Details of Jimmy (Mawukura) Nerrimah
About
Mawukura is a Walmajarri man. His country is around Wayampajarti, a waterhole in the north western area of the Great Sandy Desert. He was born near a waterhole called Wili, at a swamp called Miyitinynanguwu. He calls the names of places such as Tapu, Kurrjalpartu, Kayalijarti, Kurraly Kurraly, Walypa, Wayampajarti, Kumpujarti and Witikarrijarti as the main waterholes in his country. He grew up in the desert moving around these waterholes.
Mawukura was nearly a man when his father brought him to the station country to escape a very large fire that was burning in his country around Tapu. He went through law at Lumpu Lumpu and then went back to the desert with his father in law where he lived for around five more years. The police came around there once he says but they did not pick him up, they gave him food. The police continued on but they were frightened by kalpurtu so they kept gong, straight back to town. The same police picked up Huey Bent and took him to Cherrabun Station not long after.
Mawukura eventually left the bush possibly in the early sixties. After coming in from the desert, Jimmy spent most of his time working on Nerrimah Station.
Solo Exhibitions
2004 45 Downstairs Gallery, Melbourne, Vic
2003 Artplace, Perth, WA
2001 Artplace, Perth, WA
2000 Short on Size, Short St Gallery, Broome, WA
1999 Artplace, Perth, WA
1994 Artplace, Perth, WA
1994 Reflections of the Kimberley Gallery, Derby, WA
1993 Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne, Vic
Group Exhibitions
2001 Ngurrara Canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
2001 Framed Gallery, Darwin, NT
2001 Cooee Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1999 16th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Darwin, NT
1999 Aboriginal Kunst aus West Australien, Galerie Gaswerk, Germany
1999 Jimmy Nerrimah & Peter Skipper, Cooee Gallery, Sydney, NSW
1994 ACAF-4, Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne, Vic
1994 Eight Western Australian Artists, The Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Bibliography
2000 Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art, Oxford University Press & ANU
2000 Kaltja Now, Indigenous Arts Australia, Wakefield Press and Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute
1998 Jila Painted Waters of the Great Sandy Desert, Video Documentary SBS Television
1995 Late Starter Tells Desert Story in Bright Acrylics, Anna King Murdoch, The Age 3/12
1994 Playful Air to Dottiness of Bushcapes, Rod O'Brien, The West Australian, 19/5
Collections
Levy Kaplan Collection, Seattle USA
Thomas Vroom Collection, Amsterdam
National Gallery of Australia
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Gabrielle Pizzi
Ian & Sue Berndt Collections
Wesfarmers Ltd
