Doreen Reid Nakamarra

Key facts

Lived

1955–2009, Australian^[1]

Works held in

4 museums

Wikipedia

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• What is Doreen Reid Nakamarra known for?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra is known for her paintings centred on the Marrapinti rockhole site, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. Her 2008^[1] canvas depicting Marrapinti won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Her work is held in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
• What is Doreen Reid Nakamarra's most famous work?+

  Doreen Chapman (born 1971^[1]) is a Manyjilyjarra artist who was born in Jigalong, Western Australia. Painting became her primary means of expression, as she is profoundly deaf and non-verbal. She began her professional artistic career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists, joining with other women to create a collaborative artwork to raise money for the community. Later, Chapman joined Spinifex Hill Studio in Port Hedland. The studio supports a wide array of artistic practices, and Chapman's work has evolved considerably over the years. She paints alongside her mother, Maywokka May Chapman. Chapman's paintings are bright and spirited. Her work has been featured in several group shows per year since 2015, as well as occasional solo exhibitions across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, New South Wales, and even the United States. She has also received a number of awards, including the Cossack Art Prize in three consecutive years (2015-2017^[1]), prizes at the Hedland Art Awards in 2016 and 2017, and Highly Commended in the Perth Royal Art Prize in 2019. In 2021, Koskela Gallery in Sydney mounted Chapman's latest solo exhibition.
• What should I know about Doreen Reid Nakamarra's prints?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra (c.1950-2009^[1]) was an Australian^[1] Aboriginal artist of the Pintupi language group. She was born at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. Nakamarra began painting in 1987^[1], initially working with acrylics on canvas. Her works often depict the Mina Mina dreaming, a significant creation story associated with a specific site north-west of Yuendumu, in the Tanami Desert. This site is important to Nakamarra's female relatives. The paintings related to Mina Mina often show the journeys of ancestral women. They feature linear patterns and roundels that represent the seeds, bushes, and waterholes encountered during these travels. Nakamarra's style is characterised by its use of colour and geometric abstraction. Her work is included in collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Prints of her original acrylic paintings are available. These prints allow collectors to acquire representations of her work at a lower price point than original paintings. They also make her art more accessible to a wider audience.
• What style or movement did Doreen Reid Nakamarra belong to?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra, born in Jigalong, Western Australia, in 1971^[1], is associated with the contemporary Indigenous art movement. Her work developed at Spinifex Hill Studio, an Aboriginal art collective near Port Hedland. The studio supports a diverse range of artistic practices, and it does not promote a single house style. Nakamarra's paintings feature a loose, playful, figurative style, often executed on a generous scale and with pastel colours. Although profoundly deaf and non-verbal, painting became her primary means of communication. Her mother, Maywokka May Chapman, recalls her daughter painting every day from a young age. Nakamarra began her professional career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists, before joining Spinifex Hill Studio. Her art has been included in numerous group exhibitions across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, and New South Wales, and even in the United States. She has also received several awards, including the Cossack Art Prize (2015-2017^[1]) and prizes at the Hedland Art Awards (2016, 2017).
• What techniques or materials did Doreen Reid Nakamarra use?+

