Athena Granites Biography

 

Date of Birth 1994Language Group Warlpiri Athena Nangala Granites was born in 1994 and has lived in the remote desert community of Yuendumu in Central Australia for most of her life. As a fourth generation artist, she follows in the footsteps of her grandmother Alma Nungarrayi Granites (dec.), mother Geraldine Napangardi Granites and grandfather Paddy Japaljarri Sims (dec.) – who was one of the founding members of the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation. Warlukurlangu Artists is one of the longest running and most successful First Nations art centres. Established in 1985, Warlukurlangu Artists is a not-for-profit organisation that is entirely Aboriginal-owned by its artists from the communities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi. Athena has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists since 2010.  Though Athena has inherited multiple Dreaming stories, she is best known for her astonishing paintings of Yanjirlpirri Jukurrpa, or ‘Seven Sisters Dreaming’. Passed down through her mother’s side, Athena’s artworks are beautifully prolific interpretations of her grandmother Alma’s visual telling of this Dreaming.  The Seven Sisters Dreaming tells the story of seven ancestral Napaljarri sisters who created parts of the landscape of Australia as they moved through it, sometimes running, flying and creating rock formations and water holes as they fled from a man who wanted to obtain the sisters for his own pleasure. The sisters’ final trick was to take up a place in the heavens as the stars of the Pleiades cluster so that they could never be caught.  Alma and Athena have both depicted this sacred story by creating profoundly captivating slivers of the cosmos on canvas. Today, Athena is known for her deep celestial washes of vibrant colours that layer over and blend into each other. Finishing her pieces with an extremely fine dotting technique reminiscent of stars, planets and constellations, she lets her audience feel as if they themselves are floating in heaven. Thus, they are more than witnesses to the Dreaming story, they are placed within it. 


 

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