Jasper Knight

Jasper Knight

  • Artist’s Statement

    Australian painter Jasper Knight has been a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. Using bright, flat colour-blocking with characteristic paint-drips to depict his subjects, Knights recognizable contemporary style is cool, bold and gives a nod to the pop art masters of the past.

  • Biography

    BORN 1978 Sydney, Australia

    STUDIES
    2002-2003 Master of Arts (majoring in painting + drawing) The College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney
    1997-1999 Bachelor of Visual Arts – electronic + temporal arts, Sydney College of the Arts,University of Sydney

    BACKGROUND
    Jasper’s work has blurred the boundaries between high art and amateur photography, between sculpture and painting. His works are often an assemblage of plywood, perspex, cardboard boxes, and old signs and are remanent of the found objects used in the Dada, Surrealist, Fluxus and Pop Art movements. However, Jasper has combined the industrial materials of his painting surface with traditional art methods, which provides a certain amount of texture and sculptural form while still playing an important direct link to the actual subject matter.

    “My work has always straddled painting and the constructed object. In the past, my materials have added to the narrative content, or sometimes to the context, of the depicted scenes. My recent work has explored this relationship between material and subject, between constructed object and painted surface, in a more abstract way. The subject matter, from wharves to cars, from chairs to landscape, helps explore these binary concerns and is treated in a highly architectural and linear way.”

    His focus is often the busy waterway, machinery at work or the remnants of an old factory; painted in blocks of colour that drip and spill over his brightly coloured and shiny surfaces to give the illusion of movement within the landscape.

    Jasper has held successful exhibitions throughout Australia and in London, Berlin and Beijing. He has been a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Mosman Art prizes and is represented in corporate and private collections throughout Australia.

    With a string of sell-out shows under his belt, and not yet 40 years of age, Knight is definitely one young Australian artist to watch.

  • Influences

    Roy Lichtesten, Pop Art

  • Awards

    PRIZES & AWARDS
    2013 The Archibald Prize and Sulman Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney

    2012 Wynne Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney
    Doug Moran National Portrait Prize Finalist.

    2011 Wynne Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney

    2010 The Archibald Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney

    2009 The Blake Prize for Religious Art, Finalist National Art School Gallery, Sydney
    Australian Council for the Arts (ozco) established artist grant (painting)
    The Archibald Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney

    2008 The Mosman Art Prize, winner Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney

    2007 The Archibald Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney

    2006 The Archibald Prize and Wynne Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney
    National Association for Visual Arts (nava) marketing grant
    Abn-amro emerging artist prize, Finalist Aurora Place, Sydney

    2005 Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship Winner
    The Archibald Prize and Wynne Prize Finalist AGNSW Sydney
    Abn-amro emerging artist prize, Finalist Aurora Place, Sydney
    The Mosman Art Prize, Finalist Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
    National Association for Visual Arts (nava) marketing grant

    2004 Australian Council for the Arts (ozco) established artist grant (painting)
    Abn-amro emerging artist prize, Finalist Aurora Place, Sydney
    Helen Lempriere travelling art scholarship Finalist

    2003 Helen Lempriere travelling art scholarship Finalist
    Artspace, Sydney
    The Blake prize for Religious Art, finalist
    Sir Herman Black Gallery, Sydney

  • Exhibitions

    SOLO EXHIBITIONS
    2013 Sydney Contemporary Booth D142, Australian Galleries, Sydney
    ‘One piece at a time’, Autodromo di Modena, Italy

    2012 ‘Know your Enemy’, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter, NSW
    ‘Total Recall’, Australian Galleries, Roylston Street, Sydney
    ‘Survey show 2003-2012’, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn, NSW

    2011 ‘Recent Work’, Australian High Commission, Singapore
    ‘North by Northwest’, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
    ‘Roll-on Roll-off’, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
    ‘Metal on Metal’, Gallery Ecosse, Exeter, NSW
    ‘Sydney Boat Show’, Chalk Horse, Sydney
    ‘The Fast and the Furious’, Muk Muk Fine Art, Alice Springs, NT

    2010 ‘There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow’, Chalk Horse, Sydney
    ‘Lost Highway’, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
    ‘Road Trip’, BMG Art, Adelaide

    2009 It takes a thief to catch a thief, Metro Gallery, Melbourne
    Hunters & Gatherers, The Hospital Club / Cosa Gallery, London
    Spring Rockers, Chalk Horse, Sydney; Apache, Newcastle Region Gallery

    2008 1970’s Disasters, Greenhill Galleries Perth, Skytrain, BMG Gallery Adelaide

    2007 2007, Metro 5 Gallery Melbourne Tidemark / Thames Seres Cosa Gallery London,
    Plattenbau, Greenhill Galleries Perth
    Dashanzi, Chalk Horse Sydney

    2006 An island in the sun, Cosa Gallery London
    Primary, Metro 5 Gallery Melbourne

    2005 One to One, Phatspace Surry Hills, Sydney

    2004 There were three in the bed and the little one said…, Artbox at Sherman Galleries Paddington, Sydney
    Driftwood Mop projects, Redfern, Sydney
    Autumn MK17 Window boxes, The McKell Building, Government Architect’s Office

Showing all 7 artworks

Jasper Knight

'Santa Monica Study II', 2013
120 x 120 cm Enamel & gloss acrylic on perspex & pegboard

Jasper Knight

St.Kilda Sea Baths - 1931, 2017
137 x 152 cm Enamel, gloss acrylic and gesso on linen

Jasper Knight

Coogee 1907 , 2014, 2014
152 x 137 cm Acrylic and enamel on canvas

Jasper Knight

Hornby, 2021
75 x 56 cm Silkscreen on stonehenge paper

Jasper Knight

Cape Byron, 2021
75 x 56 cm Silkscreen on stonehenge

Jasper Knight

Bradley's Head, 2021
75 x 56 cm Silkscreen on stonehenge paper

Jasper Knight

Hornby Lighthouse, 2010
102 x 75 cm enamel on aluminium