Born in Glenelg to the geologist Cecil Madigan, she decided on a career as a sculptor at the age of 12 and studied in schools in Adelaide and Sydney.

Madigan was in a working partnership with the constructivist sculptor Robert Klippel until the latter's death in 2001 and won the Wynne Prize for a carved sandstone torso in 1986.

[2] She grew up in the Adelaide suburb of Blackwood and became interested in her father's small collection of Aboriginal artefacts and exhibited a preoccupation with the solid world, wanting to observe objects.

[2][3][5] Madigan went to night classes in drawing at the East Sydney Technical College (later the National Art School) and was taught by Liz Blaxland.

Madigan returned to Adelaide in 1944 and did a further three years of evening classes at the South Australian School of Art, while gaining employment at an department store.

[9] Madigan travelled to London to study a diploma in carving at the John Cass College from 1952 to 1953 and acquaint herself with post-war British sculpture.

[2] The Art Gallery of New South Wales hold a collection of Madigan's documents, personal papers, files on group and solo editions, press reviews and works.

[3] Madigan focused mainly on the human torso; according to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, this allowed her to "create sculptures which, at their best, have the sensuousness, subtlety and rigour of the greatest of the Indian carvings she admires.