Gabriella Possum Grandmothers Country Painting. Australian Aboriginal Art

A stunning Grandmothers country painting by Gabriella Possum

117 cm x 102 cm

Gabriella Possum born in 1967 near Mt Allan in the Northern Territory, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi is the eldest daughter of celebrated artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. She was introduced to painting and the cultural knowledge of Country from an early age, developing a practice that carries the stories of her family while establishing her own highly recognisable visual language.

For Gabriella, Country is inseparable from story, family and ancestral knowledge.

Her My Grandmother’s Country paintings draw upon the Country and stories inherited through her paternal grandmother, Long Rose Nungala, and other senior women. These works present Country from an aerial perspective, revealing networks of waterholes, camps, gathering places, bush foods and significant sites. The landscape becomes both map and memory—a visual record of knowledge passed between generations.

The Seven Sisters Dreaming paintings offer another dimension of this relationship to Country. The ancestral Seven Sisters travel across the landscape, their story connecting the earth with the heavens. Gabriella’s compositions translate this ancient narrative into fields of vibrant colour, movement and intricate dotting, creating works that can be read simultaneously as landscape, story and celestial map.

Together, the two bodies of work demonstrate the breadth of Gabriella’s artistic practice. The intimate knowledge of Grandmother’s Country sits alongside the expansive movement of the Seven Sisters, connecting family, land, ancestry and sky.

Gabriella’s work has been exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally and is held in significant collections, including the National Gallery of Australia. Her career includes major commissions and public projects, reflecting the continuing recognition of her contribution to Australian contemporary art.