Name Michael Tjakamarra | ||
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Artwork Possum Dreaming, Possum and Wallaby Dreaming | ||
AGOD: Michael Nelson Tjakamarra
He was born in 1949 Australia.
Contents
Michael Nelson Tjakamarra is an indigenous Australian painter.
Biography
Tjakamarra was born at Vaughan Springs in the Northern Territory in the year 1949. He first saw white men at Mount Doreen Station and remembers hiding in the bush in fear. Michael lived at Haasts Bluff for a time with the same family group as Long Jack Phillipus Tjakammara. Later his parents took him to Yuendumu for European education at the mission school. He left school after initiation and worked pig shooting, driving trucks, droving cattle and was in the Army before coming back to Yuendumu and then to Papunya to settle and marry his current wife. He moved to Papunya in 1976 and worked in the government store and observed the work of many of the older artists for many years before he began to paint regularly in 1983.
His parents were both Walpiri and his father was an important "Medicine Man" in the Yuendumu community. After his father's death in 1976, Michael worked under the instruction of his uncle Jack Tjurpurrula. Michael paints Possum, Snake, Two Kangaroos, Flying Ant and Yam Dreamings for the area around Pikilyi. He won the National Aboriginal Art Award in September 1984 In 1987 an 8.2 m (27 ft) long painting by Jagamarra was installed in the foyer of the Sydney Opera House. He was introduced to Queen Elizabeth II in 1988 at the opening of the New Parliament House as the designer of the 196 square metre mosaic in the forecourt of the building. His 1985 painting "Five Stories" was one of the most reproduced works of Australian Art in the 1980s. It appeared on the cover of the catalogue of the Asia Society's "Dreamings" exhibition []which toured the USA in 1988-90. Jagamarra travelled to New York City with Billy Stockman Japaltjarri for the opening of the show. In 1989 he had his first solo exhibition in Melbourne at the Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi and participated in the BMW Art Car Project by hand painting an M3 race car.
Exhibitions
Michael Nelson Jakamarra has exhibited his work in many exhibitions (including several solo exhibitions) and these include: Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne; Utopia Art, Sydney; Australian National Gallery, Canberra; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; John Webber Gallery, New York. After these exhibitions, Jakamarra was tired, so he decided not to 'exhibit' anymore.
Collections
