Michael Nelson Jagamara exhibition shows totemic focus

Aboriginal Art Directory | 19.08.08

Author: Suzanna Clarke
News source: Courier Mail

The Courier Mail continues their focus on Aboriginal art with an article about Micharl Nelson Jagamara:

The work of senior Warlpiri tribesman and artist Michael Nelson Jagamara divides art lovers. There are those who adore his bold, modern take on an ancient artform, and others who feel that "real" indigenous art should remain traditional.

However, Jagamara has refused to be bound by convention, moving easily from dot painting – a characteristic of the Papunya area where he lives – to the thick brush-strokes that have become his signature style.

This transition is reflected in the survey exhibition now at Brisbane's Fireworks Gallery – Michael Nelson Jagamara: from the studio.

"I started painting in the late 1970s, when I was 35 or 36," Jagamara says when we meet in the gallery.

Born about 1946 at Pikily, west of Yuendemu, in central Australia, he was brought up at Haasts Bluff before his parents decided Jagamara needed a European education, and took him to the mission school at Yuendemu.

URL: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24180262-5003423,00.html

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Contact Details

Gallery: Fire-Works Gallery
Contact: Michael Eather
Email: info@fireworksgallery.com.au
Telephone: +61 7 3216 1250
Address: 52a Doggett Street Newstead Brisbane 4006 QLD