Wanapati is the son of deceased artist Miniyawany Yunupiŋu.
Read MoreMiniyawany was a senior artist and ceremonial leader within the Gumatj clan at Biranybirany. Wanapati has inherited rich ceremonial instruction from his father, and was trained while living between the outstation communities of Waṉḏawuy (his mother's clan land) and Biranybirany.
Following his fathers death in 2008, he began to paint his clan design on bark, yidaki and larrakitj.
During late 2019 Wanapati began working on found and discarded street signs and metal forms, etching his sacred Gumatj clan designs and narratives into their surface using a rotary tool. In doing so he was part of a group of artists who followed the artistic movement of fellow artist Gunybi Ganambarr. Gunybi stretched the art centre's guiding principle which required the use of natural media in depicting sacred designs – 'if you are going to paint the land you must use the land' .
The elders accepted that Gunybi in presenting materials and mediums which he found on or within the land was in fact using 'the land'. In creating this loophole he became the originator of the 'Found' movement in North East Arnhemland that Wanapati continues.
In 2021 Wanapati was included in the ground-breaking and sell out exhibition Murrŋiny - a story of metal from the east at the Northern Centre of Contemporary Art (NCCA) in partnership with Salon Art Projects. His works were collected by the Art Gallery of NSW and significant private collectors both within Australia and internationally. Wanapati's work was also used to create a large scale mural on the facade of NCCA.
Wanapati was a finalist in the 2021 NATSIAA award with his works on discarded baking trays. He was selected to hold a solo exhibition as part of the 2022 Melbourne Art Fair Indigenous Art Centre Program, a new initiative supporting the participation of Indigenous-owned contemporary art centres at Melbourne Art Fair. Wanapati was awarded the $10,000 First Nations Commission Supported by Bennelong Funds Management for Gurtha. The artwork will be gifted to Shepparton Art Museum.
