Queenie Nakarra McKenzie Australia (Aboriginal), 1930-98

Queenie Nakarra McKenzie was an Aboriginal artist from the Warmun community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She was born in the early 1930s and passed away in 2019. McKenzie began painting in the late 1990s when the Warmun Art Centre was established. She quickly gained recognition for her unique style and use of vibrant colors. Her paintings often depicted the landscape, stories from her Gija culture, and her personal experiences. One of McKenzie's most famous works is a large canvas titled "Girloorloo Country", which was created with natural ochre and pigments on canvas. The painting depicts her ancestral land and the story of the girloorloo, a type of bush onion. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and has been featured in several exhibitions. McKenzie's art has been exhibited widely in Australia and overseas, including in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work has been praised for its vivid colors, strong sense of design, and the way it captures the essence of Gija culture. She is remembered as one of the most influential artists to come out of the Kimberley region.

We have records of art auction sales by Queenie Nakarra McKenzie from 1996 and in total 320 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 200 (63%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $102,000 for Power Places - Texas Downs Country 1996 sold by Lawson~Menzies (now trading as Menzies) in November 2007. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2023. Works by Queenie Nakarra McKenzie are held by the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and a further five major public national galleries (see list below).