Artist

Shirley Macnamara
Shirley Macnamara was born in northwest Queensland and spent most of her early childhood on vast pastoral properties on the Barkly Tablelands in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Known as ‘Spinifex Country’, Macnamara maintains close ties to the region, including her mother’s traditional Country at Camooweal, Indjalandji Dhidhanu and her late father’s Country at Lake Nash, Alyawarr.
At the age of fifteen, Macnamara met her future husband, Nat, and for the next twenty-five years, the couple ran cattle on a modest block near Mt Isa. In 1992 they acquired Mount Guide, a 45,000-hectare cattle station south of Mount Isa, a property that Macnamara continues to co-manage and operate today.
As an artist, Macnamara draws inspiration from her beloved bush Country, favouring natural materials such as spinifex, a native grass that grows in abundance throughout remote Australia, which she weaves to create objects and sculptures that reflect her environment and their association with the climate, earth, and life; past and present. Macnamara uses natural materials that embody strength and utility; spinifex signifying the resilience of her people, as well as shaping her local landscape.
In 2012, Macnamara was invited to display her major Spinifex sculpture Wingreeguu in the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, where the work was subsequently acquired by the institution. Macnamara joined the stable of artists at Alcaston Gallery in Melbourne in 2012 and the following year, the gallery presented Macnamara’s first solo exhibition Grounded.
In the decade that followed her debut, Macnamara became a multiple-award finalist and regular institutional exhibitor. Most notably, Macnamara was announced as the winner of the prestigious Wandjuk Marika Memorial Three-Dimensional Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2017, and in 2019 the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane held a major solo retrospective entitled Shirley Macnamara - Dyinala Nganinya with a comprehensive publication to accompany the exhibition.
In 2022 Macnamara was a finalist in the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair’s inaugural Big Sculpture Showcase project where she presented the largest sculpture of her career, Through the Gidgea and Gum Trees Over Spinifex Ridges and Black Soil Plains. The major sculpture was selected as a feature work of CIAF’s Big Sculpture Showcase touring exhibition, which opened at the Brisbane Powerhouse for the Brisbane Festival in 2024, and will be on exhibit at the Logan City Art Gallery, Queensland and the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery, Queensland in 2025.
Macnamara’s work is found in several major collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, the UQ Art Museum, Brisbane, the Australian War Memorial art collection, and the Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, Queensland.
© The Artist & Alcaston Gallery
For an extended CV, please contact Alcaston Gallery at art@alcastongallery.com.au
