Matthew Couper
Matthew Couper was born in New Zealand in 1976 and immigrated to the USA in 2010. His practice over the past decade has appropriated western Art History periods such as the Trecento, Quattrocento and the Baroque. Through these painterly investigations, he discovered that history oft repeats and helped him determine that the Modernist notions of originality held little interest for his practice. Couper uses the established narrative traditions of Spanish Colonial / Mexican retablos and ex-votos to discuss the space between myth, religion and art politics. He recently stated that 'like any good Johnny Cash, Nick Cave or Pixies song, you've got to have sex, death and religion fueling the fire'
Couper has traveled extensively throughout Europe and the USA and was awarded a Royal Over-Seas League International Scholarship to travel and paint in the United Kingdom in 2003, then exhibited at the Jerwood Gallery, London in 2004. He held his first public gallery solo exhibition with published monograph, The Museum Of Inherent Vice at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand, after receiving a nine-month residency at the Tylee Cottage Artist in Residence programme in 2007.
He exhibits at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, and CMTV Galería, Barcelona, Spain, amongst regular exhibitions in New Zealand at Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington; PAULNACHE; Gisborne, PaperWorks; Napier and Rayner Brothers Gallery in Whanganui. He also regularly exhibits in group exhibitions in public galleries throughout New Zealand and the USA. Selected artworks are represented in public collections throughout New Zealand (Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, The Real Art Roadshow Touring Collection, the Celia Dunlop Foundation collection and James Wallace Collection, Auckland) and internationally (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Rome and Brisbane; Corey-Helford collection, Los Angeles) and in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Scotland, Britain, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Hong Kong.
Artists
- Tom Allan
- Michele Bryant
- John Bucklow
- Sam Broad
- Adam Clarke
- Matthew Couper
- Pip Davies
- Hannah Depree
- Leslie Falls
- Fane Flaws
- Anna Fuhrer
- Nathan Hall
- Tony Harrington
- Cat Haslam
- Michael Hawksworth
- Sarah Horn
- William Jameson
- Rakai Karaitiana
- Susie Lowndes
- Liz McAuliffe
- Alistair McCready
- Liz McCready
- Matt Moriaty
- Prakash Patel
- Kath Purchas
- Ngaromoana Raureti
- Adrian Thornton
- Nga Waiata
