Christian Capurro
An artist, photographer and filmmaker using digital and analogue tools, media and processes in pursuit of very particular images, image systems, and the 'imaginaires' of our day whose touch and sustained pressure is daily felt. The work, often photo-graphist in approach, betrays a fascination with bodies, reproduction, (mis)translation, and erasure.
The multi-channel video installations SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and a man held, Centre for Contemporary Photography, are representative of the recent experimental mobile-phone film and installation making. Selected notable presentations in other media have taken place at MASS MoCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, STUK Kunstencentrum, Artspace, West Space, the Institute of Modern Art, and, with the multi-faceted Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette project, the Venice Biennale of International Art.
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Milani Gallery (agent)
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Presentations
2016
ICEdust, Milani Gallery, Brisbane (solo)
2015
Propositions: Part 3, Milani Gallery (off-site), Brisbane
9/11, Moana Project Space, Perth
Writing Art, Artspace, Sydney
'_____', VCA | Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
a man held, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (solo)
do it (Adelaide), Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide
2014/15
Taking It All Away: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Special Guest: Parabol Art Magazine, Kunstverein in Hamburg
2014
SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (solo) [cat.]
Amateur Prop films, Milani Gallery, Brisbane (solo)
2013
Bootleg, Breenspace, Sydney (solo)
Unbound, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney [cat.]
'IS', Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna (solo)
2012/13
Cut with the kitchen knife, Melbourne, Wodonga, Morwell, Dubbo, Swan Hil & Maryborough. A NETS Victoria touring exhibition [cat.]
2012
Respiro Bianco shat o Quadrado Azul, Oporto 24.11.2012 (act.)
Negotiating this world: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
knell dobre glas, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Oporto [cat.]
2011
Christian Capurro | Agatha Gothe-Snape | Debra Phillips, Breenspace, Sydney
Mouthpiece, Milani Gallery, Brisbane (solo)
Erased (Contemporary Australian Drawing), NAS Gallery, Sydney
2010/11
During Office Hours, Verband Geschlossene Fonds e.V., Berlin
2010
a vacant bazaar (provisional legend), Artspace, Sydney (solo)
It happened that, ST Paul St. Gallery, AUT, Auckland [cat.]
Print Resolution, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Art Fair Project Room
Still Vast Reserves: Two, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne [cat.]
The Waste of Breath, Light Projects, Melbourne (solo)
InVisible: Art at the Edge of Perception, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams
2009/10
Mary Kelly | Christian Capurro | Klaus Mosettig, Simon Preston Gallery, New York
Mirror Mirror: Then & Now, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane/Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney University/Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide
Erased (Contemporary Australian Drawing), Singapore, Bangkok, Chiang Mai & Khon Kaen [cat.]
2009
Zweckgemeinschaft, MICAMOCA, Berlin
Leave No Trace: Ridges, Troughs & Phantom Limbs, International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York
Still Vast Reserves, Magazzino d'Arte Moderna, Rome [cat.]
Plus/Minus, Switchback Gallery, Churchill/Faculty Gallery, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, Melbourne
More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid, Feinkost, Berlin
Behind the Image | The Image Behind, STUK, Leuven [cat.]
Lo Sguardo di Giano, The American Academy, Rome [cat.]
Second Hand, Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna
2007/8
Monash University Collection: A selection of recent acquisitions, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne [cat.]
2007
Think with the Senses—Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, Venice Biennale 52. International Art Exhibition, [cat.]
NEW07, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne [cat.]
2006/7
Before the Body—Matter, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne [cat.]
2005
The body. The ruin, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, Melbourne [cat.]
A Short Ride in a Fast Machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985-2005, G.C.A.S., Melbourne [cat.]
2004/5
Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette, multiple presentations & venues, Melbourne (solo + collaborators)
2004
Insufferable Nebulae & other couplings, Studio 12 Project Space, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (solo)
Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne [cat.]
