Magdeline Payne Nungala b. 1980

Magdeline Payne Nungala was born in 1980 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and grew up in Atneltye, or Boundary Bore, in Utopia, an expansive culturally and artistically significant Indigenous homelands region in the Northern Territory. She is the daughter of Jean Petyarre, the youngest of the famous Petyarre sisters. Acclaimed artists Ada Bird (dec.), Nancy (dec.), Gloria (dec.), Kathleen (dec.) and Violet Petyarre are her aunties. Magdeline is also the daughter-in-law of well-respected Utopian artist Josie Petrick Kemarre, who was the granddaughter of one of the most famous Australian artists, the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. 

Magdeline's painting style often takes after her mother-in-law Josie's, depicting aspects of the Bush Plum Dreaming story. This is a layered story, incorporating the strong winds that scatter the anwekety (Bush Plum) seeds all over the ancestral country, bringing life to the desert landscape and the abundance of the anwekety, also known as bush plum or conkerberry - a sweet black berry that is favoured by Indigenous people for its sweet taste and nutritional value. The fine, brightly coloured dots can also represent the various stages of the bush plum ripening.

Magdeline has a striking and effortlessly contemporary style, experimenting with sharp-edged forms that are softened by her great sense of colour and intricacy of carefully placed dots.