London gallery Edel Assanti has announced that it now represents John West Tjupurrula, a Pintupi painter from Kiwirrkurra in Australia's Western Desert. The Fitzrovia gallery made the announcement on 3 November, following the artist's first group exhibition in the UK at the gallery earlier this year.

Born in 1982 at Kintore, Tjupurrula is the son of Freddy West Tjakamarra and Payu Napaltjarri, two pioneering artists who helped found the Papunya Tula art movement. His paintings carry forward the Western Desert tradition of dot painting, depicting Tjukurrpa, the Dreaming stories that encode Pintupi knowledge of Country, mapping sacred sites and the songlines travelled by Ancestors. In his work, sinuous, interconnected forms and clusters of marks trace those journeys across the desert.

Tjupurrula brings a contemporary perspective to that tradition. Alongside painting, he works as a ranger in land management, using drones to survey vast stretches of Country from above, an aerial viewpoint that feeds directly into his compositions, which regularly depict the sites of Winpulpula and Palipalintja and draw on the Tingari song-cycle. His paintings serve a dual purpose: veiled depictions of Pintupi ontology, and practical records of safe passage through arid landscapes.

Tjupurrula first showed in the UK in Portals to Place: Three Papunya Tula Artists, a group exhibition at Edel Assanti that ran from 20 March to 16 May 2026 alongside Lorna Ward Napanangka and Yukultji Napangati. The gallery will present new works by the artist at Art Basel Miami Beach this December, followed by a solo exhibition in London in 2027.