Profile
Caspar Fairhall’s eclectic art practice spans painting, works on paper, installation, video and interactivity. Making use of contradictions and paradoxes in visual illusion, Fairhall often looks at the tension between our intuitions of space and time, and what we understand about the world from science. Much of Fairhall’s work seems to question the act of representing space in an image, or how might a space in an image relate to the space and time outside the image, and the act of looking into and at an image. At work in his studio, Fairhall’s methods are reminiscent of traditional Renaissance techniques, as his paintings emerge from intimate studies of form and shape in a process of layering precise detailed drawing. He uses the picture surface as a void from which images are withdrawn using complex, layered paint surfaces and unresolvable pictorial spaces as tools to explore the relationship between pictorial, optical and cosmic space.
Much of Fairhall’s work is derived from his time in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and draws on the ancient banded iron formations of the Hamersly Ranges, which date from the Archean epoch 2.5 billion years ago. Both the sense of deep time and the biological origin of these formations are central concerns of this body of work. More recently, following a four month residency in Basel, Switzerland, he has extend this body of work to examine the geology of the Swiss Alps and the effects of entropy on built structures.
His work is represented in a number of private and public collections, including: the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Artbank, Sydney; the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; The University of Western Australia, Perth; Edith Cowan University, Perth; Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Perth and BankWest, Perth. He won several prizes, including the Cossack Art Award (Best Overall Artwork) in 2012 and the Invited Artist Award in 2013.
Caspar Fairhall is represented by Blockprojects Gallery, Melbourne (formerly NKN) and Kamilė Gallery, Perth.
— Eugenio Viola and Evana Tanner
Curriculum vitae
Education
2012 Master of Fine Arts, College of Fine Art, University of New South Wales
1993 Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts), WA School of Visual Arts, Edith Cowan University
1990 Diploma of Fine Art (Painting), Claremont School of Art
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Christoph Merian Foundation (Basel, Switzerland), The University of Western Australia, Edith Cowan University, KPMG, Woodside Energy, BankWest, Chamber of Commerce WA, Horn Collection, Shire of Roebourne, City of Bayswater, private collections in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, London, Paris and Basel.
Solo exhibitions
2023 Mountains rest, overwhelmed by stars, Salon Mondial, Basel, Switzerland
2023 Paradox, Blockprojects Gallery (formerly NKN), Melbourne
2023 Paradox, Kamilė Gallery, Perth
2020 Elision, artCollectiveWA, Perth
2019 World, not world, Blockprojects Gallery (formerly NKN), Melbourne
2018 auch in ihnen flimmert Zeit, Salon Mondial, Basel, Switzerland
2018 Nine times the space that measures day and night, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth
2017 Nine times the space, Gallerysmith Project Space, Melbourne
2016 Below is above, artCollectiveWA, Perth
2015 Accretion Room, Moana Project Space, Perth
2012 Folded cosmos, COFAspace, University of New South Wales, Sydney
2008 Simultaneous, Sequential, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
2004 Transmission, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
2001 New work, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
1998 Projector, Gomboc Gallery, Perth
1996 First solo exhibition, Gomboc Gallery, Perth
Awards, grants, residencies
Expanding the Visual Field, 2019, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
Artsource Global City Residency 2018, Atelier Mondial, Basel, Switzerland
Finalist, Perth Royal Art Prize 2017, Perth
Finalist, Blacktown City Art Prize 2016, Sydney
Cossack Art Award 2013 — Invited Artists category
Cossack Art Award 2012 — Best Overall artwork
City of Bayswater Art Award 2012
Artflight Grant 2015, Department of Culture and the Arts, Western Australia
Artflight Grant 2006, Department of Culture and the Arts, Western Australia
Selected group exhibitions
2020 Joondalup Invitation Art Award, Whitfords City, Perth
2020 Between the Eye and the Heart, Lost Eden Creative, Dwellingup
2019 Letter from the East, Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, Shenyang, China
2018 Pretty Good Privacy, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China
2018 Transenvironmental Exercises, Salon Mondial, Basel, Switzerland
2016 PCWK8, Nyisztor Studio, Perth
2015 Plastic, MOP Projects, Sydney
2015 artCollectiveWA down south, Holmes à Court Gallery, Cowaramup
2014 Artist Open House Fremantle, private residence, Fremantle
2014 City of Busselton Art Award, ArtGeo Gallery, Busselton (commendation)
2014 Minnawarra Art Awards, Armadale District Hall (commendation)
2013 Le Salon Scintillant: Gotham Studios, Moana Project Space
2012 Synechdoches, Moana Project Space
2012 Joondalup Invitation Art Award, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Joondalup
2011 4, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
2010 Joondalup Invitation Art Award, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Joondalup
2009 Joondalup Invitation Art Award, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Joondalup
2008 Linden1968, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2006 30 Years On, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
2006 Joondalup Invitation Art Award, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Joondalup
2006 Melbourne Artfair, Galerie Düsseldorf booth
2006 Material Witness, Contemporary Art Centre South Australia, Adelaide
2005 Shelf Life, Galerie Düsseldorf (Festival of Perth exhibition), Perth
2004 Invisible Cities, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
2003 BankWest Art Prize, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
2003 Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Annual Art Exhibition, Church Gallery, Perth
2001 House and land package, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth
1999 In the studio, from the studio, Galerie Düsseldorf, Perth
1999 Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Annual Art Exhibition, Church Gallery, Perth
1997 Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Annual Art Exhibition
1995 New work, Gomboc Gallery, Perth
1994 52 New, Blaxland Galleries, Sydney
1993 Seven Perth Artists, Gallery Hakuzen, Nagoya City, Japan
1990 Theoria, Delaney Galleries, Perth
Bibliography
Jian, S. (Ed.), “Pretty Good Privacy”, exhibition catalogue, China Academy of Art, 2018
Moore, M., “Passing Time Building Form”, catalogue essay for Below is above, 2016
Buckley, D., “In the accretion room”, catalogue essay for Accretion room, 2015
Elliott, S. and Roberts, D., Closet Circus: Works from the Horn Collection,
Fremantle Press, 2008
Kenneally, C., “Nixonning”, Art Monthly, April 2006
Cook, R., “Test patterns”, Art Monthly, June 2001
Cook, R. “Looking while we’re learning”, Artwords, Issue 8, 1998
Yeoman, W., The West Australian, July 23, 2012
Bevis, S., The West Australian, November 29, 2011
Spencer, R., The West Australian, November 21, 2008
Blond, S. The West Australian, November 6, 2004
Bromfield, D. The West Australian, May 26, 2001
Bromfield, D. The West Australian, May 19, 2001
Bromfield, D. The West Australian, November 6, 1999
Cook, R., The West Australian, July 15, 1996