Michael Nelson Jagamara Estate

Artist Tabs

Selected works

FW13731 Red kangaroo	FW13124 Yirlkirdi storm sequence	FW13524 Big storm between Pikilyi and Mirawarri
FW13723 Lightning men at Pirliryanu	FW12335 Mt. Singleton stories (edition of 99)	FW1 Metal Lightning Strikes Sculptures
FW3994 Big lightning	FW4014 Storm series	FW4680 Honey ant dreaming
FW5832 Meeting place (light and dark)	FW6886 Possum tracks	FW10394 Confused Possum
FW10558 Blue lightning	FW13129 Bush turkey	FW13733 Night ceremony with stone knives near Papunya

Pages

Bio

Born: 1946 Pikilyi (Vaughn Springs) NT
Died: 2020 Alice Springs NT
Languages: Warlpiri & Luritja
Region: Papunya, Western Desert NT

Michael Nelson began painting in the early 1980’s in Papunya, Central Australia, in the classic dot and circle tradition of desert sand painting. Much of his work centres on the country in the Mt Singleton area and tells of traditional Dreaming stories including Yam, Possum, Kangaroo, Emu and Lightning. Michael Nelson was recognised nationally and internationally in the late 1980s through numerous public art commissions and awards including the 1984 inaugural National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (Now the Telstra NATSIAA). During the late 1990s, the artist reinvented his approach to painting with a more expressionistic style. He continued to make the salient point that his stories have never changed, although his choice of colours, materials and appearance of works were continually being reformatted. Michael Nelson’s significant contribution to Aboriginal Art was recognised in 1993 when he received the Order of Australia (AM) medal, and then in 2008 when he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New South Wales. His works are held in numerous private, corporate and many public collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia, Parliament House Art Collection, & QAGOMA. Recently a major collaborative work with Imants Tillers was acquired by the Tate Modern, London.

Read AtoZ Michael Nelson Jagamara presentation here.

Story/Statement

SITE / MEETING PLACE
Concentric circles usually represent a specific site such as waterholes and campsites—locations of physical and/or spiritual significance. The ‘site’ is the starting point for many stories. Ground paintings for ceremonial ‘sites’ are created in the sand, linking people and places with stories and songs.

YAM / YALA
Lines radiating from the centre depict the yam with its web-like vine system. The central section is a design painted on the body of participants during Yala (Yam or Bush Potato) ceremonies. The Yala ancestors travelled underground through huge areas of the Central Desert, which is why Yam stories are found all over Australia.

POSSUM
The ‘E’ shape represents the possum paw print travelling over country. The Possum is often portrayed as a promiscuous person, who roamed far and wide from the site of Mawarriji, taking wives from every camp. Eventually, he was chased away by angry people—the sinuous line shows the mark made in the sand by the dragging tail of the Possum. The Possum love story ceremony is about a Possum Man and Woman who fell in love. Strict laws prevent certain skin groups from intermarriage, so they ran off together to the west. They were chased and punished as a lesson to others.

OLD MAN
Old Man Dreaming is from the site of Kunajarrayi, and is sacred men’s business. The U shape is man sitting on the ground during ceremony with his Nulla Nulla (horizontal line) placed in front of him.

KANGAROO
The central line represents the distinctive track made in the sand by the tail, with the hind legs either side. Traditionally, Kangaroo ancestors angered Warnayarra (The Rainbow Snake) at Mawarriji, a sacred site near Mt Singleton. They tried to punish the Kangaroo Men with a ferocious storm of wind, rain, and lightning. The kangaroo men hid in a cave for several days and waited for the storm to pass.

BUSH TURKEY
MNJ is a custodian of the creation story of the bush turkey, an animal that is celebrated in ceremony as well as being an important traditional food source. His designs allude to footprints in the sand.

STONE KNIFE ARRANGEMENTS
These distinctive designs depict the stone knife that Aboriginal people make from flint and sharp stones found in their locality. These images can also be related to male-initiation ceremonies.

