Francis Upritchard (born 1976) is a New Zealand

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

ist based in London. In 2009, she represented New Zealand at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

Education

Upritchard graduated from the

Ilam School of Fine Arts The Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, located in the Ilam suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, was founded in 1882 as the Canterbury College School of Art. The school became a full department of the university in the ...

at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, School of Fine Arts in 1997. She had initially thought to study painting, but became interested in sculpture during her first year. Soon after graduating, Upritchard moved to London.

Work

Upritchard's early work often referenced museum displays, collections of artefacts, and ancient cultures. She often combined found objects with her own hand-made additions, such as sculpted heads made from modelleing clay of dogs, monkeys and birds inserted into the necks of ceramic and glass vessels, or fastened onto pieces of sporting equipment like hockey sticks and cricket bats. Other works showed faux-antique delicate instruments in shabby velvet-lined boxes. She also became known for her sculptures that replicated shrunken heads, resting on display cabinets or mounted on small pedestals. Made of plaster and paper mache, the heads referenced

mokomokai Toi moko, or mokomokai, are the preserved heads of Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, where the faces have been decorated by tā moko tattooing. They became valuable trade items during the Musket Wars of the early 19th century. Many to ...

, tattooed shrunken heads made by New Zealand's indigenous

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

, but the features were those of Pākeha peoples. In 2006/2007, Upritchard decided to start exploring the human figure in her work. In a 2012 newspaper profile she said: 'I didn't think there was so much good figurative work in contemporary sculpture. ..I went to Munich and saw he 15th-century sculptor

Erasmus Grasser Erasmus Grasser (c. 1450 – c. 1515) was a leading master builder and sculptor in Munich in the early 16th century. Biography He developed in an animated and realistic style, furthering on the works of Nikolaus Gerhaert. Grasser worked mainly ...

's Morris Dancers.' Upritchard's figures are made of polymer clay laid over wire armatures; their skin is painted in everything from neutral tones to brightly coloured grids, and they are variously naked and clothed in robes and gowns, also made by the artist. Curator

Anne Ellegood Anne Ellegood (born 1966 or 1967) is an American curator and museum director who is the executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ellegood joined the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as a curator in 2009, and embarked on ...

writes:

Some hail from long-ago eras—protagonists of medieval mythology like the knight, the harlequin, the jester—while others are from the more recent past—beatniks, hippies, and other nonconformists. Various figures are identified by their vocation—music teacher, potato seller, psychic—or distilled to a primary, and often less than laudatory, characteristic, such as “liar,” “misanthrope,” “ninny,” or “nincompoop.”

The influences on Upritchard's figurative sculptures are various: the figures in the

Bayeux tapestry The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery, embroidered cloth nearly long and tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest, Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William the Conqueror, William, Duke of Normandy challenging H ...

, Japanese

Noh theatre is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. It is Japan's oldest major theater art that is still regularly performed today. Noh is often based on tales from traditional literature featuri ...

, 1960s psychedelic portraiture, Grasser's wooden figures, the bronze figures of the

Chola dynasty The Chola dynasty () was a Tamil dynasty originating from Southern India. At its height, it ruled over the Chola Empire, an expansive maritime empire. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd cen ...

, court jesters and medieval performers. Writers about these works often reference counter-cultural movements, hippies, shamans and marionettes when describing them. Comparisons have been made to the earlier work of

Bruce Conner Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. Biography Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933, in McPherson, Kansas. His w ...

and

Paul Thek Paul Thek (November 2, 1933 – August 10, 1988) was an American painter, sculptor and installation artist. Thek was active in both the United States and Europe, exhibiting several installations and sculptural works over the course of his life. Po ...

and Upritchard's closer contemporaries

Ryan Trecartin Ryan Trecartin (born 1981) is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Phi ...

Lizzie Fitch Lizzie Fitch (born 1981) is an American artist who works in the mediums of sculpture, video, performance, and installation art. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. Her long-term collaborator is Ryan Trecartin; their videos ...

and

Saya Woolfalk Saya Woolfalk (born 1979, Gifu City, Japan) is an American artist known for her multimedia exploration of hybridity, science, race and sex. Woolfalk uses science fiction and fantasy to reimagine the world in multiple dimensions. Saya Woolfalk i ...

. Upritchard often collaborates with furniture designer Martino Gamper (also her husband) on the plinths her sculpted forms stand on, which sometimes take the forms of tables and bureaus, and more recently of steel pedestals. Natalie Hegert writes:

The care taken in the aesthetic choices of furniture reveals Upritchard’s interest in craft, further evidenced by her attention to textiles, lamps, jewelry, urns, and other accoutrements. In Upritchard’s sculpture, it is not enough for the figure to be sculpted from clay and set upright—the drapery, adornment, and environment related to the figure are integral to the work itself.

