
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, SydneyExhibitions
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