Art From Australia
"Grandmother's Country & Seven Sisters Dreaming" By Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
"Grandmother's Country & Seven Sisters Dreaming" By Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
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Artist: Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
Size (H x W): 93 x 150 cm
This Painting combines 2 of the Possum families most famous dreaming’s.
Grandmother’s Country which are painted in very warm colours – you’ll see pinks, mauves, burnt reds and warm greys. The artists have used the iconography that indicated how people used the land. It was a rich resource for food and medicinal plants. Then in a spiritual context they have laid out the symbols to sit across the Country, giving the meaning and context of that part of the land in the painting.
As well as the extraordinary Seven Sisters Dreaming story. The Pleiades story is about a group of sisters taking off from the land and heading off into the sky. They are being pursued by an older man who’s seeking a wife among one of the sisters, but he is the wrong skin group. It’s a constant drama that’s played out every night in the Australian night sky. The famous Seven Sisters story is widely told by Aboriginal communities right across Australia. This star group sits very low on the horizon and rises just after dark every evening.
It’s an interesting tension between looking upwards into the heavens and looking downwards at the land spreading out before us.
About the Artist – Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi is one of Australia’s most celebrated First Nations artists. Her work is widely recognised for its cultural significance, deep storytelling, and strong connection to Anmatyerre Country.
Gabriella was born at Mount Allan near Alice Springs and is the daughter of the legendary artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Emily Nakamarra Possum, a respected Luritja woman. Gabriella began painting alongside her father as a young girl, inheriting his visual language while developing her own distinctive and powerful style.
Her artworks share women’s stories of Dreaming and Ceremony, using traditional symbols to represent sacred sites, waterholes, plants, animals, footsteps, and ancestral journeys. These stories are passed down through generations and painted with deep respect for law, lore, and land.
Gabriella is best known for her Seven Sisters Dreaming paintings, which have been exhibited internationally and even projected onto the Sydney Opera House as part of the Vivid Festival. Her work has also been featured in galleries across Australia, the UK, and the USA.
Today, Gabriella lives and paints in Melbourne, surrounded by her sister and extended family, continuing a powerful legacy of culture, connection, and creativity.
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