Marcus Wheeler

Language: Western Arrarnta
Date of birth: 1947-10-16
Artworks

Laying the pipes

Entrance to Palm Valley

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), NT

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), NT

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), NT

Back of Areyonga, Kings Canyon Way

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), NT

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges) , NT

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges) , NT

Tjoritja (West MacDonnell Ranges), NT

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