Since spearheading the birth of the Western Desert Art Movement in 1971, Papunya Tula Artists has swept all before it. Growing, evolving, and at times reinventing itself, the Company has continually broken new ground on its journey, constantly reaching out to new audiences across the globe. From tiny desert settlements hundreds of miles west of Australia’s most remote city Alice Springs, a fifty year creative outpouring has now established itself as an international brand, and works by the artist owned Company now hang in some of the most prestigious institutions of the great art capitals of the world.

The Company’s founding artists and shareholders were senior men, many in their sixties, seventies and even eighties. As time progressed it’s become their wives, sons and daughters who have risen up and accepted the responsibility of maintaining the Company’s profile. It’s now their turn at interpreting their ancient stories and transforming them through modern materials on to a two dimensional surface. From songs, dances and oral histories their ancestral beliefs and cultural practices come to life through bursts of colour and pulsating lines. Innovative ways of visually communicating thousands of years of a rich cultural heritage continue to emerge. These artworks will remain as a permanent record, not only of one of the world’s great art movements, but also the lives of an extraordinary and unique community of people.

On the eve of it’s 50th anniversary, Papunya Tula Artists take great pleasure in once again exhibiting with Harvey Art Projects, a partnership that now spans more than a decade. During this time we have presented some of our most important US exhibitions, including the landmark 2009 New York show ‘We Are Here Sharing Our Dreaming’, and the 2015 Aspen Colorado show ‘Indigenous Paintings From Australia’s Western Desert’.

2021 – 22 marks a momentous milestone for the Company and its history. A milestone worthy of great celebration and of great exhibitions. —Paul Sweeney