ANGELINE PWERLE NGALA
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Artist Profile · Northern Territory
Angelina Pwerle Ngala
Anmatyerre master of the Bush Plum, whose shimmering fields of tiny dots hang in the world’s great museums.
Born
c. 1939, Utopia, NT
Language group
Anmatyerre
Skin name
Pwerle (also known as Ngale, Ngala, Kngale)
Community
Camel Camp, Utopia; grandfather’s Country Arlparra
Family
Angelina Pwerle was born around 1939 at Utopia, north-east of Alice Springs. She is the younger sister of the painters Kathleen Ngale and Polly Ngale, and the aunt of Bessie Petyarre. She was married to the late painter and sculptor Louis Pwerle. An Anmatyerre speaker, she rarely leaves the Utopia region.
From batik to Bush Plum
Angelina first learned batik in 1977 and was a founding member of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group, alongside Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Her batiks are held in the Holmes à Court Collection.
In the summer of 1988–89 she moved to acrylic on canvas through CAAMA’s A Summer Project, the first Utopia women’s paintings on canvas. Her first solo exhibition followed in 1996 at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, and that same year she began the Bush Plum series that made her name.
Her work
Angelina’s Dreaming is the Bush Plum (Arnwekety) of her grandfather’s Country, Arlparra, which she shares with her sisters. Her signature works are built from countless tiny dots, laid over dark grounds so the colour takes on a pure, almost surreal glow. The effect has often been compared to pointillism, and to the night sky.
She also paints Arrker (night owl), bush foods, flowers and the Atham-areny spirit people, and carves wooden figures drawn from her knowledge of ceremony.
Arrker (Night Owl)
Bush foods
Spirit people
Sculpture
Batik
Highlights
- 1996 – First solo exhibition, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
- 2012 – Subject of the documentary Bush Plum: The Contemporary Art of Angelina Pwerle
- 2016–2019 – Marking the Infinite, touring the USA and Canada
- 2023 and 2025 – Paintings sold at Sotheby’s New York for over US$120,000
Collections
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
- Artbank, Sydney
- Commonwealth Law Courts, Melbourne
- La Trobe University Collection, Melbourne
Buying Angelina’s work
Angelina’s major works sell at international auction, so buy only through a recognised Indigenous art gallery or auction house such as Niagara Galleries, and always ask for a certificate of authenticity and full provenance.
Paintings by Angelina Pwerle on eBay
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Listed as Angelina Ngale
