James Guppy
Biography
James Guppy was born in London, England in 1954. He graduated from Lancaster University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree (Economics/Art) and was awarded a Phillip Andrews Memorial Fellowship in 1979. Between 1979 - 81 he was a lecturer in the Visual Arts Department at Lancaster University and from 1980 - 81 a lecturer in the Faculty of Art and Design at the Lancaster Annex of Preston Polytechnic. He emigrated to Australia in 1982, was artist-in-residence at the University of New South Wales Union, Canberra College of Advanced Education and Reed TAFE, Canberra, 1985 - 87, and in 1990 - 91 worked and exhibited in New York. He now lives in northern New South Wales.
Prior to 1987 Guppy"s artworks consisted of public and community murals painted in both Britain and Australia. However, he later withdrew into private work, adopting the trompe l`oeil approach whereby illusionistic devices are employed to persuade the spectator that he or she is looking at the actual objects represented. He also began to employ collage and assemblage, and the grisaille approach of using small images running along the bottom of his canvases - rather like bas-reliefs. More recently, however, he has switched to "double images" and narrative paintings about interiors, featuring two participants.
Although his paintings are not easily categorised, Guppy describes himself as a realist whose work is concerned with "the boundaries of mysteries of the domestic". In a 1991 interview he noted that there are three alternative ways in which a person can relate to the world; they can strive to own it, nurture it or remake it. Guppy sees his artistic task as one of remaking,. of "transforming the viewer"s vision of the worldî.
Guppy has been included in several important group exhibitions, including the 1987 Archibald Prize and the 1989 Blake Prize. He had his first individual show at Nino Tucci Gallery, Surfers paradise, in 1989 and held solo exhibitions at the Australian Gallery, New York, and Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney in 1991. A show is also planned for 1993. Winner of the Murwillumbah Art Prize, 1990, the Southern Cross Arts Festival Prize and the Stanthorpe Heritage Arts Festival Acquisitive Prize, Stanthorpe Gallery, Queensland (both in 1992),he is represented in the collections of Lancaster and Macquarie Universities, the University of New South Wales, Tweed River Regional Gallery, Stanthorpe Art Gallery, Queensland, and the University of New England/Northern Rivers and Artbank, as well as in corporate and private collections in Australia, Britain and the United States.SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2002 Jan Murphy Gallery, Brisbane, Qld. Australia
Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York USA
2001 Mcmurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
2000 Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York USA
Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1998 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1997-98 Blemish, Touring, NSW&Qld: Orange Regional Art Gallery, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, Lismore Regional Art Gallery; Gold Coast City Art Gallery.
1997 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Vic.
1996 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney.
1995 Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Vic.
1994 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney.
1993-95 Passions End, Touring, NSW&Qld: Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie Art Gallery; Bundaberg Art Gallery, Thuringowa Library, Dalby Regional Art Gallery, Stanthorpe Art Gallery.
1993 Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney.
Museum Gallery, New England U., Lismore, NSW.
1992 Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra, ACT.
1991 Australia Gallery, New York, NY,. USA.
Access Contemporary Art Gallery, Sydney.
1990 Chelsea Contemporary Gallery, Sydney.
1989 Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, NSW.
SELECTED MIXED EXHIBITIONS
2002 Brenda May Gallery.Sydney
1999 Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York, USA.
Thirty-Sixth Juried Exhibition, The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton,Long Island, NY, USA.
1998 The Rose, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, NSW.
1997 Intl Works on Paper Fair, Mitchell Library, Sydney.
1996 Fishers Ghost Art Award, Cambelltown Art Gallery NSW
1995 Access to Adelaide 2, BMG Fine Art, Adelaide, SA.
1992 The Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, NT.
1989 Blake Prize, Sydney.
1987 Archibald, Art Gallery of NSW.
SELECTED AWARDS / PRIZES
2002 First Prize, Border Art Prize, Tweed Regional Art Gallery, NSW.
1997 First Prize, Maryborough Arts Festival, Qld.
First prize, Sarina Visual Arts Competition, Qld.
M. Media Prize, Southern Cross Art Festival, Ballina, NSW.
1996 First Prize, Trinity Art Award, Lismore, NSW.
First Prize, Southern Cross Art Festival, Ballina,
1995 First Prize, Coffs Harbour City Art Exhibition, NSW.
1994 First Prize, North Coast Art Show, Byron Bay, NSW.
First Prize, Southern Cross Art Festival, Ballina.
1993 Print Prize, Southern Cross Art Festival, Ballina.
1992 First Prize, Southern Cross Art Festival, Ballina.
Ansett Award, North Coast Art Show, Byron Bay.
1991 First Prize, North Coast Art Show, Byron Bay.
1990 Windsor & Newton Prize, Waverly Art Exhibition, Sydney, NSW.
1979 Awarded Philip Andrews Memorial Fellowship, Lancaster University, UK.
REPRODUCED / PUBLISHED
2000'The Artful East End', Newsday, Ariella Budick, 30 July p D18.
Galleries, Sydney Morning Herald, Courtney Kidd, 18 April p. 7.
About the Artist, Danís Papers, Marion Wolberg Weiss, 24 March, cover & p 45.
1999 The Verdict: Remarkable.Southampton Press, Erica Lynn-Huberty, 23 December pB4.
1998 Images 3, Nevill Drury, Craftsmans House.
1997 Artlink, Vol 17 No 2, pp. 47, 49.
1996 ìGalleriesî, Sydney Morning Herald, Bruce James, 30 August p. 16.
1995 The Age, Robert Nelson, July 26, p. 22.
Who's Who of Australian Visual Artists, DW Thorpe (in association with NAVA).
1994 'One artistís realism is another's nightmare', Sydney Morning Herald, John McDonald, Nov. 5, p.13A.
Imagine, SBS Television.
Images 2, Nevill Drury, Craftsmans House.
Encyclopedia of Australian Art, Alan & Susan McCulloch, Allen & Unwin.
1993 'The light fantastic', Sydney Morning Herald, Lynn Fern, June 18, p. 24.
New Art Eight, Nevill Drury, Craftsmans House.
1992 'A series of contrasting and unsettling pictures', Canberra Times, Sasha Grishin, Nov 18, p. 30.
COLLECTIONS
Queensland Art Gallery; Artbank; Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Qld.; Lismore Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, NSW; Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery, Qld; Griffith University, Qld; Sydney University Union, NSW; University of NSW Union; Southern Cross University, NSW; Lancaster University, UK. Private collections in Australia, Asia, Europe, UK and the USA.