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Kit Wise

Born

1975 English

Biography/General

After graduating from Oxford University and the Royal College of Art with an MFA in Sculpture, Kit Wise received the Wingate Rome Scholarship in Fine Art in 1999, to study at the British School at Rome. In 2001 he received a Boise Travel Scholarship, administered by the Slade School of Fine Art, for subsequent research in New York & Australia. Since moving permanently to Australia in 2002, Wise has received three Australia Council grants in the categories of Presentation & Promotion (as curator), Skills Development (Tokyo Studio Residency) and New Work (Emerging).

Wise practices as an artist, art writer and curator. He has held 12 solo exhibitions in Australia and Italy, exhibited in group exhibitions in Australia, Taiwan, Korea, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Holland, and has published numerous articles, reviews, book chapters and catalogue essays including texts for Australian and international art journals such as Frieze, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies and unMagazine.

Recent solo exhibitions include Arcadia, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago (2012); Disaster, Australian Experimental Art Foundation (2011); Explosion at Sarah Scout, Melbourne (2010), Summertime at ACCA @ Mirka, Australia Centre for Contemporary Art, Tolarno Hotel (2009); Natural Disaster at Linden Centre for Contemporary Art (2008); Rhapsodia at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (2007); Superhappiness at CONICAL (2006) and Soujourner, Westspace (2005).

In 2006 he was included in the major survey show Responding to Rome: British Artists in Rome, 1995 - 2005 at the Estorick Collection, London; in 2008 he presented video work at the LOOP ’08 film festival in Barcelona and at the Urban Screens ’08 international conference and exhibition at Federation Square, Melbourne; in 2009, he presented an animation at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam; in 2010, he presented a major commissioned work in Experimenta Utopia Now: International Biennial of Media Art, Melbourne which was later selected as the opening film of the 2010 Off and Free Film Festival, Korea; as well as a series of animations at Media Facades Festival Europe. His work was also selected for the 2009 Asian Art Biennial in Taiwan, at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. In 2011, he received support frm both arts victoria and the Besen Family Foundation to present a major new digital video work at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. In addition, he has received major commissions for public art works and specific projects from Wallace Cititraining, London (1999); the British School at Rome (2001); Arts Tasmania (2002); Experimenta (2008); and Linden Centre for Contemporary Art (2010).

He is currently Associate Dean (Education) and a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art in the Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University, Australia; as well as the Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours Course Coordinator.

Education

2007- present Monash University PhD candidate

1997-9 Royal College of Art, MA (RCA) Sculpture:
London Distinction for thesis
‘Duchamp after Blanchot’

1994-7 Ruskin School
Of Drawing and Fine Art, BFA (Hons): First Class
St. Anne’s College,
Oxford University

1993-4 Winchester School of Art Dip. Foundation Studies

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
2012 July Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2012 January Arcadia
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
2011 August Disaster
Australian Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide
May Disaster Series
White Street Projects, Frankston
2010 September Explosion
Sarah Scout, Melbourne
2009 December Summertime
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, ACCA @ Mirka, Melbourne
2008 August Natural Disaster
Linden Centre for Contemporary Art
2007 November Rhapsodia
Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2006 August Superhappiness
Conical, Melbourne
2005 October Kit Wise: New Work
Criterion Gallery, Hobart
May Sojourner
Westspace, Melbourne
April Roarers
Ocular Lab, Melbourne
2003 May Nocturne
Project Space Gallery, RMIT Melbourne;
Inflight Gallery, Hobart
2002 July Oh, what a sweet thing is this perspective!
Faculty Gallery, Monash University, Melbourne
2001 September Tourist
CAST Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania
2000 June Straordinari Cortili
Palazzo Montoro, Rome
1999 November Kit Wise: Recent Work
British School at Rome

Group exhibitions (curated / juried)

