Marcus is a senior law man and a pastor in Ntaria/Hermannsburg. He is married to Betty Wheeler (Albert Namatjira’s granddaughter) and lives with his extended family on an outstation near Ntaria/Hermannsburg. Marcus paints the country of his home environment including Uruna Tjina (James Range) and Lirahpintja (Finke River). Marcus represented Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre at the 2017 Tarnanthi festival in Adelaide, where he launched the event in the Western Aranda language and exhibited four paintings of sites in Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges). Marcus’s work is held in collections in the Art Gallery of South Australia and the National Museum of Australia.

I first started to paint when I married my wife, Betty Wheeler Namatjira, granddaughter of Albert Namatjira. I would sit with her and her uncles, Osar, Enos, Ewald, Keith and Morris and watch them paint. I then started to try and do it myself. I really enjoyed it so I kept going. Betty and I started to paint together and help one another and it’s something we still both enjoy doing together. We often sit down with our grandchildren and show them how to paint and hope that they will keep painting to carry on the Hermannsburg School tradition. – Marcus Wheeler

Group exhibitions

• 2023
  Belonging / Tjoritjarinja, Ngununggula Regional Gallery Southern Highlands, Bowral NSW
• 2022
  Kuprilya Kwatja Etatha, Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Arts, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
• 2022
  Clay on Country, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
• 2022
  One Too Many, Cross Arts Projects
• 2020
  Namatjira descendants revisiting Hahndorf, Hahndorf Academy, SA
• 2019
  Tjina Nurna-ka, Pmarra Nurn-kanha, Itla Itla Nurn-kanha (Our family, our country, our legacy), Art Gallery of SA (AGSA), Adelaide SA
• 2019
  Pmarra Nurna-Kananhala untha-lapp-urma (Walking through country), Hazelhurst Art centre, Sydney, NSW.
• 2017
  ArtGeo Complex Exhibition, Busselton, WA
• 2017
  What if this photograph is by Albert Namatjira?, Art Gallery of SA, Adelaide SA
• 2017
  Tjuritja Nana Mara to Paris (From the good Tjuritja to Paris), IDAIA , Paris , France
• 2016
  Abducted! Alcaston Gallery,, Melbourne, VIC2017 ArtGeo Complex Exhibition, Busselton, WA
• 2015
  Hermannsburg Horizons, Wooloongabba Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
• 2014
  Namatjira to Now, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT

Collections

• 2017 Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, QLD
• 2018 Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), Adelaide, SA
• 2016 National Museum Australia (NMA), Canberra, ACT
• 2022 Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT