Michael Nelson Jakamarra

 Alternative Spelling: Tjakamarra, Jagamara, Jakamara, Djakamara
Born:                       1945
Region:                    Pikilyi  (Vaughan Springs) Western Desert
Community:              Papunya
Outstation:               Mt Singleton, Pikilyi
Language:                Warlpiri, Luritja
Social Affiliation:        Jakamarra subsection
Subjects:                  Possum, Snake, Two Kangaroos, Flying Ant,
                                Yam, Rainbow Serpents..
 
Awards:
1984,     First Prize, Inaugural National Aboriginal Art Award,
              Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences, Darwin;
1993,     Visual Arts/Crafts Board Fellowship;
2006,     Winner, Tattersall’s Landscape Art Prize.

Commissions:
1987,     Sydney Opera House, 27 foot long painting, for foyer;
1988,     designer of Mosaic for forecourt of new Parliament House, Canberra;
1989,     BMW Art Car Project, painted M3 Racing Car

Collection:
Artbank, Sydney.; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.;
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.; Australian Museum, Sydney.; Broken Hill Art Gallery.; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.; Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra.; Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.;
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.; The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A.;

Exhibitions:
Individual Exhibitions:
1989, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne;
1990, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne;

Group Exhibitions:
1984, Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs; 1984, The First National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; 1985, The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971-1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.; 1986, The Biennale of Sydney, Sydney; 1986, Roar Studios, Melbourne; 1987, State of the art: ideas & images of the 1980's, Institute of Contemporary Art, London.; 1987, The Fourth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; 1987, Papunya Tula:1982-1983, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne; 1988, Dreamings: the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York.; 1989, Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia's Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York, USA..; 1989, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City; 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art] ; 1989, Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; 1989, Windows on the Dreaming,
Australian National Gallery, Canberra; 1990, National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome; 1990, Balance 1990: views, visions, influences, QAG, Brisbane ; 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra; 1991, Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia; 1991, The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare Taonga o Aoteroa National Art Gallery, New Zealand; 1991, Alice to Penzance, The Mall Galleries, The Mall, London; 1992, Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs; 1992, Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo; 1993, Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga,Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach,Qld; 1993, Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia  (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA; 1993/4, ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark

Bibliography:
Brody, A., 1985, The face of the centre: Papunya Tula paintings 1971-1984, NGV, Melbourne. ; Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C) ; Caruana, W. (ed.), 1989, Windows on the Dreaming, Ellsyd Press, Sydney. (C) ; Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C) ; Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia. ; Cochrane, G., 1992, The Crafts Movement in Australia: a History, New South Wales University Press, Kensington, New South Wales. (C) ; Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria. (C) Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. ; Johnson, V., 1989, 'Running trees,' Tension 17, 52-55. (C) ; Johnson, V., 1988, Among Others: Reply to 'Black Canberra', Art & Text 30, September-November, 1988 ; Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C) ; Kleinert, S., 1988, Black Canberra, Art & Text 29, June-August 1988 ; Langton, M., 1992-93 'The two women looked back over their shoulders & lamented leaving their country: detached comment (recent urban) & symbolic narrative (traditional),' Aboriginal Art in the Public Eye, Art Monthly Australia Supplement, 7-9. (C) ; Nairne, S., 1987, State of the art: ideas and images in the 1980s, Chatto & Windus, London ; 1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln.  (C) ; Schulz, D., 1994, Lines from the Dreamtime, The Australian Way, Qantas in flight magazine, May 1994 ; Smith, B. with Smith T., 1991, Australian Painting 1788-1990, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, ; Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) ; Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. ; West, M., 1984, 'The first national Aboriginal art Award' in, Australian Aboriginal Studies, Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 1984, No. 1. ; Zurbrugg, N., Tim Johnson interviewed, Art and Australia quarterly, Vol 29, No. 1, Spring 1991 ; 1990, Papunya Tula, exhib. cat., Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne. (C) ; 1990, Balance 1990: Views, Visions, Influences, exhib. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. (C) ; 1993, Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), exhib. cat., Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. (C)