Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra

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Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra

Born: 1959
Region: Walungurru (Kintore), Northern Territory
Language: Pintupi, Luritja, Warlpiri

Biography

Born at Walungurru in 1959, Elizabeth Nakamarra Marks is the daughter of Frank Tjupurrula and Mary Napanangka. After her father's death during her infancy, she was raised by her stepfather Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula and uncle Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, both renowned artists of the Papunya Tula art movement. She later married Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, a key artist of the same movement, with whom she had three children: Angelina, Peter, and Farren.

Elizabeth studied for three years at Bachelor College in Alice Springs and served as a council member in Kintore for two years, diligently assisting her community. In 1998, after her husband's death, Elizabeth began painting in her own right, drawing on her father's stories from the area of Kalipinya, approximately 400 km west of Alice Springs and north of Sandy Blight Junction.

Her artwork focuses on the Dream Time, depicting a time before man walked the earth when a huge storm caused lightning to flash and water torrents to form the landscape, creating rock holes and creeks. Known for her Escher-like paintings, she uses a single color with a contrasting lighter hue on a black background, creating intricate line-tunnels with dragged dots drawn at ninety degrees to each other.

Themes

Water Dreaming: Depicting the creation of the landscape through storms, lightning, and flash flooding.
Minya Tjjukurrpa: Women's Law Paintings in relation to ceremony and Ancestral women
Kalipinya: Stories from her father's country, including rock holes, soaks, and creeks.

Exhibitions

2007: Group Exhibition, Gallery Grand Opening, Beijing, P.R. China (June)
2007: Group Exhibition, China World Exhibition Centre, Beijing, P.R. China (July)
2007: Group Exhibition, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Beijing, P.R. China (August)
2007: Group Exhibition, International Art Expo, Beijing, P.R. China (November)
2007: Elizabeth Marks Nakamarra: New Beginnings , Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2004: Gallery Pizzi, Melbourne
2003: Glen Eira City Gallery, Melbourne
2002-03: Chapel of Chapel Gallery, Melbourne
2001-02: Victorian Artists Society Galleries, Melbourne