Christian Capurro is an artist, photographer and filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia. Capurro utilises digital and analogue tools, media and processes in pursuit of particular images, image systems, and the 'imaginaires' of our day.
Christian Capurro
The work, often photo-graphist in approach, betrays a fascination with bodies, reproduction, (mis)translation, and erasure.
Recent presentations of Capurro's work have included the multi-channel video installations 'SLAVE', Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and 'a man held', Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. Both exhibitions are representative of his recent experimental mobile-phone film and installation making. Other selected notable presentations in other media have taken place at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; STUK Kunstencentrum, Leuven, Belgium; Artspace, Sydney; West Space, Melbourne; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; and the presentation of Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette at the 52nd Venice Biennale of International Art, Venice, Italy.
Capurro's work resides in a number of important collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane; and University of Western Sydney, Sydney.
Born 1968 Dampier, Western Australia. Currently resides Melbourne, Australia.
Education
2004-06
- Master of Arts (Media Arts), RMIT University.
1993-95
- BFA (Printmaking), Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University.
1987-89
- Diploma of Photography (Fine Art), Australian College of Photography Art & Communication, Melbourne.
1986
- Photographic Studies College, Melbourne.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021
- enclasticines, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2019
- Two Shores, ReadingRoom, Melbourne
2016
- ICEdust, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2015
- a man held, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2014
- Slave, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
- Amateur Prop (films), Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2013
- Bootleg, Breenspace, Sydney
- 'IS', Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna
2012
- Respiro Bianco shat o Quadrado Azul, Oporto 21.11.2012
2011
- Mouthpiece, Milani Gallery, Brisbane
2010
- a vacant bazaar (provisional legend), Artspace, Sydney
- The Waste of Breath, Light Projects, Melbourne
2004-05
- Another Misspent Portrait of Etienne de Silhouette (collaboration), multiple venues, Melbourne
2004
- Insufferable Nebulae & other couplings, Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
2003
- Gorgonia, Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
2000
- White Breath, West Space Inc., Melbourne
1999
- Trying to keep more than one thing in your head at any given time (Viva Timor Leste), West Space Inc., Melbourne
- After the deluge, corrections, Temple Studio, Melbourne
- Roadside Goods, cityartpublicspace transport shelters, Melbourne
1998
- Engorge, Stripp, Melbourne
1997
- Cicatrix, Gallery 106 Lt. Lonsdale St., Melbourne
- Garnish (a suite of graftings), Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
- Living Patterns: Contemporary Australian Abstraction, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
2021
- TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville
- Reconfigured/Rediscovered, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne
2018-19
- Less Than: Art and Reductionism, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
- An Unorthodox Flow of Images, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
- Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- ObsessionL Devil in the detail, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington
2017
- Less Than: Art and Reductionism, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane
- An Unorthodox Flow of Images, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
- Patrick Pound: The Great Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2015
- Propositions: Part 3, Milani Gallery (off-site), Brisbane
- Writing Art, Artspace, Sydney
- 9/11, Moana Project Space, Perth
2014-15
- Taking It All Away: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2013
- Unbound, Macquarie University Art Gallery, Sydney
2012-13
- Cut with the kitchen knife, Travelling: Melbourne; Wodonga; Morwell; Dubbo; Swan Hill; Maryborough
2012
- Negotiating this world: Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Knell dobre glas, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Oporto
2011
- Christian Capurro, Agatha Gothe-Snape & Debra Phillips, Breenspace, Sydney
- Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing, National Art School Gallery, Sydney
2010-11
- During Office Hours, Verband Geschlossene Fonds e.V., Berlin
2010
- It happened that, St Paul Street Gallery, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland
- Print Resolution, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Art Fair Project Room
- Still Vast Reserves II, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne
- InVisible: Art at the Edge of Perception, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
2009-10
- Erased: Contemporary Australian Drawing, Travelling: Singapore; Bangkok; Chiang Mai; Khon Kaen
- Mary Kelly | Christian Capurro | Klaus Mosettig, Simon Preston Gallery, New York
- Mirror Mirror: Then & Now, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Tin Sheds, University of Sydney; Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide
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
- Plus/Minus, Switchback Gallery, Churchill / Faculty Gallery, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, Melbourne
- More love hours than can ever be repaid, Galerie Feinkost, Berlin
- Behind the Image | The Image Behind (on covering & uncovering media), STUK Kunstencentrum, Leuven
- Lo Sguardo di Giano, American Academy in Rome, Rome
- Second Hand, Engholm Engelhorn Galerie, Vienna
2007-08
- Monash University Collection: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2007
- Think with the Senses—Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense, Venice Biennale 52. International Art Exhibition, Venice
- NEW07, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2006-07
- Before the Body—Matter, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2005-06
- The body. The ruin, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University
2005
- A Short Ride in a Fast Machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985—2005, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
2004
- Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
- Performance Anxiety, Ocular Lab, Melbourne
2002
- Capurro, Ellis, Hutchison & Parsons, 1ST. Floor Artists & Writers Space, Melbourne
1990
- Raw Hin: Christian Capurro, Choi Sung Youn & Soyoug Kang, Gallery Kobo Chika, Tokyo
Artist Contributions and Public Commissions
- Pagework (#10) #12, (B.164) B.166, Christchurch Art Gallery | Te Puna o Waiwhetu, (March–May) December 2011– February 2012
- Depiction(Cripps, ACCA), AGMA Magazine #4, Spring Issue 2011
- The Value, Parabol AM #4, May 2009
- Slutet/The End, Motiv #14, December 2008
- On Originality, Natural Selection Issue 5, 2006
Selected Commentaries
- N.Miall, Registrations of Labour, Slow Moving Waters: TarraWarra Biennial 2021, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville [cat.]
