brendan MCCUMSTIE
Brendan McCumstie (1973) was born in Condobolin, rural NSW, AUSTRALIA and currently lives and works in Beijing. Self taught as an artist with a formal background in sports, medicine and psychology.
Predominantly interested in the boundaries between objects (where does one become another), his works explore universal themes reflecting the contemporary obsession with nostalgia while creating complex symbols of a culture refusing to look inward on a society eating itself.
Working with various mediums including graphic arts, painting, video, sculptural objects and installation, the various artworks use technological procedures and elements from tradition and history to question the tenets of globalization, virtual memory and hegemonic thinking.
All great stories are complex and full of drama. Life itself is a story… but not until it is edited; and memory, like editing, is about finding moments; from the moment we open our eyes in the morning to the time we go to sleep at night we edit the individual images we see.
Sometimes it’s pleasurable, sometimes it is confrontational and sometimes logic is less important than emotion.
Through my drawings, collages, paintings and installations I attempt to present simple images soaked in complex meaning. The results are part metaphor, part allegory, part dream/vision and part truth.
Based on personal recollections my explorations give birth to issues that straddle the boundaries of science, art and the realities of concrete life.
I try to bring my images to aesthetic life without losing a sense of humour and attempt to create dialogue with the viewer utilising universal formal vocabularies and traditional media - in direct conflict with the employed techniques by much of the current vanguard of contemporary art – I still believe in the sanctity of skilled technique.
I try to reconstruct a history beyond both the western canon and formal culture of remembrance. What emerges from the resulting palimpsest-like arrangements are not so much a recounting of events of memory, nor are they an examination of (dreamed) possibilities; but more distinctly, something undefined and intermediate between the two - the tertium quid; the third thing that explodes into being from the joining of two other unrelated things. This focus leads to the creation of a visual vocabulary that is not only functional, but jointly poetic and narrative.
Selected Solo Shows:
2020 Ink blot tests 798 art district, Beijing, CHINA
2019 blue moon JITU, 798 Art District, Beijing, CHINA
2017 AT (IN) ON Apartment Gallery, Beijing, CHINA
2014 Me, My, Myth Escape Space, Beijing, CHINA
2013 Spontaneous Human Compulsion Forecourt, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FRANCE
Canal Knowledge Public Art, Amsterdam, NEDERLANDS
2011 The tertium quid: case study Tweed River Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Irony and Edits Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
2010 Hold Your Tongue Tamworth Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
2009 Displacement Method Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
2008 Who Rights History Artisan Ivory 24 Gallery, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
2007 Rubbish (3 week installation) National Art Gallery of Australia, AUSTRALIA
Bag full of mixed goodies Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
2006 Memory holds a claim to truth Dubbo Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
2005 PHI Warpstanza Gallery, Bathurst, AUSTRALIA
2004 Con.Text BAWD Exhibition Space, Dubbo, AUSTRALIA
Selected Group Shows:
2021 Conquers "Haas", Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA
2020 “-ing” Art and Design Today Art Museum, Beijing, CHINA
2019 Shining Dimensions Aotu Space, Beijing, CHINA
Happening International Gobi Desert Heaven, INNER MONGOLIA
Not Yet. Not Yet Poly Art Museum, Beijing, CHINA
Stellardemia International Exhibition Centre, Beijing, CHINA
International Arts Festival Chengdu Flower Fields, Chengdu, CHINA
2018 21 Dreams Shaire Space, 798 Art District, Beijing, CHINA
2016 New Media Digital Naissance, Xaanxi, CHINA
2013 Avant Derniers Edition de Fattes Le Mur Bric a Brac Bar, Paris, FRANCE
2012 The QR Project (the eight collective) Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
BSG Works on Paper Brunswick St Gallery, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
The Sketchbook Project Brooklyn, NYC & National Gallery of Victoria.
Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
2011 Footsteps Print show IMPACT 7, International Print Conference, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
HEREsay Southern Cross University, NEXT Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
Littlest Print (international juried) Portland, USA
Objects of the Dead Napier Gallery, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Northern Rivers Portrait Prize Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
FAXINATION XYZ Collective, Tokyo, JAPAN
International Art Trading Card Project Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Autumn Extravaganza Arts Centre, Nimbin, AUSTRALIA
Trans-Siberian Arts Centre Invitational Moscow, RUSSIA; Beijing, CHINA
The Sketchbook Project Brooklyn, San Francisco, Washington, USA
The Hankie Project II Grafton Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
2010 Border Art Prize Tweed Heads Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Cut & Paste Barratt Galleries, Alstonville, AUSTRALIA
International Art Trading Card Project (ITC2) Barratt Galleries, Alstonville, AUSTRALIA
TATA GALA Sarasota Design Centre, Florida, USA
Goldworthys; “Ooh that sounds a bit fancy” Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
A Paper Trail Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
On Paper, in time, in other peoples minds Art Piece Gallery, Mullumbimby, AUSTRALIA
International Art Trading Card Project Barratt Galleries, Alstonville, AUSTRALIA
Scarlet Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
The Hankie Project Barratt Galleries, Alstonville, AUSTRALIA
The Churchie National Emerging Art Qld College of Art, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Articles of Interest (invitational) Southern Cross University, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
Scissors, Paper, Glue Wayward Gallery, Byron Bay, AUSTRALIA
2009 SCU Acquisitive Artists Book Award Barratt Galleries, Alstonville, AUSTRALIA
Collectors Paradise Community Gallery, Ballina, AUSTRALIA
Winsome art show Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
The Toy Show Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
2008 Eutick Memorial Still Life Award Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
It is Political Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
Queensland Festival of Photography Qld Centre of Photography, Brisbane, AUST.
2007 SCU Acquisitive Artists Book Award Southern Cross University, NEXT Gallery, AUST.
Autumn Extravaganza Arts Centre, Nimbin, AUSTRALIA
First Group Alleyway Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
2006 Art in the age of Sedition Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Sedition on the Streets National Capital Circle, Canberra, AUSTRALIA
Inaugural Members Show Serpentine Gallery, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
2005 The Prize Downing Centre Gallery, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
The TAFE Awards Traveling Exhibition NSW Regional Galleries, AUSTRALIA
Fresh Arts Invitational only Exhibition Dubbo Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Hand. Eye (with Spencer Calveley) Warpstanza Gallery, Bathurst, AUSTRALIA
Selected Awards, workshops and community projects:
2020 Pinhole photography Fotografia, Tbilisi, GEORGIA
2019 Live Art Battle, Northern China Final Winner
2012 BSG Works on Paper Prize Selected Finalist
En-Dangered Art Auction Fundraiser Friends of the Koala, Lismore, AUSTRALIA
2011 Northern Rivers Portrait Prize Selected Finalist
2010 The Churchie National Emerging Art Award Selected Finalist (3 works)
Border Art Prize Selected finalist
TATA GALA (international Juried Prize) Highly Commended
2008 Eutick Memorial Still Life Award Selected Finalist
2005 Art Gallery of NSW Robert Le Gay Brereton Award (2nd Place)
2004 TAFE Art Prize Best Regional Artist Award
Selected Articles/Publications:
2019 “Apophenia” Artists Catalogue. Edited and published by Brendan McCumstie.
“MX” Artists journal. Published by Brendan McCumstie..
2018 CUE magazine, contributor and artistic editor
“Irony and Edit”, artists book, edited and published Brendan McCumstie
2014 Drunken Boat, #19, online art/writing journal.
2013 Bird-Flew, edition 1, edited and published Brendan McCumstie
2010 Art Monthly Australia, pp54-55, May (#229)
Exhibition Catalogue, Hold Your Tongue, Essay by Kezia Geddes
2009 Anderson, Dr Jane. No More Potlucks (France), Colonialism/Intellectual property,
Copie No.4, Jun
2007 Northern Rivers Echo, Art and Sedition, Nov 12
2005 Orana Arts, Review, July
2004 Exhibition Catalogue, Art. Full Stop, April Essay by Kent Buchanan
Art and Australia, Fresh Blood, Jul-Oct pp82 Review by Julia Jones
Art Monthly Australia, Review, Oct (#174)
Curatorial Experience:
2018 21 Deams Shaire Space, 798 Art District, Beijing, CHINA
2012 The QR Project (the eight collective) Lismore Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Residencies and teaching experience:
2020 Kompostyaard residency (6 weeks) Stellenbosch, SOUTH AFRICA
2020 Fotografia Studio (3 months) Tbilisi, GEORGIA
2019 Ruddy Metal Studios (2 months) Beijing, CHINA
2013 Lecture Series (4 weeks) ~ Art at the edges Paris, FRANCE
2012 Chiang Mai Art on Paper Studios (3 weeks) Chiang Mai, THAILAND
2006 Printmaking Workshop (1 week) Dubbo Regional Gallery, AUSTRALIA
Professional Memberships:
2011 Founder The Eight Collective
2008-10 Member National Association of Visual Artists
2004-5 Founding Member and Vice President Fresh Arts Contemporary Artists Group Inc.
Collections:
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (Print Collection).
Tamworth Regional Gallery.
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery.
Private collections in Australia, France, Canada, USA and
China including collection of Wang Zhongjun.
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