Career

Bart Wells Institute and Beck's Future nomination

In December 2001, Upritchard co-founded an

artist-run space An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...

, the Bart Wells Institute, with fellow artist Luke Gottelier in a semi-derelict Hackney warehouse. The Bart Wells Institute ran for about two years and exhibitions were curated by artists including Sam Basu, Brian Griffiths, David Thorpe and

Harry Pye Harry William Pye (born 31 August 1973) is a British artist, writer, and event organizer. Early life Pye was born in London. He completed a foundation course at Camberwell School of Art in 1991. He then studied printmaking at Winchester School ...

. In 2003 Upritchard was shortlisted for the

Beck's Futures Beck's Futures was a British art prize founded by London's Institute of Contemporary Arts and sponsored by Beck's beer given to contemporary artists. Prior to the establishment of the prize in 2000, Beck's had sponsored several exhibitions of con ...

prize for an installation titled ''Save Yourself'', now in the

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the ...

collection. The installation, featuring a small mummy figure, wrapped in rags lying on the floor vibrating and moaning, surrounded by

canopic jar Canopic jars are funerary vessels that were used by the Ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptians to house embalmed organs that were removed during the mummification process. They also served to store and preserve the viscera of their soul for the afterl ...

s, was shown at the Bart Wells Institute. The work was seen by Beck's Future selector

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

, who nominated it for the award. The work was seen by collector

Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi ( ; ; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest advertising agency in the 19 ...

and the nomination and acquisition were Upritchard's career break-through.

Walters Prize award

In 2005 Upritchard had her first exhibition in New Zealand, ''Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed'' at Artspace, Auckland. The previous year her work had been shown at

City Gallery Wellington City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi is a public art gallery in Wellington, New Zealand. History City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi began its life as the Wellington City Art Gallery on 23 September 1980 in a former office block located at 65 ...

in the survey exhibition of recent New Zealand contemporary art ''Prospect: New New Zealand Art''. ''Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed'' was nominated for the 2006

Walters Prize The Walters Prize is New Zealand's largest contemporary art prize. Held biennially since 2002, the prize aims to 'make contemporary art a more widely recognised and debated feature of cultural life'. The prize is named in honour of New Zealand ab ...

, hosted by

Auckland Art Gallery Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...

and Upritchard was selected as the winner by judge

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev (born December 2, 1957) is an Italian-American writer, art historian, and exhibition maker who served as the Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea in Turin in 2009 and from 2016 to 2023. She was al ...

. In her citation Christov-Bakargiev wrote:

I had seen images of Upritchard's work, and of some of the other finalists' works, previous to experiencing this exhibition. But I had never seen the work in the flesh. The difference is astounding. Upritchard's work resists photography and reproduction, and this too, in the age of overwhelming communications and surveillance technology, gives me a good feeling, somewhat of an escape route.

Venice Biennale

In 2008 New Zealand's public arts funding body

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government established in 1963. It invests in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes a ...

announced that two artists would represent New Zealand at the 2009

: Upritchard and painter

Judy Millar Penelope Judith Millar (born 1957) is a New Zealand artist, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand and Berlin, Germany. Education Millar received a BFA in 1980 and an MFA from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. As recipien ...

. Upritchard's work for the Biennale consisted of a number of sculptural installations displayed in the former private residence, the Fondazione Claudio Buziol. Titled ''Save Yourself'', the works showed dreamy or dancing figures displayed on hand-made tables, mixed with ceramic lamps. It was the first time Upritchard mixed figures and furniture in such a way, an approach which has become a signature aspect of her current work. The figures, handbuilt from polymer clay, stand about 50 centimetres tall. Usually naked, or adorned with handmade and hand-dyed cloaks and textile wrappers, they are painted variously in solid block colours or patterns, including

Harlequin Harlequin (, , ; , ) is the best-known of the comic servant characters (Zanni) from the Italian commedia dell'arte, associated with the city of Bergamo. The role is traditionally believed to have been introduced by the Italian actor-manager Zan ...

blocks and grids. The artist said of these works:

I want to create a visionary landscape, which refers to the hallucinatory works of the medieval painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, and simultaneously draws on the utopian rhetoric of post-sixties counterculture, high modernist futurism and the warped dreams of survivalists, millenarians, and social exiles.

The

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

acquired the work ''Dancers'' from the installation for its permanent collection. Two other works, ''Horse Man'' and ''Rainwob Tree'', are in the collection of the

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is a contemporary art museum at New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in ...

