Damian Moppett (born 1969), is an artist whose practice spans sculpture, painting, drawing, photography and video and who often uses one medium as the starting-point for another. In a similar way, he uses movements in art history or what are for him, iconic sculptures which he wants "to fold into his work", such as

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

's ''Early One Morning'' (1962) or an artist he considers his alter ego

Hollis Frampton Hollis William Frampton Jr. (March 11, 1936 – March 30, 1984) was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer, theoretician, and pioneer of digital art. He was best known for his innovative and non-linear structural films that def ...

. He has been a Vancouver resident since 1990.

Career

Moppett was born in Calgary. His mother is Carroll Moppett (now Taylor-Lindoe) and his father is Ron Moppett, artists who taught him painting and drawing. He received his BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design (now University) (graduated 1992), with artists such as Steven Shearer and

Geoffrey Farmer Geoffrey Farmer (born 1967) is best known for extensive multimedia installations made of cut-out images which form collages. Early career Farmer was born at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, BC in 1967 and grew up in the Dundarave neighbourhood ...

, and an MFA from

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

(graduated 1995). He teaches at the

Emily Carr University of Art and Design The Emily Carr University of Art and Design (stylized as Emily Carr University of Art + Design and abbreviated as ECU) is a public university of art school, art and design located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1925 as the Van ...

and has had residencies at the International Residences Program in the Visual Arts, SPACE, London, UK (2009) and elsewhere.

Work

Damian Moppett's work is diverse with a wide range of media. In the 1990s he made photographs as art and photography is the basis for much of his work but he also finds essential the transfer process of one medium to another. Around 2017, he took a two-year break, and mostly stopped making art. On his return, he used photography as a source for paintings, selecting images from his own photographs and that of photographers such as

Lee Friedlander Lee Friedlander (; born July 14, 1934) is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 1970s, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of his photographs including fra ...

and others. He titled his show of these works in 2021 at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, ''Damian Moppett: Vignettes''. Moppett also transforms paintings or drawings into large-scale public sculptures as in ''Untitled Abstract Drawing in Space'' (2019-2020), made of stainless steel, aluminum plate, copper pipe and enamel, which is approximately 200" x 190" x 96" and hangs in the lobby of the

Art Gallery of Alberta The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies an building at Churchill Square (Edmonton), Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittor ...

. He said of his work in 2016:

"There`s a launching point where I`m looking at a moment or author or a specific work and then using that as a point of departure for creating something else that then uses it as a specific historical reference, or has a material connection, or is speaking to my ideas of authorship and my practice."

Selected exhibitions

Moppett’s solo exhibitions include shows at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2005);

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

Art Gallery, Ottawa (2006); Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia (2007); Yvon Lambert, Paris (2007); Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver (2010); Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver (2011);

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

Off-site (2012);

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

Gallery, Burnaby (2014); and Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver (2021). Moppett has also been included in numerous group exhibitions at Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2002);

Power Plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2002); Galerie Kunstbuero, Vienna (2004); White Columns, New York; Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp (2005); Yvon Lambert, New York (2006); Witte de With, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2006); Vancouver Art Gallery (2010); Satellite Gallery, Vancouver (2011);

, Edmonton (2016); the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

, Ottawa (2017); and Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver (2018). Moppett is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. In 2023, Catriona Jeffries Gallery held a show of Moppett's work titled ''Half Life'' of Moppett's free-standing paintings which resembled a "giant pop-up book or diorama through which viewers can wander at will".

Selected public collections

Moppett's work is in such collections as the

, the

and MOCA.

Career

Work

Selected exhibitions

Selected public collections

References

Further reading