LOS ANGELES, CA.- Marina Pumani Brown, on view now at Gruin Gallery was born in Mimili Community on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands of South Australia. She comes from a long line of strong female painters. Her grandmother was Milatjari Pumani, who was one of the most famous artists in the APY region. Her mother is Betty Kuntiwa Pumani and her aunt was Ngupulya Pumani. Marina grew up watching these strong Pumani women paint. Marina has developed a distinctive interpretation of the Tjukurpa passed on to her through her family line. She expresses her role in the larger story of cultural continuity in unique and powerful paintings which resemble abstract maps of the landscape. In her work she references the essence of her family’s homeland around Antara and Paralpi, nestled in the granite hills of the Everard Ranges.

In her art practice, Marina shows contemporary ways of seeing her ancestral knowledge, sharing insights into her experience of day-to-day community life. Marina often spends the weekends out on country with her mother and daughter, collecting minkulpa (bush tobacco), maku (witchetty grubs) and care for the local tjukula (rock holes). Particularly after kapi pulka (big rains), the land becomes so fertile, that they harvest bush foods like the gnurru (lollie tree) and camp out on country like the old people used to.

"My paintings are both literal maps of the landscape and objects of meaning removed from any physical representation. Though not always depicted, the importance of Antara is never lost in my work. The site has been integral to the existence of Anangu culture since the beginning of time. Today my life is different to that of my ancestors and my work is a tool to document my part in a story that spreads across timespans bigger than our imagination." - Marina Pumani

In 2020 Marina received a special commendation as part of the Churchie Emerging Art Prize at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. She has since been a finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2020), the Wynne Prize (2021) and the Len Fox Award (2022).

This is her first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, where it will continue until May 13th, 2023.