Jamie Chapman
Biography
Jamie Chapman studied Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College, Auckland before travelling to Europe to further develop his appreciation for paintings by the Masters. He returned to Auckland to pursue and complete his Master’s degree at Elam, School of Fine Arts. In 2012 Chapman was the recipient of the Joe Raynes Scholarship, University of Auckland and in 2013 was the winner of the National Youth Art Award .
Chapman’s current practice situates itself between painting and image based media, to explore how painting could deal with photographic and filmic structures, constraints and modes of depiction and in broader terms, the contemporary. Negating the brush strokes introduces principles of other image based media and allows a dialog to come into play with the painted image. The source images are altered: colours and forms mildly modified; cropping reframes compositions whilst further translations occur through the process of painting.
There is an effort made to relinquish control over narrative in order to empower the audience to relocate it within their own narrative and inform the works through their own experiences. This practice inverts painting; borrowing systems from other media to allow an exploration into how we depict pictures today.
