godfrey tracks Pomellato’s history, speaks with Cappellieri about what drew her to this project, and examines some of the key photographs from the show.