Tjimpuna Williams is part of the art centre Ernabella Arts.
Tjimpuna has worked across several mediums including painting, linocut prints and batik, but her chosen medium is ceramics.
In 2012 she was a finalist in the Indigenous Ceramic Art Awards at Shepparton Art Museum. Tjimpuna uses traditional patterns
that relate to rockhole (tjukula) or sand dune (tali), and also paints the Tjukurpa of her mother’s country – Piltati, near Kanpi in the
APY Lands. Other pieces are her personal walka or design. These designs are drawn from batik patterns and from her own
interpretation of images from country and ceremony.
In 2011 Tjimpuna’s ceramics featured in an Ernabella exhibition at the South Australian Museum. She undertook a residency at the
JamFactory in the same year. In 2012 Tjimpuna participated in the Australian Ceramic Triennale in Adelaide.
Tjimpuna and Derek Thompson were awarded a New Work grant by the Australia Council for the Arts and in 2013 undertook a big
pot workshop in Jingdezhen, China. This work was exhibited in 2014 at Sydney’s prestigious Sabbia Gallery. Tjimpuna has also
travelled to Korea and Singapore for her art practice. In early 2015 Tjimpuna and Derek returned to Jingdezhen, and the work made
then was exhibited with Sabbia Gallery in Sydney and at the Australian Ceramic Triennale in Canberra in June and July 2015.
In 2016 Ernabella was a key contributor to the collaborative ceramics installation created for the 2016 Indigenous Ceramic Art
Award. The work involved seven women potters telling the important Seven Sisters Tjukurpa and was exhibited at Shepparton Art
Museum. In 2016 Tjimpuna also exhibited in the Pukatjalanguru kungka tjuta kunpu warkarinytja – Ernabella women: strong work,
together exhibition at Sabbia Gallery.
Tjimpuna’s artwork has been acquired for the collections of the National Museum of Australia, Australian National Gallery,
Queensland Art Gallery and Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.
Collections:
- Australian National Gallery, 1986
- Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, 1985
- National Museum of Australia, 2005
- National Museum of Australia, 2016
- Queensland Art Gallery, 1994
- White Rabbit Collection, Sydney NSW, 2022
Selected group exhibitions:
- 2023 – Songlines. Centre d’art du désert australien., IDAIA, Australian Embassy, Paris, France
- 2023 – Aboriginal Signature, Bruxelles, Belgium – Caress the Earth II: Manta Ngura Atuntju Kanyini II
- 2016 – Shepparton Art Museum – Indigenous Ceramics Art Award 2016
- 2013 – Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide SA – Our Mob 2013
- 2023 – Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide SA – Warka irititja munu kuwari kutu = Work from the past and present: Ernabella Arts the last thirty years
- 2013 – Strathnairn Arts, Canberra ACT – Putitja: From the Bush
- 2012 – South Australian Museum, Adelaide SA – Ngayuku Ngura, Ngayuku Tjukurpa
- 2012 – Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton VIC – Indigenous Ceramic Art Award
- 2011 – South Australian Museum, Adelaide SA – Tjukurpa Nyangatja Ngananala Unngu Ngaranyi
Awards:
- 2012 – New York Grant, ATSIAB, Australia Council for the Arts
SOURCE: Ernabella Arts