artist profile
Chris Heaphy
born
1965
lives and works
Palmerston North, New Zealand
education
BFA, Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Canterbury, New Zealand, 1991
MFA, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Melbourne, Australia, 1998
about the artist
Chris Heaphy paints intricate constellations of symbology on his super-flat canvasses. His all-over compositions are filled with a feverish symphony of colors taking the shapes of existing signs or assuming the forms of artificial motifs. Bit by bit, piece by piece, each element represents a part of the artist’s identity; or, more aptly, his primal compulsion to articulate his identity. A microcosm of our world as well, these pictures mirror its state of constant mutability, constant revision, and constant fluctuation. Heaphy has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand as well as internationally with solo exhibitions in Hong Kong and France. Recipient of the Te Waka Toi grants presented by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa in 1993 and in 1994, the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award in 1995, and the Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin Residency in Champagne, France, in 2001, among others, he has been included in many group shows held at venues such as the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki in Auckland, New Zealand; the City Gallery Wellington in Wellington, New Zealand; and the Australia Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne, Australia. His work has also been shown in Roundabout, an international touring exhibition that traveled from Wellington, New Zealand to Tel Aviv, Israel.