Ray James Tjangala (Pintupi, born 1958) is considered to be among the most significant artists to represent the new generation of artistic talent from Papunya Tula, the birthplace of contemporary indigenous art movement.
Ray is the son of Anatjari Tjampitjinpa (1927-1999), who was one of the founders of the Papunya ArtistsCollective. Under his father’s instructions and tutelage, Ray had established by the middle of the 1990s an artistic reputation which recognised him as one of the most important exponents of the second generation Kiwirrkurra artists.
The artist’s paintings have been profiled in numerous exhibitions throughout Australia in Adelaide, AliceSprings (with Papunya Tula Collective), Brisbane (with Fireworks Galleries),Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne (notably with Gabrielle Pizzi and Scott Livesey galleries), Sydney (with Utopia) and Perth; as well as abroad, notably inSingapore, London, and New York. His paintings were also included in landmark survey exhibitions of indigenous art in art museums in Australia (AGNSW, NGV,MAGNT) and abroad (Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany, and the United States).
Ray James was a finalist in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award, and his paintings reside in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Victoria, selected regional and tertiary collections across Australia, as well as notable corporate and private collections in the United States, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and other countries across the world.