MICHAEL NELSON JAGAMARA
Born: 1946 Pikilyi (Vaughn Springs) NT
Language: Warlpiri & Luritja
Region: Papunya Western Desert NT
EXHIBITIONS—SOLO
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
EXHIBITIONS—GROUP
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