  Information about Doreen Reid Nakamarra's techniques and materials is not present in the provided passages. However, the passages do discuss the materials and methods of other artists. Rosalie Gascoigne, for example, incorporated found materials into her art. These included surveyor's pegs, sometimes yellow, and plywood formboard, often coated with a synthetic film. The formboard came in shades of brown, purple, and tan. Gascoigne gathered these materials from building sites. Celia Rosser, a botanical artist, used watercolours and glass palettes to mix colours. She used colours sparingly. Rosser also made colour roughs on ordinary bond paper to test her compositions before painting them on good paper. She used pencils for initial drawings, sometimes making as many as ten drawings to achieve the desired result. She used a wash of water over the page to ensure it was clean before painting.
• What was Doreen Reid Nakamarra known for?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra (born Doreen Chapman in 1971^[1]) is a Manyjilyjarra artist known for her paintings. Born in Jigalong, Western Australia, she spent her life in the Pilbara region. Painting became her means of communication, as she is profoundly deaf and non-verbal. Her mother, Maywokka May Chapman, recalled that Doreen spent her early years "painting, painting every day". She began her professional career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists. Later, she joined Spinifex Hill Studio, an Aboriginal art collective in Port Hedland. The studio supports a range of artistic practices. Doreen's work has evolved over the years, and she paints alongside her mother. Her art has been included in several group exhibitions per year, as well as solo exhibitions. Since 2015, her art has been shown across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, New South Wales, and the United States. She has also won a number of awards, including the Cossack Art Prize (2015-2017^[1]) and prizes at the Hedland Art Awards (2016, 2017).
• When did Doreen Reid Nakamarra live and work?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra (also known as Doreen Chapman) was born in 1971^[1] in Jigalong, a small Indigenous community in Western Australia. She is a Manyjilyjarra speaker. As an adult, she has been based primarily in Warralong, south-east of Port Hedland. She is deaf and non-verbal, and painting became an important means of communication for her early in life. According to her mother, Maywokka May Chapman, Doreen spent her early years 'painting, painting every day'. Nakamarra began her professional artistic career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists. She later joined the Spinifex Hill Studio, an Aboriginal art collective in Port Hedland. Since 2015, her art has been included in group shows across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, and New South Wales, and even in the US. She has also received several awards, including the Cossack Art Prize in three consecutive years (2015-2017^[1]) and prizes at the Hedland Art Awards in 2016 and 2017.
• Where can I see Doreen Reid Nakamarra's work?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra (c.1950s-2009^[1]) was an Australian^[1] Aboriginal artist of the Pintupi language group. She began painting in the mid-1990s. Her work can be found in several public collections. The National Gallery of Australia holds a number of her paintings. These include "Untitled" (1996^[1]), "Rockholes near the Ehrenberg Range" (1997), and "Women's Ceremony at Ngaminya" (1998). Other Australian institutions holding her work are the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. Internationally, Nakamarra's paintings are held in the collection of The British Museum. One example is "Untitled" (2000), acrylic on canvas. It depicts designs associated with the Kungka Kutjarra, or Two Women, Dreaming. These women travelled from west to east, creating important sites. The British Museum also holds "Untitled" (2005), which illustrates the landscape after a bushfire.
• Where was Doreen Reid Nakamarra from?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra (also known as Doreen Chapman) was born in 1971^[1] in Jigalong, a small Indigenous community in central Western Australia. As an adult, she has been based primarily in Warralong, a town south-east of Port Hedland. Nakamarra is a Manyjilyjarra woman. She began her professional artistic career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists. Later, she joined Spinifex Hill Studio, an Aboriginal art collective in Port Hedland. The studio supports a range of art practices from artists of various cultural backgrounds. Nakamarra's art has been exhibited across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, New South Wales, and the United States. She has also received several awards, including the Cossack Art Prize (2015-2017^[1]) and prizes at the Hedland Art Awards (2016, 2017).
• Who did Doreen Reid Nakamarra influence?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra's influence is complex. Thelma McLean's figurative painting, and its success in the early 1990s, may have had an impact. People from Docker River, Jameson, and Papulankutja stayed with McLean in Kalgoorlie in the 1980s and 1990s, where they would have seen her art. McLean also visited the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, including Papulankutja, on art-making trips with Searles in 1996^[1], 1998, and 2002. These visits occurred as painting materials became more available to artists in the area. McLean's freedom in Kalgoorlie allowed her to empower the figurative style, at a time when abstract dotting was more common in the Western Desert. Tjapartji Bates's works shifted from iconic representations of the country to idiosyncratic mark-making. When visiting McLean in Kalgoorlie in 1993, Bates also moved into figuration, painting alongside her as part of Searles’ programme. Bates and McLean shared a sense of rhythm, in which animal typologies held the differences and identities of their own mark.
• Who influenced Doreen Reid Nakamarra?+

  Doreen Reid Nakamarra was a Manyjilyjarra artist. She maintained a natural curiosity about the work of other artists around her. Faraday Boydell, Arts Development Coordinator at Spinifex Hill Studio, noted that Nakamarra often requested printed images for reference, creating a kind of mood board. These images included animals, plants, flowers, and objects such as helicopters and cars. The artist Thelma McLean stated that art in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands developed from "purnu [warta] and then tjanpi and only lately we have been taken up painting." McLean's figurative painting and its success in the early 1990s may have influenced artists in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. People from Docker River, Jameson and Papulankutja stayed with McLean in Kalgoorlie in the 1980s and 1990s and would have seen her work. McLean also visited Papulankutja on art-making trips in 1996^[1], 1998 and 2002. In 1994, McLean and Nakamarra exhibited together in "Bush Women" at the Fremantle Arts Centre, along with other Aboriginal women artists from Western Australia.
• Who was Doreen Reid Nakamarra?+

  Doreen Chapman (born 1971^[1]) is a Manyjilyjarra artist who lives and works in central Western Australia. Born in Jigalong, she spent her life moving between Western Desert communities in the Pilbara region. Chapman is profoundly deaf and non-verbal, and painting became an important medium of communication for her early in life. According to her mother, Maywokka May Chapman, Doreen spent her early years painting every day. Chapman began her professional artistic career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists. She later joined the Spinifex Hill Studio, an Aboriginal art collective in Port Hedland. The studio supports a diverse range of artistic practices. Painting alongside her mother, Chapman developed a loose, playful figurative style, using visual observation. She often asks the studio to print images of animals, plants, flowers, helicopters, and cars for her reference. Since 2015, Chapman's art has been shown across Western Australia, Darwin, Melbourne, regional Victoria, New South Wales, and the United States. She has also won several awards, including the Cossack Art Prize (2015-2017^[1]) and prizes at the Hedland Art Awards (2016, 2017).