- M. Graf, on Christian Capurro’s ‘Two Shores’, aReadingRoom.com, April 2021
- M. Keys, Christian Capurro: Gorgonia 1999-2006, 100 Works of the Monash University Collection, MUMA Online Archive 2019
- P. Davies, Victorian urbanite: Melbourne house, ArchitectureNow, 11.06.2018
- E. Blanco, Notes on the Poetics of Erasure, Love of Circulation, 20.01.2017
- Y. Filipovic, Christian Capurro, Museum of Contemporary Art Collection Handbook, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2016
- D. Rainforth, ‘_____’, art guide Australia, 05.08.2015
- S. Koop, Christian Capurro, SPLAT!
- R. Cook, Christian Capurro: ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ or ‘Thought Uses a Handheld Camera’, a man held, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne 2015
- R. Nelson, 'a man held': Christian Capurro's mobile phone images at Centre for Contemporary Photography, The Age, 23.03.2015
- M. Angove, Airing the Absence, fine print #1 ‘Time’, 2015
- F. Stocchi, At Hand, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2014 [cat.]
- S. Rees, Christian Capurro — Sculpting in Light, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2014 [cat.]
- R. Nelson, Christian Capurro: A slave to the screen?, The Age, 16.09.2014
- K. Wilson, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, the subMachine, 30.08.2014
- D. Rule, Christian Capurro: SLAVE, The Age, 29.08.2014
- N. Bullock, A speculative exhibition: Aspects of recent photographic practice, Photofile Vol 93, Spring-Summer 2013-14
- M. Backhouse, Christian Capurro: between image & body, art guide Australia July/August 2013
- A. Groom, There's Nothing to See Here: Erasing the Monochrome, e-flux journal #37, 09.2012
- J. Marmeleira, Suspensoes entre o poetico e a politica, Publico, 04.05.2012
- A. Treacy, Dealing with non-traditional materials — a collaborative approach (case study), 7th AICCM Book, Paper & Photographic Materials Symposium, 2012
- E. Jones, Room for further excavation, Cut with the kitchen knife, NETS, Melbourne 2012 [cat.]
- A. Roelants, The Spectacle of Destruction: Christian Capurro, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Debra Phillips, Art Monthly Australia 248, April 2012
- N. Bullock, In the wake of the image: Christian Capurro's a vacant bazaar, Column #8, Artspace, Sydney 2011
- 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
- M. Gagen, Christian Capurro: a vacantbazaar (provisional legend), Eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts #73, 2011
- J. McDonald, Erased/The Primacy of Drawing, The Sydney Morning Herald, 05.03.2011
- R. Sireekan, Negative creative: palimpsest as ghost, Bangkok Post, 24.06.2010
- K. Zavistovski, Come Curious, Art:21 blog, 07.06.2010 / Come Curious: The Artists Look, Art:21 blog, 15.09.2010
- S. Smee, For art lovers, Western Mass. awaits,The Boston Globe, 07.03.2010
- A. Stephen, Jumping through the Mirror, Mirror Mirror: Then and Now, IMA, Brisbane 2010 [cat.]
- K. Johnson, The Lower East Side, Home to the Young & Emerging, New York Times, 04.12.2009 / Correction, New York Times 22.12.2009
- S. Reber, Monster im Heizungsraum, Der Tagesspiegel, 26.09.2009
- J. Paton, Backwards, slowly, blindly: Christian Capurro’s ‘compressions’, Erased (Contemporary Australian Drawing), Asialink / Art Gallery of New South Wales 2009 [cat.]
