About

Tjala Arts is a leader in the vibrant contemporary Indigenous Western Desert painting movement. Located in the remote settlement of Amata, on the Anangu Pitjantjatjarra Yankunytjatjarra (APY) lands of north-western South Australia, Tjala Arts is the artistic hub of the community and known for its diverse range of styles, energetic mark making and rich colourful palette.

In 2011 QAGOMA commissioned three generations of Tjala women to paint seven works for the collection. In these canvases, the artists explore dynamic, fresh, stylistic expressions of their culture and ngurra (country). The paintings are connected via two main narratives: the Dreaming story of the Seven Sisters – a well-recognised star cluster called the Pleiades or commonly the Seven Sisters which is also embedded in the local rocks and trees, and in images painted on cave walls – and the story of Tjala Tjukurpa, the ancestral honey ant whose tracks wind through the valley where Amata lies.