Where to See Doreen Reid Nakamarra

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.

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.

Doreen Reid Nakamarra, born in 1971^[1], is a Manyjilyjarra artist from Western Australia. She began her professional artistic career in 2009^[1] with Martumili Artists and later joined Spinifex Hill Studio in Port Hedland. Nakamarra is profoundly deaf and non-verbal, and painting became her primary means of communication and storytelling. Her works are important because they offer insight into the experiences and perspectives of an Aboriginal woman living with disability. Her art has been included in several group exhibitions per year, as well as solo exhibitions since 2015. She has received a number of awards, including the Cossack Art Prize in three consecutive years (2015-2017^[1]), prizes at the Hedland Art Awards two years in a row (2016, 2017), and Highly Commended in the Perth Royal Art Prize in 2019. Her work is characterised by a loose, playful figurative style and a generous use of pastel colour.

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.

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.

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).

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).

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.