Jasper Knight

Over the last years my work has questioned the boundary not only between high art and the amateur or postcard photo, but also between sculpture and painting. My works are constructed of plywood, perspex, cardboard boxes, old signs and found plastic tiles and sheets. The surfaces and materials have their own history, of trade, industrial sites and the local hardware. These histories often bear a direct relation to the content of the work. For example, my series based on ports was constructed, in part, from the detritus of the ports. Spatially, the works are varied: they privilege the surface, but at the same time play upon traditional perspective.

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.

To read my works, the viewer is asked to respond to different rhythms set up in the work. Colour is a major element and is used to link and confuse the various surfaces. The approach to panelling in the surface creates its own connections among the parts of the painting. Sometimes a sign is left unpainted or perhaps a totally abstract panel is tacked on, without any connection to the figurative drawing. The arrangement of the panels is another level on which my paintings seek to balance elements, removed from the realistic content. So to understand the work the viewer should oscillate between the abstract and the figurative, the constructed object and the painterly surface and the use of colour to describe and erase.

Jasper Knight, Sydney, 2005

Born 1978

Lives and Works in Sydney, Australia

Education

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

Solo Exhitions

• 2008 ‘Apache’, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney
• 2008 ‘Skytrain’, BMG Gallery, Adelaide
• 2007 ‘2007’, Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 ‘Plattenbau, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
• 2007 ‘Tidemark/Thames series’, Cosa Gallery, London
• 2007 ‘Dashanzi’, Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney
• 2006 ‘An island in the sun’, Cosa Gallery, London
• 2006 ‘Primary’,Metro 5 Gallery, Armadale, 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
• 2004 ‘Driftwood’, Mop Projects, Redfern, Sydney
• 2004 ‘Autumn’, mk17 window boxes, The McKell Building, Government Architect's Office
• 2003 ‘Inner Sydney’, The Australia Centre, Australian Consulate, Manila, the Philippines

Group Shows - Selected

• 2008 ‘Salon des Refuses’, S. H. Irevin Gallery, Sydney
• 2007 ‘Memento Mori’, Blkmrkt Gallery, Brisbane
• 2007 ‘Underscore’, Josetti Hoffe Gallery, Berlin
• 2007 ‘SQUARED’, Greenhill Galleries, Perth
• 2007 ‘Freedman Foundation show’, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney
• 2006 ‘Art and About’, Customs House forecourt, Sydney
• 2006 ‘No Direction Home’, Pickled Art Centre, Beijing, China
• 2005 ‘2005: the year in art’, Shervin Gallery, Sydney
• 2005 ‘Liquid light love’, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney
• 2005 ‘Placard Project (zanny begg-checkpoint)’, Mori gallery, Sydney
• 2004 ‘One of (Festivus)’, Sherman gallery,Paddington, Sydney
• 2003 ‘Christmas show’, Mop Projects, Redfern, Sydney
• 2002 ‘Slacking Off’, Imperial Slacks Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney

Grants/Prizes

• 2005-7 The Archibald Prize, Finalist
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 2005-6 The Wynne prize, Finalist
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 2006 National Association for Visual Arts (NAVA)
• marketing grant
• 2006 Redlands Westpac Art Prize (emerging), Finalist
• Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
• 2005 Freedman foundation traveling scholarship, Winner
• 2005 The Brett Whitely traveling scholarship, Finalist
• Brett Whitely studio, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• 2005 Art on The Rocks Prize, Rocks Visitors Centre, Sydney, Winner
• 2004-6 ABN Amro Emerging Artist Prize, Aurora Place, Sydney, Finalist
• 2005 The Mosman Art Prize, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Finalist
• 2005 National Association for Visual Arts (NAVA), marketing grant
• 2004 Australia Council for the Arts (OZCO), New Work grant (painting)
• 2003-4 Helen Lempriere Travelling art scholarship, finalist
• The Gunnery, Artspace, Woolloomooloo
• 2003 The Blake Prize for Religious Art, Sir Herman Black Gallery, The University of Sydney, Finalist

Collections

• Sydney Port Authority, The Rocks, Sydney
• NSW state government - Premier's office, Sydney
• Random House Australia, Milson's point, Sydney
• Australian Consulate, Makita, Manila, the Philippines
• Baker and McKenzie, AMP building, Sydney
• Artbank, Sydney