Doreen Chapman
AUSTRALIAN, MARTU. c 1971
Doreen Chapman (b.1971) is an emerging Manjilyjarra artist who works both with SHA and Martumili Artists. Profoundly deaf since birth, Chapman is a non-verbal artist who has earned independence and a new status within her communities since her paintings started appealing to both critical and commercial audiences in 2014. In this time she has won five major awards in Western Australia and travelled to Perth for her debut solo exhibition in late 2016. Chapman is an ambidextrous painter who mainly uses round brushes, fingers and thumbs to complete large artworks at speed. Her subject matter mainly focuses on flora and fauna, abstract patterning, and the imitation of other artist’s styles she sees in the studios, in books or online. Most notable of these ‘imitation’ works was an experimental series inspired by iconic paintings from the Western tradition including da Vinci, Kahlo, Klimt and van Gogh.