Paddy Japaljarri Sims

Paddy Japaljarri Sims is a major Australian Aboriginal artist of the Warlpiri people. A community and ceremonial leader, he helped establish the painting movement in Yuendumu in the 1980s.

Paddy Japaljarri Sims was born around 1917 at Kunajarray (Mt Nicker), southwest of Yuendumu, at a location where several Dreamings interconnect.

Paddy Japaljarri Sims' creation stories or Dreamings (Jukurrpa) include Yiwarra (Milky Way), Ngarlkirdi/Warna (Snake or Witchetty Grub), Warlu Jukurrpa (Fire), and Yanjirlpirri (Star).

In 1983, he was one of five senior artists commissioned to paint the doors of the community school with ancestral motifs to transmit traditional tribal teaching to the students.

In 1985, he was one of the founding members of the community's historic Aboriginal artists' cooperative, Warlukurlangu Artists.

His works have been included in numerous exhibitions of Aboriginal art in Australia and worldwide, notably:

“Dreaming : The Art of Aboriginal Australia", The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1988 ;
"Magiciens de la Terre", Grande Halle, Parc de la Villette in Paris, 1989 ;
“L'été Australian Montpellier : 100 chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture australienne", Musée Fabre, France, 1990 ;
“Crossroads - Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia", National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto & Tokyo, 1992−93.

Paddy Sims is represented in all major Australian public collections, as well as in several public and private collections abroad.