Her works have featured in exhibitions throughout Australia, the US and Europe, where she is regarded as one of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. In 1991 she won the Best Painting in European Media, 8th National Aboriginal Art Award; in 1998 the Northern Territory Art Award; and she was "Highly Commended" for the 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award in 1999. In 2001 Dorothy won the 18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award ,presented by Telstra, with her spectacular black and white painting "Salt on Mina Mina".

Dorothy was first introduced to painting in 1987 by her friend and artist, Eunice Napangardi. She now paints her country, Mina Mina without any traditional iconography from her familial lines, creating her own innovative language to portray her country. Dorothy's paintings are created by an intricate network of lines that collide and implode on top of each other creating a play of tension and expansion, transporting the viewer through a myriad of intersections. Her view is constantly changing: one painting giving an aerial perspective; the next as if she has placed a microscope to the ground.

AWARDS

• 2001 First Prize, 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award', Darwin, NT
• 1999 Highly Commended, 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT
• 1998 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, NT
• 1991 Best Painting in European Media, 8th National Aboriginal Art Award, Darwin, NT

COLLECTIONS

• National 118th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin, NT
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• National Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, Australia
• Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australia, Australia
• Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin
• Queensland Museum, QLD, Australia
• Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
• The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, LA, USA
• The Kaplan-Levi Collection, Seattle, USA
• The Vroom Collection, The Netherlands
• The Erskine Collection, NSW, Australia
• The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, WA, Australia
• The Australia Council Collection, Sydney, Australia
• South Australian Festival Centre Foundation, Adelaide, Australia
• The Homesglen Institute of TAFE Collection, Victoria, Australia

EXHIBITIONS

• 2004 Ngati Jinta (One Mother), Gallery Gondwana at the Depot Gallery, Sydney Australia
• 2003 Mina Mina– My Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Australia
• 2003 Indecorous Abstraction 2– New Contemporaries Gallery, QVB , Sydney, NSW
• 2003 Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW
• 2003 Dancing Up Country; the work of Dorothy Napangardi. Asia Tour. Asialink in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art tour to Vietnam Fine Art Museum in Hanoi and the National Art Gallery, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
• 2003 Collectors Show, Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW
• 2002 Kana-kurlangu Dorothy Napangardi - Gallery Gondwana at The Depot Gallery, Sydney NSW
• 2002-03 Dancing Up Country; the work of Dorothy Napangardi - Museum of Contemporary Art, MCA, Sydney, NSW Australia
• 2002 Melbourne ArtFair 2002, Melbourne, Australia
• 2002 Indecorous Abstraction - Contemporary Women Painters, Light Sq. Gallery AIT ARTS Adelaide,SA., Australia
• 2002 Native Title Business - Contemporary Indigenous Art 'National Travelling Exhibition, Gurang Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation), QLD, Australia
• 2002 One Mother, Dorothy Napangardi and Sabrina Nangala, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
• 2001 Dorothy Napangardi, New Paintings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia
• 2001 31st Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
• 2001 Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Victoria, Australia
• 2001 18th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia 2001 Mina Mina, Solo, Dorothy Napangardi - Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Australia
• 2001 Dreamtime-The Light and the Dark, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg, Vienna, Austria
• 2001 Country After Rain, Framed - The Darwin Gallery, Darwin, Australia
• 2001 alice.fitzroy@af, Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, Canberra, Australia
• 2000-01 The Art of Place Exhibition, Australian Heritage Commission, Old Parliament House, Canberra
• 2000 Melbourne Art Fair 2000, Melbourne, Australia
• 2000 Songlines: Walala Tjapaltjarri & Dorothy Napangardi, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, UK
• 2000 Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Adelaide Festival, Gallery Australis, SA, Australia
• 2000 17th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Australia
• 2000 Recent Paintings by Dorothy Napangardi, Vivian Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
• 2000 Dorothy Napangardi, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• 2000 5th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra
• 1999 Painting the Desert, Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, Canberra, A.C.T.
• 1999 The Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery NSW, Australia
• 1999 My Country - Journey of our Ancestors, Ancient Earth Indigenous Art, Cairns, QLD.
• 1999 16th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award, Darwin, Australia
• 1999 Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, A.C.T. Australia
• 1999 Recent works by Dorothy Napangardi and Walala Tjapaltjarri, Vivian Anderson Gallery
• 1999 Treading Softly, Chapman Gallery, Canberra, A.C.T. Australia
• 1998 Northern Territory Art Award, Alice Springs, NT Australia
• 1998 Warlpiri Women, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT Australia
• 1998 Napangardi Dreaming - Ceremony and Song, Hogarth Gallery, Sydney, NSW. Australia
• 1998 15th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, NT
• 1991 18th National Aboriginal Art Award, Darwin. NT Australia