Patrick Nolan

Patrick Nolan

Patrick Tjangala Nolan was born in Alice Springs in 1976 and grew up in Papunya. After attending high school at Yirara College in Alice Springs he returned back to Papunya. His mother, Alice Nolan was a Warlpiri/Luritja woman from Pikilli country, West of Yuendumu. His father, Dinny Tjampitjinpa Nolan, a Warlpiri/Anmatyerre senior law man, was an important painter from Yuendumu, later painting for Papunya Tula Artists and touring around Australia and internationally. Dinny worked as a stockman before moving to Papunya where much of his family had settled. It was there that he started to paint for Papunya Tula in the 1970s. He was amongst some of the first artists to paint traditional sand drawings and body paintings on canvas alongside his brother, Kaapa Tjampitjimpa and his two cousins, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. In 1981, in Sydney he famously created a ground painting: the first to be seen outside of the Central Desert.

Patrick remembers seeing his father painting when he was a young boy, becoming inspired to paint himself. He asked his father to teach him. He says he started painting on small canvas at the age of ten. He was travelling to Cairns and Townsville with his parents for ceremony and painting at the time. Patrick’s two younger brothers also paint in Alice Springs. Patrick has lived in Haasts Bluff with his wife, and fellow painter, Patricia Multra for the past ten years. He started painting at Ikuntji Artists in 2010. Patrick paints his father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) from Warlukurlangu (Yuendumu) country.. Patrick often paints together with his wife and step-daughter (Virgillia Multa) in the studio. Patrick also carves spears and boomerangs from the native Mulga tree, which grow abundantly in the region.

Warlpiri, Luritja

Haasts Bluff

Past Exhibitions

Group

  • 2024
    National Indigenous Art Fair, Sydney NSW
  • 2023
    Tarnanthi Art Fair, Adelaide SA
  • 2022
    ‘Nganana Tjungu – This is Us’, Songlines, Darwin.
  • 2019
    Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 2019, Darwin., 13th Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, 9-11 August 2019
  • 2018
    AIATSIS Aboriginal Art Fair 2018, Canberra
  • 2018
    TARNANTHI Art Fair 2018, Adelaide.
  • 2018
    Desert Mob Market Place 2018, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs., 6th, 7th and 8th September.
  • 2018
    Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair 2018, Darwin.
  • 2016
    EDO Northern Territory Aboriginal Art Auction 2016, Outstation Gallery, Darwin.
  • 2015
    Desert Mob 2015, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs.
  • 2015
    Ancestral Presence - recent works by Ikuntji Artists, June Marriott Gallery, Central Craft, Araluen Cultural Precinct, Alice Springs.
  • 2015
    9th Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Darwin.
  • 2014
    Desert Mob, Araluen Cultural Precinct, Alice Springs.

Collections

  • Bailleau Myer, de Young Museum, San Francisco, USA
  • Campbelltown Regional Gallery, Campbelltown, NSW
  • Flinders University, SA
  • Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, VIC
  • Museum And Art Gallery of Northern Territory, NT
  • National Gallery of Victoria, VIC
  • PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
  • Thomas Vroom-Sammlung, Amsterdam, NL
  • University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS
  • Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
  • Ganter Myer Collection, Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco, USA
  • Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
  • Helen Read Collection