LOLLY TREE
A favorite bush food, this derives from a real fruit tree, the Conkerberry, which MNJ remembers near Mt Singleton where he used to climb as a child. The design has been reinterpreted as a linear sand-painting pattern. Occasionally MNJ layers this pattern over existing designs.

PURPULA
This design represents a small goanna living in the spinifex at the sites of Wapurtali and Waite Creek. MNJ interprets this story with bold, repetitive stripes relating directly to body-painting designs.

RAIN / LIGHTNING
The wavy line represents a rain path accompanied by lightning, being single or multiple strikes.

Since 1996 senior Warlpiri artist Michael Nelson Jagamara (MNJ) b. 1946, has been working alongside other artists, studio assistants and technicians in the Brisbane based studios of FireWorks Gallery. MNJ is continually developing and extending his contemporary art practice. Repeated visits have also allowed MNJ to witness first-hand how his work is received and understood in the city. These visits have also included the artist extending his stories and designs to sculptural formats.

LIGHTNING STRIKES SCULPTURE SERIES
MNJ’s Lightning Strikes sculpture design has been distilled from the Warlpiri Rain and Water Dreaming narrative, which is used prolifically by the artist in his paintings on both the ground and the canvas. From the artist’s 2000 series of ink drawings, his Lightning motif was digitally modified and laser cut for sculptural purposes. Marquettes for potential public art commissions were fabricated using mild steel. The components were arranged individually, assembled in pairs, or stacked in larger sets. Five large (2.4m height) Lightning bolts were created as a suspended installation and exhibited at the IMA Brisbane in 2006 for the Shoosh exhibition.

Early in 2014, MNJ re-formatted his design to create a more angular ‘crooked lightning’ motif. The upward jagged forms represent a big flash of lightning in a storm. Three strikes means a big weather event! The curved section of the sculpture base represents the travelling path of the storm. Lightning Strikes sculptures can be placed on its base in up to seven positions. This creates an opportunity for dynamic arrangements in clusters. A ‘funky format’ constructed from polystyrene, coated with industrial grade polyurethane & 2 pac paints provides lightweight forms in a range of colours and faux metallic finishes. These prototypes were launched at the 2014 Melbourne Art Fair, and were showcased alongside cast bronze and fabricated stainless steel versions in the exhibition Big Storm Between Two Places.

The Lightning Strikes sculpture series is available as a limited edition range in three sizes: small, medium and large. They are suitable for both indoor and outdoor application and are available in two sizes with 2pac applied to polyurethane, or, as bronze and stainless steel commissions.

Five Stories 1984 LIMITED-EDITION PRINTS
In September 2016, a limited-edition reproduction print was produced in Brisbane to commemorate the record auction sale of Jagamara’s seminal work Five Stories. The artist travelled from Papunya NT to Brisbane to sign these prints.

YAM RUG Black & White
Handmade knotted100% New Zealand woollen rugs
Density 90000 knots per sq. metre
Thickness 10mm
Sizes: 285x375cm (large) & 220x300cm (extra large)

Solo exhibitions
2022 Travelling stories: A Tribute to Michael Nelson Jagamara, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 A Shared Space, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2018 The Call from Papunya, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2017 Weather Patterns II, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2015 Lightning Strikes at Merricks Merricks, General Store Art Gallery, Merricks
2014 Big Storm Between Two Places, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2013 Firebrand I: In Focus Laurie Nilsen and Michael Nelson Jagamarra, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2012 Lightning Man, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2010 Summer Storms, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Michael Nelson Jagamara: From the Studio, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Michael Nelson Jagamara: Stone Knife Arrangements, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Lines + Signs, Artstation, Kollmitzberg, Austria
2002 MNJ & Campfire Group, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide City Hall
2002 A Foot in Two Worlds Kuko Dreaming, Kollmitzberg, Austria
2000 Some Other Way: MNJ and Campfire Group, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2000 Michael Nelson Jagamara Paintings, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
1999 Without the Story the Painting Is Nothing, Brisbane City Gallery
1999 New Expressions, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1999 New Work, Desart Gallery, Sydney
1998 MNJ (a preview), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1997 Nine Dreamings from Mt Singleton, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1993 Many Stories, Utopia Art, Sydney
1990 Michael Nelson Jagamara, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne
1989 Michael Nelson Jagamara, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

