Art speaks to a wide range of people

And now there is a very unique opportunity for people visiting Perth to view her first solo art exhibition in close to a decade.

Non-profit organisation FORM, in collaboration with the Newman-based Aboriginal art centre, Martumili Artists, launched the exhibition earlier this month, which is housed in FORM's gallery The Goods Shed in the western Perth suburb of Claremont.

According to Martumili Artists gallery co-ordinator Amy Mukherjee, Bugai's artwork had contemporary appeal, and continued to resonate across cultures, generations and borders.

"Working in the small Western Desert community of Kunawarritji (Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route), Bugai has established a formidable reputation as one of Western Australia's leading contemporary Aboriginal artists," Ms Mukherjee said.

"Using gestural brush strokes evoking methods of sand drawing from pujiman (traditional, bush-dwelling) times, Bugai commits the tuwa (sandhills), warla (salt lakes), waterholes and landmarks of her home on to canvas in vibrant acrylic paint, resulting in sublime renditions of country."

Recognised as a senior Martu artist, Bugai was born at Pukayiyirna north-east of Newman in the Western Australian Pilbara in the late 1930s.

And while she spent many years weaving baskets in vibrant colours and patterns, it is only in more recent years that she's taken up painting.

FORM exhibition curator Andrew Nicholls is excited that the exhibition is being held at their Perth premises, as Bugai has been one of his favourite artists since first encountering her work about 10 years ago.

Mr Nicholls said he didn't hesitate when Martumili Artists approached him late last year about staging a solo exhibition for Bugai and her amazing works.

"We have worked with the art centre a lot, having first collaborated with them on The Canning Stock Route project that ran from 2007-13 as it involved many artists along the route that the art centre represents," Mr Nicholls said.

"They cover such a vast area, working with artists from various communities, and part of the reason we love working with them is because they are so dynamic."

It was during that first collaboration that Bugai began painting, and it was also when Mr Nicholls first saw her early works.

For a long time she wove baskets while living in Kunawarritji community, while she watched other women painting.

Unsure how to begin painting, she was taught by relatives Nora Nungabar and Nora Wompi, both deceased.

Bugai embraced the medium, joining a significant matriarchal legacy of Martu painters that included Nungabar and Wompi, as well as her sister Nancy Patterson, also deceased.

Mr Nicholls said although Bugai had works shown in a number of collaborative exhibitions over the years, this would be her first solo show since 2011, and it was as much about showcasing her stunning works and their progression over the years, as introducing her as a person and artist.

"Through our gallery program we try to show regional artists to our audience in Perth," he said.

"While we've shown her works at our gallery in Port Hedland a number of times, and she's also been shown nationally and internationally, we thought it was a good opportunity for her to reach a Perth audience with a major body of solo work.

"And there has already been a lot of interest."

The exhibition comprises 36 canvases, created over the past decade, with all artworks available for sale.

Bugai has a very diverse range of artworks stockpiled from the past decade that they wanted to show in the exhibition.

"Her work since 2010 has incorporated a number of diverse styles, including a broad gestural thick brush stroke, circular elements, and the characteristic dot painting of Australia's north west, which is often in a more blurred, 'messy' style than in the central desert, looser and more gestural," Mr Nicholls said.

He said from examining the artworks, it became apparent that Bugai had reimagined and reworked some of her styles.

"You can see in her recent works that when she has gone back and revisited some of the same themes, that they are now more refined," he said.

"It's nice to see how dynamic she has been over a period of time, and people really respond to that.

"The works are very cohesive but there is also a lot going on."

The exhibition also includes a selection of the woven baskets that continue to be part of Bugai's art practice.

"The use of colour in the baskets is quite dramatic, and interestingly their shape relates to her use of oval forms in her artworks, representing soaks, salt pans and water courses," he said.

"The show highlights the similarities between them."

According to Bugai's grandson Cyril Whyoutler, much of her recent works focus on Wantili, a large jurnu (soak) and lyinji (clay pan) near Well 25 on the Canning Stock Route, close to the artist's birthplace.

"Bugai always tells about Wantili because she grew up around Wantili," Mr Whyoutler said.

"She saw whitefellas there for the first time, Canning mob when they were travelling up and down the stock route with the bullock.

"They were travelling making the road, Canning and his drovers.

"They were running away from those whitefellas, watching them from a long distance."

Mr Nicholls saw the exhibition as an opportunity to introduce Bugai, who does not speak English and never adopted a Western name, as an artist to people in and around Perth.

"It's a unique, intriguing name, but many people don't know anything about the artist behind it," he said.

"No one knows her exact birth date, but we believe she's about 80 years old, born in the desert, and she has incredibly rich and significant cultural knowledge.

"Everyone loves her work - people come in to the art centre in Newman and even if they've never purchased art before they frequently end up purchasing one of Bugai's canvasses.

"She is incredibly talented, and her work is so dynamic and enigmatic, and yet it speaks to such a wide range of people."

Bugai flew down from Newman with her family for the official opening of the exhibition on July 4, which was attended by more than 200 people, and was extremely excited to see so much of her work on display in the one place.

Mr Nicholls said one of the highlights of the exhibition was a series of three, three-metre high canvases, which he said were "spectacular, absolutely breathtaking".

He was excited to finally see the exhibition open after months of planning, and encouraged people to come and see Bugai's work.

"We've shown a number of desert artwork exhibitions before, and they've always been popular," he said.

The exhibition is on until Sunday, September 15.

The gallery is open every day, and entry is free.