About Lydia Balbal

Lydia Balbal is a Mangala woman. She was married to the Yulparija artist Nabiru Bullen until his death in 2009. Lydia's country is near Punmu in the Great Sandy Desert of W.A. Her people's existence was threatened by severe drought so that they had little choice but to leave their traditional country. Her family were some of the last to walk out to the coastal town of Bidyadanga (then La Grange Mission) located two hours south of Broome in the early 70s. Lydia has only been painting since 2007 but has already received significant attention from collectors and the media alike. She stands out as a resolutely modern and avant-garde Aboriginal artist. Her work is characterised by a unique combination of ancestral traditions with novelty. Lydia’s paintings hold together on her canvases the strength of the desert age-old wisdom, knowledge and mythical beliefs –of which she is the guardian– and the freeness and assurance of the bold chromatic contrasts and individual aesthetics she elaborated.