2011 September Westspace 2011
Westspace, Melbourne
Somerset Art Weeks,
Somerset, UK
July The New Arcadia
Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW
June the gravity of the situation
Faculty Gallery, Monash University
May Ruskin Shorts,
Museum of Art Oxford
April When the Dead Help the Living
Light Projects, Melbourne
February Networks: Cells and Silos,
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
2010 December Off and Free Film Festival,
Korea
September Media Facades Europe 2010
Collegium Hugaricum, Berlin
Moving Image South
Hmvcurzon Wimbledon, London
A4 Art 2010
Westspace, Melbourne
July The Stony Rises
Story Hall, RMIT, Melbourne
June Vision
Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Melbourne
Group Action 6
Criterion Gallery, Hobart
May The Politics of Art
Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
LOOP’10: International Video Art Festival
Catalonia Ramblas Hotel, Barcelona
February Experimenta Utopia Now: International Biennial of Media Art
Arts Centre, Melbourne [touring]
2009 October 2009 Asian Art Biennial
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
May Testing Ground
45 Downstairs, Melbourne
April NOW 2.0
ACGA Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne
LOOP ’09: International Video Art Festival
Catalonia Ramblas Hotel, Barcelona
January International Film Festival Rotterdam
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2007 September Urban Screens 08
Federation Square, Melbourne
Drawn Encounters
Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon School of Art, London
May LOOP’08: International Video Art Festival
Catalonia Ramblas Hotel, Barcelona
2007 September Tokyo: Floating World
Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania
[Supported by the Australia Research Council]
July Stranger Geography
Palazzo Vaj, Monash University Prato Centre, Prato, Italy
[Supported by Monash University]
April Shrine On! You Crazy Diamond
Platform, Melbourne
[Supported by Arts Victoria & Australia Council]
March Dream Home
NOVAS Gallery, London
February Strange Geography
Kingsgate Gallery, London
[Supported by Monash University]
2006 December B-side
Blindside, Melbourne
[Supported by the City of Melbourne]
September Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne
May Pleasures and Terrors – The City
Blindside, Melbourne
April Water
Sartorial Contemporary Art, London
January Responding to Rome: 1995-2005
Estorick Collection, London
[Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation]
Group Action 2
Criterion Gallery, Hobart
2005 October re/thinking
BUS, Melbourne
Charlotte Bell, Rosemary O’Rourke, Kit Wise
King’s Artist Run Initiative, Melbourne
August Letitia Street Studios
Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart
2004 October Practice in Process
Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
June No Harm in Looking
Blankspace, Sydney
April Scratch Video
King’s Artist Run Initiative, Melbourne
March Group Material
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
2003 August Bodybag [touring exhibition]
Inveresk Academy of the Arts, Launceston
May Travelling the Roundabout [touring exhibition]
Inveresk Academy of the Arts, LauncestonApril The Bold & The Beautiful: New Art from London [touring show]
Project Space Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne;
Carnegie Gallery, Hobart
March Wallacespace Presents
Wallacespace Gallery, London;
2002 November The World More Near
Project Space Gallery, RMIT, Melbourne
August Good Artists Bad Artists Steal
Starck Gallery, London
April White Middle Class Men
Lewisham Library, London
2000 November International Young Artists
Rialtoccupato al Sant' Ambrogio
Associazione Culturale, Rome
August Tabley
Henry Moore Foundation supported exhibition
Tabley House, Knutsford, Manchester
July Rosa
British Arts Council supported exhibition,
Pino Casagrande Gallery, Rome
June Harry Pye’s Great British Art Show
Starck Gallery, London
May It may be rubbish, but its British rubbish
Glasshouse Gallery, Paris
1999 November Accademia Britannica
Rome Scholars exhibition,
The British School at Rome
July Sculpture Park
Atrium Gallery, London
June Asylum
Milch Gallery, London

Curatorial practice

2011 April Curator, ‘When the Dead Help the Living’
Light Projects, Melbourne
2007 July Curator, ‘Stranger Geography’
Palazzo Vaj, Monash University Prato Centre, Italy
Supported by Monash University
February Co-curator, ‘Strange Geography’,
Kingsgate Gallery, London
Supported by Monash University
Curator, ‘Jordan Baseman: Tape 1 Tape 2’,
Faculty Gallery, Monash University
Melbourne
2005 December Contributing curator, ‘Extra-Aesthetic’,
Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne
May Curator ‘Contemporary Abstraction: Four Melbourne Painters’
Criterion Gallery, Hobart
2004 – 2005 Curator ‘Academici: Answering the Other Question’
Faculty Gallery, Monash University & BSR Gallery, British School at Rome, Italy
Supported by the Australia Council,
Monash University & the British School at Rome
2003 November Curator ‘Marginalia’,
City Gallery, Melbourne Town Hall;
Supported by the City of Melbourne
and Monash University
October Co-curator ‘Drawing: Marking the terrain’
Faculty Gallery, Monash University;
Supported by the University of West of England, UK
April Co-curator ‘The Bold & The Beautiful: New London Art’ Project Space, RMIT, Melbourne;
Carnegie Gallery, Hobart;
Supported by the British Arts Council

Collections/Commissions

2008 Stony Rises Commission Design Research Centre, RMIT, Melbourne
Experimenta Commission Experiment Utopia Now:
2009 International Biennial of Media Arts
2003 ArtsTasmania Commission Wapping Sculpture Walk, Hobart [Design abstract]
2002 ArtsTasmania Commission Hagley Farm Primary School
2001 Centenary Commission British School at Rome, Rome;
1999 Millennium Commission Wallace Cititraining, London

Awards/Grants

2011 Besen Family Foundation grant ‘Arcadia’, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

Monash-Warwick Monash University & Warwick University
Teaching & Learning Fellowship

