Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home)

Art Leven, in conjunction with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, is delighted to present Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home), the fourth solo exhibition by David Brown Jangala. This highly anticipated exhibition follows Jangala’s receipt of the 2024 Art Leven Award at the Paddington Art Prize and marks a significant moment in the artist’s rapidly rising career.

David Brown Jangala’s work is a striking fusion of desert abstraction and observational realism—two languages inherited through a life lived between his father’s Country at Kiwirrkurra and his mother’s Country at Mulan in east Kimberley. His paintings reflect a deep sense of place, memory, and continuity, informed by ancestral stories passed down from his grandparents, as well as his own lived experiences of moving across Country. The exhibition title, Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home), speaks to this grounding—a recognition of the physical and spiritual landscapes that have shaped him.

Jangala is part of a new generation of artists emerging from the Kimberley and Western Desert regions who honour traditional narratives while also innovating stylistically. In this new body of work, he continues to build on the dual styles he’s known for, depicting sites of personal and cultural significance with layered attention to detail, story, and form. As he explains, “I can do both styles, desert style and realism style.” This versatility gives his work a compelling dynamism that resonates with both collectors and curators alike.

Presented in partnership with Waringarri Aboriginal Arts—one of Australia’s oldest and most respected Indigenous-owned art centres—Ngurra Ngayunku (My Home) celebrates Brown’s growing recognition as a vital voice in contemporary Aboriginal art. It is a proud return to Redfern, where his debut exhibition in 2022 first introduced audiences to the strength of his vision.