Group exhibitions
2025 Collecting the Future: 50 years of the Griffith University Art Collection, Griffith University Art Museum
2023 Morbid Curiosities, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2023 North by North-West, QAGOMA, Brisbane
2023 Latest & Greatest II, Caloundra Regional Gallery
2020 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery
2020 Spring, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Stockroom Strays, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Linesmen, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2020 Black & White 2020, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Matches 6: Three clusters, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2019 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize, Tattersall's Club, Brisbane (annually since 2005)
2019 Desert colours: Central Australian Painting, QAGOMA, Brisbane
2018 Small Mercies, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2018 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize, Tattersall's Club, Brisbane
2017 Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney
2017 Meeting Place, Michael Nelson Jagamara & Imants Tillers, Parliament House, Canberra
2017 Weather Patterns II, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2016 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize, Tattersall's Club, Brisbane
2015 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize, Tattersall's Club, Brisbane
2014 Tattersall's Landscape Art Prize, Tattersall's Club, Brisbane
2014 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2014 Asia Contemporary Art Show, Conrad, Hong Kong
2014 Legends: Aboriginal Master Works, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2013 Gold Coast Art Prize, Gold Coast Arts Centre, Gold Coast
2013 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2012 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2012 The Loaded Ground: Paintings by Michael Nelson Jagamara and Imants Tillers, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
2012 Melbourne Art Fair (FireWorks Gallery), Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton, Melbourne
2012 Cairns Indigenous Art Fair
2011 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2011 Blue August, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2011 Eclectica Exhibition Series (I, II & III), FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2010 Melbourne Art Fair (FireWorks Gallery), Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton, Melbourne
2009 Little Gems, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2009 Sculpture + Works on Paper, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2008 Blue, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2008 Anzac Day Artists, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2007 Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Sydney
2007 Crossing Cultures 2: Indigenous Art from Western Sydney and the North Western Desert, Blacktown Art Centre, Sydney
2007 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2007 Archibald Prize (a joint work: ‘Portrait of MNJ’ by David Paulson, ‘Kangaroo’ by MNJ), Art Gallery of New South Wales
2006-7 Gifted an exhibition of Indigenous Art at the AGNSW, Sydney
2006 Imants Tillers: One World Many Visions (collaborations with Imants Tillers), National Gallery of Australia
2006 Homage to the Square, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Two-way: Artists & Mentors, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Three Large Rooms, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2006 Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2005 SHOOSH: The History of the Campfire Group, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2005 The Dark & The Light IV, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2005 Smoke, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane; Despard Gallery, Hobart
2004 Spirit & Vision, Sammlung Essl, Austria
2004 Lines IV, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2004 Cultural Copy: Visual Conversations on Indigenous Art and Cultural Appropriation, Fowler Museum, UCLA, California, USA
2003 BIG ART small viewer: a collaborative community project, Campus Kindy, University of Queensland, Brisbane
2003 A Few Good Men, fortyfive downstairs, Melbourne
2003 Colour, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
2003 See Here Now: Vizard Foundation Art Collection of the 1990s, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
2003 What have you done lately (to change the situation)?, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2003 Black & White (collaborations with Michael Eather), Artstation, Kollmitzberg, Austria
2002 Not yet post-Aboriginal (collaborations with Imants Tillers), Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery
2002 Big Country Small Worlds, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2002 Discomfort – relationships in contemporary Aboriginal Art, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2002 Lines II, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2002 The White Desert II (collaborations with Michael Eather), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2002 Summer Exhibition, Gallery Savah, Sydney
2001 Dreamtime: The Dark and The Light, Sammlung Essl, Austria
2001 A Few Good Men, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2001 A Few of My Favorite Things, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