2010 Arts Victoria Development grant ‘Arcadia’, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

2010 Visiting Artist Centre for Drawing,
University of the Arts, London

2009 Gordon Darling Foundation IMPACT 7 Conference, Monash

Monash University Hyde Park Art Centre, Chicago,
Development & Engagement Award digital artwork commission

Monash University 2010 International Digital Media Biennial,
Creative Work Award Experimenta commission

2008-2009 Monash University ‘Drawn Encounters, Complex Identities’
International Strategic Initiative & ‘Archive / Counter-archive’ conferences

Carrick Award Nominee 1/10 nominations from Monash University,
for excellence in Honours level teaching

2007 Australia Council Centre for Contemporary Photography,
Visual Arts & Crafts Board, solo exhibition
New Work grant

Monash University
Research Development Award

Monash University ‘Drawn Encounters, Complex Identities’
Small Research Grant

2006 Monash University ‘Mapping the Invisible City’
Small Research Grant

2005 Monash University ‘Tracing the Invisible City’
Small Research Grant

2004 Australia Council Tokyo studio residency
Visual Arts & Crafts Board, (February – May 2006)
Skills Development grant

Australia Council Curator, ‘Academici’,
Visual Arts & Crafts Board, international touring exhibition,
Publications & Promotions grant Melbourne & Rome

2004 Monash University Visiting academic,
Research Travel Grant British School at Rome, Rome

2002 Artist in Residence Monash University, Melbourne

2001 Boise Travel Scholarship [Slade] New York, Australia

1999 Wingate Rome Scholarship British School at Rome

1998 Royal College of Art Residency Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris
Serenella Ciclitira Scholarship Royal College of Art
Winner, Alternative Turner Prize Frank Organisation, London

Bibliography

‘Networks: Cells and Silos’; catalogue essay by Geraldine Barlow, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, February 2011
‘Looking out at the landscape’, feature article by Megan Bakehouse, The Age, 15 September 2010
‘Kit Wise: Explosion’, review by Dan Rule, The Age, 11 September 2010
‘Where the city meets the sea’, feature article by Dan Rule, The Age, 29 December 2009
‘Artist Profile: Kit Wise’, p.8, NAVA Quarterly, edited by Cassandra Parkinson, June 2008, ISBN: 10329617
‘Art connections going beyond a cringe’, review by Robert Nelson, The Age, 26 December 2007
‘Kit Wise, Rhapsodia’, review by Robert Nelson, The Age, November 7, 2007
‘Rhapsodia’, review by Megan Backhouse, The Age Melbourne Magazine, November 2007
‘Human pinballs’, Lisa Byrne, catalogue essay for Rhapsodia, CCP, Melbourne, November 2007
‘On landscape and utopia’, Dr. Rhiannon Evans, catalogue essay for Rhapsodia, CCP, Melbourne, November 2007
‘Bside’, review by Megan Backhouse, The Age Melbourne Magazine, December 2006
‘The B Side’, catalogue interview, Olivia Poloni & Jessie Borrell, December 2006, ISBN: 0980307414
‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’, catalogue essay by Christine Morrow for ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, August 2006
‘Rome in Fragments’, catalogue essay by Jacopo Benci for ‘Responding to Rome: British Artists in Rome 1995 – 2005’, Estorick Collection, London, January 2006
‘Wise Guy’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 34, October-December 2005,
p.108–113; by Edward Colless
‘Flying to a Higher Artistic Plane’, The Age, 22 October 2005, p.8 Review, by Peter Hill
‘City Highlights’, The Mercury, 22 October 2005, by Joerg Andersch
‘Sojourner: Kit Wise’, unMagazine, Issue 5, October 2005, p.44-45; by Kirsten Rann
‘Nocturne’ Artlink Vol. 23 No. 3, 2003, p.90, by Briony Lee Downes
‘Feral fetishes to the fore’, The Age, 19 May 2003, by Robert Nelson
‘Body Bag: Contemporary Tasmanian Art’, catalogue essay, August 2003
‘Travelling the Roundabout’, catalogue essay, May 2003
‘How Sweet’, catalogue essay by Dr. Ross Moore for ‘Oh, what a sweet thing is this perspective!’; Faculty Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield, Melbourne
‘Exploring a female panorama’, by Jane Rankin-Reid; Sunday Tasmanian; 16.09.01, p.48
‘Fine Arts 1999 – 2000’, catalogue edited by Jacopo Benci, The British School at Rome, 2000
‘Rosa’, catalogue essay by Valentina Bruschi for ‘Rosa’, Galleria Pino Casagande
‘Accademia Britannica’, by Angelo Capasso; Rome Time Out Roma; 12.10.99, p.53
‘Something to declare’, catalogue essay by David Hansen for ‘Tourist’, CAST, Hobart
‘Asylum’, by Mike Curran, Time Out London; 16.06.99, p.42