Biography:
Doreen Chapman was born at Jigalong Mission in the early 1970s, though she soon moved with her family to the newly Aboriginal-owned Strelley Station. In her youth, Doreen travelled extensively between remote Pilbara communities including Warralong, Punmu, and Marble Bar with her mother, senior Martumili Artist May Wokka Chapman. Today she primarily lives in Warralong community and paints between Spinifex Hill Studio and Martumili Artists.
Doreen is now an acclaimed artist in her own right, known for her loose, expressive painting style and distinct visual voice. A deaf woman, Doreen uses painting as a vital means of communication and self-expression. She began her artistic career with Martumili Artists in 2009, when she and other women from Punmu created a large collaborative painting to raise funds for the community.
Since then, her work has received widespread recognition. Doreen has been a finalist in major national art prizes, including the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (2024) and the Lester Prize (2016, 2019), and has won numerous regional awards such as the Cossack Art Award for Best Painting by an Indigenous Artist (2015, 2016, 2021). In 2024, she was the only artist invited to exhibit across all six venues of the 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns. She has presented three solo exhibitions: Doreen Chapman – A New Perspective (2019, Turner Galleries, WA), Always on the Move (2020, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, QLD), and Doreen Chapman (2016, FORM Gallery, WA).
