Yinarupa Gibson Nangala

Yinarupa Gibson Nangala is a Pintupi woman born "in the bush" in Mukuli, Western Australia, in the region of what is now Kiwirrkurra. Various sources indicate that Yinarupa was born around 1948 and 1961, but her birth date is unavailable. It is more likely that she was born in the early 1960s and is the daughter of one of the great Anatjari Tjampitjinpa artists. Yinarupa was married to another great Papunya Tula artist, the late Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi. She is therefore related by marriage to the families of George Ward Tjungurrayi and Willy Tjungurrayi. One of Yala Yala's other wives was Ningara Napurrula. The mother of five sons, Yinarupa spends her time between her Kiwirrkurra community and Alice Springs.

Yinarupa began painting in 1996, while fully embracing her motherhood. For a time, her work enjoyed only moderate recognition. Only recently has she gained notoriety. In particular, in 2009, her raw style was finally recognized for what it is—classic Pintupi art at its finest. In 2025, she won the General Painting Award in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Art Awards.

Luke Scholes, deputy director of Papunya Tula Artists, wrote of Yiinarupa: "There are artists who are happy to let their art speak for itself. Yinarupa Nangala is certainly one of them; you're more likely to hear a burst of laughter or a brief recounting of the recent exploits of her five equally mischievous sons than a conversation. But what Yinarupa lacks in words, she makes up for in talent. She has an instinctive sense of space and rhythm, and quirky clusters of shapes and lines conspire in her paintings to depict topographical visions of her hometown, Mukula."