Lorna Ward Napanangka is a Pintupi artist and daughter of the renowned Timmy Payungka Tjapangardi, one of the first generation Papunya Tula artists. Born in the early 1960s in Papunya, an Indigenous community in the Western Desert, Lorna’s artistic contributions began in 1996, with her participation in the "Kiwirrkurra Women's Painting", a collaborative artwork made for the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Following this, Lorna began to bring forth a vast array of independent works, all varied in their style. Moving seamlessly across mediums and styles, Napanangka’s compositions are lauded for their individual rarity. Whilst some works resemble the finely gridded patterns emerging from the Tiwi islands, others have been compared to the likes of Western Desert formalist Anatjari Tjakamarra.

Although stylistically diverse, connecting Napanangka’s works is her focus on the site of Marrapinti. A sacred waterhole west of the Pollock Hills, Marrapinti is the site of the nose bone ancestor, thus being a place of ceremony where women camp and fashion nose bone jewellery for ritual use. Marrapinti is also a vital source of bush food and a central focus in Dreamtime stories, which tell of female ancestors stopping at the waterhole to collect water and harvest desert raisins that grow nearby.

Exhibiting since 2000 - both in Australia and overseas - Napanangka has since been acknowledged as a stylistic influence on other Pintupi women painters and has been widely recognised for her collectability by collectors worldwide. A finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Art Awards in 2002, Lorna Ward Napanangka’s artistic trajectory is certainly among the most unique and intriguing.