Performance Anxiety, Ocular Lab, Melbourne
2003
Gorgonia, Studio 12 Project Space, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (solo)
PrintROOM, CLUBS project Inc., Melbourne
2002
Capurro | Ellis | Hutchison | Parsons, 1ST. Floor, Melbourne
2000
White Breath, West Space Inc., Melbourne (solo)
1999
Trying to keep more than one thing in your head at any given time (Viva Timor Leste 30.08.99), West Space Inc, Melbourne (solo)
After the deluge, corrections, Temple Studio, Melbourne (solo)
Roadside Goods, cityartpublicspace venues, Melbourne (solo)
Raw Hin: Christian Capurro, Choi Sung Youn & Soyoug Kang, Gallery Kobo Chika, Tokyo
1998
Engorge, Stripp, Melbourne (solo)
1997
Cicatrix, Gallery 106 Lt. Lonsdale St., Melbourne (solo)
Garnish (a suite of graftings), Linden, Melbourne (solo)
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Contributions
Christian Capurro: SLAVE Interview, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 2014
Pagework (#10) #12, (B.164) B.166, Christchurch Art Gallery | Te Puna o Waiwhetu, (March-May) December 2011-February 2012 (ill.)
Depiction (Cripps / ACCA), AGMA Magazine #4, Spring 2011 (ill.)
The Value, Parabol AM #4, May 2009 (ill.)
Coda, Motiv #14 Slutet / The End, December 2008 (ill.)
Christian Capurro interview, Incontri / Encounters: 52. Esposizione Internationale d'Arte, ASAC La Biennale di Venezia / I.U.A.V., Venice 2007
Highlights from the Venice Biennale, ABC TV Sunday Arts, 22.07.2007
111 [Risposte]. 3 [Domande] x 37 [Artisti], Exibart.biennale anno sesto #40, giugno-luglio 2007 (ill.)
Christian Capurro interviewed by Julie Copeland, 'Exhbit A' ABC Radio National, 01.04.07
NEW07 Interviewed, Broadsheet: Contemporary Visual Arts & Culture vol. 36 #1, February 2007
Christian Capurro: NEW07 'Compress' works, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art Soundfiles, February 2007
On Originality, Natural Selection Issue 5, 2006
Dear un Responsive, un Magazine Issue 4, Winter 2005
C. Capurro & P. Tyndall (a.k.a. fpm) ---- Day of Protests @ NGV, Haiku Review #6, 2004
M. Bullock, C. Capurro & T. Nicholson ---- After Images, Meanjin vol.62 #2, 2003 (ill.)
Interview (1998), The John McBride Collection archive catalogues, National Library of Australia, Canberra.
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Public Collections
UQ Art Museum, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales | John Kaldor Family Collection, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, National Gallery of Australia, Monash University Museum of Art & University of Western Sydney.
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Commentaries
D. Rainforth -- '_____', art guide Australia, 05.08.2015
S. Koop -- Christian Capurro, SPLAT! (ill.)
R. Cook -- Christian Capurro: 'Through a Glass Darkly' or 'Thought Uses a Handheld Camera', a man held, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 2015 (ill.)
R. Nelson -- 'a man held': Christian Capurro's mobile phone images at Centre for Contemporary Photography, The Age, 23.03.15 (ill.)
F. Stocchi -- At Hand, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2014 (ill.)
S. Rees -- Christian Capurro - Sculpting in Light, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2014 (ill.)
R. Nelson -- Christian Capurro: A slave to the screen?, The Age, 16.09.14 (ill.)
K. Wilson -- Christian Capurro: SLAVE, the subMachine, 30.08.14 (ill.)
D. Rule -- Christian Capurro: SLAVE, The Age, 29.08.14 (ill.)
D. Ford -- 'Amateur Prop Films' by Christian Capurro, Four Thousand, March 2014
N. Bullock -- A speculative exhibition: Aspects of recent photographic practice, Photofile Vol 93, Spring-Summer 2013-14 (ill.)
M. Backhouse -- Christian Capurro: between image & body, art guide Australia July/August 2013 (ill.)
A. Groom -- There's Nothing to See Here: Erasing the Monochrome, e-flux journal #37, 09/2012 (ill.)
J. Marmeleira -- Suspensoes entre o poetico e a politica, Publico, 04.05.12
A. Treacy -- Dealing with non-traditional materials: a collaborative approach (case study), 7th AICCM Book, Paper & Photographic Materials Symposium, 2012 (ill.)
