Virgillia Multa

Virgillia was born in 1990 at Mpwernte (Alice Springs). Her mother is Patricia Multa, her country is Kungkayunti (Brown’s Bore) an outstation 1.5hrs drive, south/west of Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff). She is the niece of Traditional Owner and lawman Douglas Multa and acclaimed artist Alison Multa. Kungkayunti is the site of her grandfather’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), where the ancestral women came to rest on their journey towards Walungurru (Kintore).

Virgillia is the grand-daughter-in-law of acclaimed Ikuntji Artists’ Kumuntjai Nampitjinpa Dixon (dec) who is the grand-daughter of one of the founding members of the acrylic painting movement in Papunya in 1972, Uta Uta Tjangala. Tjangala was central to the establishment of Papunya Tula Artists in 1972 where he painted continuously into the late 1980s. In the 1970s, he travelled extensively through the Western Desert, settling in Muyin outstation, west of Walungurru (Kintore) in the early 1980s.

Virgillia’s mother Patricia Multa and her father Jeffrey Jackson are both artists at Ikuntji Artists. Since 2013, at age 23, Virgillia has been developing her painting techniques alongside her family at Ikuntji Artists. She works full-time at Ikuntji Kuula, the local primary school, painting whenever she has spare time. Like her mother, she also paints the native Ininti seeds at Muruntji. In 2018, Virgillia travelled to Brisbane for an artist-in-residency at International Educations Services (IES), during which time she taught seed jewellery workshops to students and completed a work that is now part of their collection.

In 2022, Virgillia participated in several screen-printing and design development workshops at Ikuntji Artists and created her first fabric-by-the-metre design. She had also participated in t-shirt design workshops in 2017.