2001 The White Desert (collaborations with Michael Eather), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
2000 Landmarks, Dar Festival of Indigenous Art and Culture, Powerhouse, Brisbane
2000 Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
2000 Art of Place, National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Old Parliament House, Canberra
2000 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
2000 17th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museums and Galleries of the Northern Territory
1999 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Twenty-Five Years and Beyond: Papunya Tula Painting, Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
1999 Recent Dilemmas (collaborations with Michael Eather), Bellas Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Central Queensland Art Purchase Exhibition, Rockhampton Art Gallery
1998 Art of Place 4th National Indigenous Heritage Art Award, Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra
1998 Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
1998 Powerful Medicine, King George Square & FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1997 A Classic Collection of Aboriginal Desert Paintings, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane
1996 Dreamings of the Desert: Aboriginal Dot Painting of the Western Desert, Art Gallery of South Australia
1996 Salt Water Fresh Water Bore Water, FireWorks Gallery touring exhibition, Regional Galleries Association of Queensland
1996 All Stock Must Go! (with Campfire Group), Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery
1993-4 ARATJARA: Art of the First Australians touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Dusseldorf, Hayward Gallery London, Louisiana Museum Humlebæk Denmark
1993 Aboriginal Art Exhibition, Kung Gubunga Oasis Gallery, Broadbeach Queensland
1993 Tjukurrpa Desert Dreamings: Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971–1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
1992 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1992 Crossroads – Towards a New Reality: Aboriginal Art from Australia, The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra
1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1991 The Painted Dream: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from the Tim and Vivien Johnson Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery and Te Whare o Aotearoa National Art Gallery, New Zealand
1991 Alice to Penzance, The Mall Galleries, London
1990 Balance 1990: Views Visions Influences, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1990 National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome
1989 Papunya Tula: Contemporary Paintings from Australia’s Western Desert, John Weber Gallery, New York
1989 Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1989 Windows on the Dreaming, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1989 Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City
1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery Melbourne and Design Warehouse Sydney (through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art)
1988 Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York
1987 State of the Art: Ideas and Images of the 1980s, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
1987 4th National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1986 Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1986 Roar Studios, Melbourne
1985 The Face of the Centre: Papunya Tula Paintings 1971–1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1984 Papunya and Beyond, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs
1984 1st National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1982-3 Papunya Tula Gallery, Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne

Commissions
2016 Telstra NATSIAA 30th Commemorative Installation, Martin Place, Sydney
1989 BMW Art Car Project, Painted BMW M3 Racing Car
1988 Possum & Wallaby Dreaming Forecourt Mosaic, New Parliament House, Canberra
1987 Possum Dreaming Bicentennial Mural, Sydney Opera House

Awards
2008 Honorary Doctorate, University of New South Wales, Sydney
2007 Redlands Westpac Art Prize, Sydney
2006 Winner, Tattersall’s Club Landscape Art Prize, Brisbane
2002 Winner, Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery
1993 Fellowship Visual Arts/Craft Board of the Australia Council, Sydney
1993 Australian Medal for Services to Aboriginal Art
1984 Winner, 1st National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin

Collections
Australian Museum, Sydney
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
Griffith Artworks, Brisbane
Artbank, Sydney
Opera House, Sydney
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide
Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland
Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland
Broken Hill Art Gallery, New South Wales
Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs
Paul Eliadis Collection, Brisbane
The Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
Vizard Collection, Melbourne
Sammlung Essl, Austria
Centre Culturel Tjibaou, New Caledonia
Ho-am Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
BMW Art Car Project, United States
The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, United States
Numerous private collections Australia & overseas