E. Jones -- Room for further excavation, Cut with the kitchen knife, NETS, Melbourne 2012 (ill.)
A. Roelants -- The Spectacle of Destruction: Christian Capurro, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Debra Phillips, Art Monthly Australia, April 2012 (ill.)
N. Bullock -- In the wake of the image: Christian Capurro's a vacant bazaar, Column #8, Artspace, Sydney 2011 (ill.)
M. Robinson -- Christian Capurro & The Future Now, The Kaldor Family Collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2011 (ill.)
M. Gagen -- Christian Capurro: a vacant bazaar (provisional legend), Eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts #73, 2011 (ill.)
J. McDonald -- Erased / The Primacy of Drawing, The Sydney Morning Herald, 05.03.11
R. Sireekan -- Negative creative: palimpsest as ghost, Bangkok Post, 24.06.10 (ill.)
A. Stephen -- Jumping through the Mirror, Mirror Mirror: Then & Now, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2010 (ill.)
S. Smee -- For art lovers, Western Mass. awaits, The Boston Globe, 07.03.10
K. Johnson -- The Lower East Side, Home to the Young & Emerging, 04.12.09, & Correction, 22.12.09, The New York Times
S. Reber -- Monster im Heizungsraum, Der Tagesspiegel, 26.09.09
J. Paton -- Backwards, slowly, blindly: Christian Capurro's 'compressions', Erased (Contemporary Australian drawing), AGNSW, Sydney 2009 (ill.)
C. Lally & V. Gfader -- Condensation Revisited: A Lecture on Pigments: 3, Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Electronic Art, Singapore 2008
A. van Leeuwen -- Walter B. en Christian C., Mister Motley, #17, 2008 (ill.)
G. Chabert & R. Parcollet -- Think with the Senses/Feel with the Mind, art 21, numero 14, octobre/novembre 2007 (ill.)
E. Meoli -- Recchese d'Australia in Biennale a Venezia, Il Secolo XIX, 13.11.07 (ill.)
S. Smee -- Venice Biennale, Artist Profile, Spring 2007
E. Lauria -- La Carica degli Art Vandals, Exibart.grandtour, anno sesto #42, agosto-settembre 2007 (ill.)
L. Harris -- Christian Capurro, Think with the Senses - Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense, 52. International Art Exhibition - Venice Biennale of Art, Marsilio, Venice 2007 (ill.)
E. Brown -- Between Rapture & Refusal, NEW07, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2007 (ill.)
S. Smee -- Come feel the disdain, The Australian, 22.03.07
M. Backhouse -- When what's left is more, The Age, 14.03.07 (ill.)
K. McFarlane & G. Barlow -- Before the Body - Matter, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne 2006 (ill.)
K. Murray -- Beyond Fortress Ceramica: A Knight's Tale, Craft Culture, Melbourne 2006 (ill.)
B. Crone -- The Ruined Body?, The body. The ruin, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, Melbourne 2005 (ill.)
S. Koop -- Say No, A Short Ride in a Fast Machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985-2005, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces with Black Inc. Press, Melbourne 2005 (ill.)
J. Clemens -- Getting off your face with a destructive character; Christian Capurro's 'Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette', Artlink, vol. 25 #1, 2005 (ill.) & Minimal Domination, Surpllus, Melbourne 2011
J. Engberg -- Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2004 (ill.)
C. Webb -- Artists take up pencils to protest against NGV ban, The Age, 09.12.04 (ill.)
P. Webb -- Eyes wide open, The Age, 15.10.04 (ill.) & Deconstruction writ large, The Age, 21.05.04 (ill.)
M. DiPietro -- Printmakers in the raw, Asahi Evening News, Tokyo, 23.09.99.
T. Nicholson -- Garnish (a suite of graftings), LIKE, art magazine #4, Spring 1997 (ill.)