- S. Debuysere, Sous Rature (extended), Diagonal Thoughts, 28.12.2008
- 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
- E. Meoli, Recchese d'Australia in Biennale a Venezia, Il Secolo XIX, 13.11.2007
- G. Chabert & R. Parcollet, Think with the Senses/Feel with the Mind, art 21 numéro 14, octobre/novembre 2007
- E. Lauria, La Carcia degli Art Vandals, Exhibitart.grandtour anno sesto #42, agosto–settembre 2007
- S. Smee, Venice Biennale, Artist Profile, Spring 2007
- 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 [cat.]
- E. Brown, Between Rapture and Refusal, NEW07, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2007 [cat.]
- S. Smee, Come feel the disdain, The Australian, 22.03.2007
- M. Backhouse, When what's left is more, The Age, 14.03.2007
- G. Barlow & K. McFarlane, Before the Body-Matter, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne 2006 [cat.]
- K. Murray, Beyond Fortress Ceramica: A Knight's Tale, Craft Culture, September 2006
- B. Crone, The Ruined Body?, The body. The ruin, The Ian Potter Museum of Art Melbourne University, Melbourne 2005 [cat.]
- S. Koop, Say No, A Short Ride in a Fast Machine: Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces 1985-2005, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces / Black Inc. Press, Melbourne 2005
- J. Clemens, Getting off your face with a destructive character; Christian Capurro's 'Another Misspent Portrait…', Artlink vol. 25 #1, 2005 & Minimal Domination, Surpllus #7, Melbourne 2011
- C. Webb, Artists defy gallery’s sketch ban, The Age, 09.12.2004
- J. Engberg, Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2004 [cat.]
- P. Webb, Deconstruction writ large, The Age, 21.05.2004 / Eyes wide open, The Age, 15.10.2004
- M. DiPietro, Printmakers in the raw, Asahi Evening News, Tokyo, 23.09.1999
- T. Nicholson, Garnish (a suite of graftings), LIKE, art magazine #4, Spring 1997.
Selected Grants/Residencies/Awards
2020
- Quick Response Arts Grant, City of Melbourne
2014
- Creative Victoria VicArts Grant
2013
- Australia Council New Works Grant
2012/13
- Sammlung Lenikus Residency, Vienna
2012
- International Artist-in-Residence, Escola Maumaus, Lisbon
2010
- Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship & Artspace Residency, Sydney
2009
- Institute of Modern Art Residency, Brisbane & Visiting Artist, The American Academy in Rome
2007
- Australia Council Skills and Arts Development International Studio & Curatorial Program Residency, New York (2009)
2004
- Austral Council New Work Grant & City of Yarra Arts Development Grant
2003/04
- Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces Studio Residency, Melbourne
1998
- Pat Corrigan Artist Grant, National Association for the Visual Arts
Selected Collections
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
- The Potter Museum of Art
- Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Art Gallery of New South Wales | John Kaldor Family Collection, Sydney
- Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
- National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
- Monash University Museum, Melbourne
- University of Western Sydney, Sydney
- University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane
- Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Exhibitions
Off-site Exhibitions
![<span class="artist">Christian Capurro</span><span class="title"> Installation view</span><span class="year"> 2023</span>, <span class="notes">Heide Main Galleries, Heide Museum of Modern Art</span>]( "<span class=\"artist\">Christian Capurro</span><span class=\"title\"> Installation view</span><span class=\"year\"> 2023</span>, <span class=\"notes\">Heide Main Galleries, Heide Museum of Modern Art</span>")
Jul 29 – Oct 22, 2023Christian Capurro‘Beneath the Surface, Beneath the Scenes’Heide Museum of Modern Art![<span class="artist">Christian Capurro</span><span class="title"> Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art.</span><span class="year"> 2021</span>, <span class="notes">Photo: Andrew Curtis</span>]( "<span class=\"artist\">Christian Capurro</span><span class=\"title\"> Installation view, TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters, TarraWarra Museum of Art.</span><span class=\"year\"> 2021</span>, <span class=\"notes\">Photo: Andrew Curtis</span>")
Mar 27 – Jul 11, 2021various artists‘TarraWarra Biennial 2021: Slow Moving Waters’TarraWarra Museum of Art![<span class="artist">Christian Capurro</span><span class="title"> Christian Capurro: SLAVE.</span><span class="year"> 2014</span>, <span class="medium">Video interview</span>, <span class="notes">ACCA</span>]( "<span class=\"artist\">Christian Capurro</span><span class=\"title\"> Christian Capurro: SLAVE.</span><span class=\"year\"> 2014</span>, <span class=\"medium\">Video interview</span>, <span class=\"notes\">ACCA</span>")
Aug 16 – Sep 28, 2014Christian Capurro‘SLAVE’Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