Collaborative works

In recent years Upritchard has frequently collaborated with furniture designer Martino Gamper (also her husband) and jeweller

Karl Fritsch Karl Fritsch (24 February 1864 – 17 January 1934) was an Austrian botanist. He was a specialist on the Gesneriaceae and the taxonomy of monocots. Biography Fritsch was born in Vienna, the son of meteorologist Karl Fritsch, and educated ...

. In their 2009 exhibition ''Feierabend'' at Kate Macgarry was an early outing of their collaborative works, mixing Gamper's furniture with Upricthard's sculpted figures and Fritsch's jewellery and objects. For their 2011 installation ''Gesamtkunsthandwerk'' for the

's international group exhibition ''Stealing the Senses'', Upritchard, Fritsch and Gamper collaborated with other New Zealand artists, most from New Plymouth: weaver Lynne Mackay, potter Nicholas Brandon, bronze-caster Jonathan Campbell, felter Pam Robinson, glass blower Jochen Holz and woodturners Jan Komarkowski and Peter Wales. The exhibition was re-presented at Hamish McKay Gallery in Wellington. The title is a German word meaning 'a total artwork that involves all the parts of the arts and in particular the work of the handmade'. The artists stated:

We don't understand why there needs to be such distinctions amongst art, craft and design. Arts and crafts weren't always separated. We are interested in collapsing hierarchies that operate in language and value. We feel that we are making work with similar intuition, care and intent.

Upritchard continues to work collaboratively and enlist others in the making of her work, most recently with New Plymouth potter Nicholas Brandon, who was trained by

Mirek Smíšek Miroslav Smíšek (2 February 1925 – 19 May 2013) was a Czechoslovakian-born New Zealand pottery, potter. After fleeing the Czech coup and eventually arriving in New Zealand he started work for Crown Lynn and later established his own pottery ...

. For her 2016 exhibition ''Dark Resters'' at Ivan Anthony Gallery in Auckland and the Ilam Campus Gallery at Canterbury University Brandon made ceramic works and glazes that formed part of Upritchard's installations, with textiles and her signature figures.

Public art

Upritchard's first piece of public art is installed in inner-city Auckland on

Symonds Street Symonds Street is a street in Auckland, New Zealand's most populous city. The road runs southwest and uphill from the top of Anzac Avenue (originally Jermyn Street), through the City Campus of University of Auckland, over the Northwestern Moto ...

. Titled ''Loafers'', the work consists of three bowl-shaped concrete plinths topped with Upritchard's idiosyncratic human figures, and several snake forms, cast from bronze. Upritchard has said of these works:

The Loafers plinths reference important ceramic artist
Lucie Rie Dame Lucie Rie, (16 March 1902 – 1 April 1995) () was an Austrian-born, independent, British studio potter. She is known for her extensive technical knowledge, her meticulously detailed experimentation with glazes and with firing and her unu ...
. Rie pioneered domestic-ware in Britain, and her small works were developed at the same time as huge outdoor bronzes and in my mind, share a sort of 1950's aesthetic.

In 2022, Upritchard's ''Here Comes Everybody'' was unveiled for the Sydney Modern Project of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

Survey exhibition: ''Jealous Saboteurs''

In February 2016 a survey show of the first 20 years' of Upritchard's work, ''Francis Upritchard: Jealous Saboteurs'', opened at MUMA (the

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

Museum of Art, Melbourne). The exhibition was co-curated by MUMA director Charlotte Day and

chief curator Robert Leonard. The exhibition opened at

in May 2016.

Publications

Upritchard's own work is informed by her reading, especially in the area of speculative fiction, and the catalogues accompanying her work often feature essays by novelists, including

Hari Kunzru Hari Mohan Nath Kunzru (born 1969) is a British novelist and journalist. He is the author of the novels '' The Impressionist'', '' Transmission'', ''My Revolutions'', '' Gods Without Men'', ''White Tears'',David Robinson"Interview: Hari Kunzru, ...

, David Mitchell and

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 A ...

. Publications on Upritchard's work include: *''Heads of Yesteryear'', London: Kate Macgarry, 2005 *''Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed'', Auckland: Artspace, 2005. *''Human Problems'', London and Rotterdam: Kate Macgarry and Veenman, 2006. *''Every colour by itself'', London: Dent-de-Leone, 2009. * ''Save Yourself'', New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2009. *''In die Hole'', London: Dent-de-Leone, 2010. *''A hand of cards'', Nottingham: Nottingham Contemporary, 2012. *''Francis Upritchard: Mandrake'', Dublin: The Douglas Hyde Gallery, 2013. *''Francis Upritchard: Potato poem'', Kyoto: Foiru, 2013. *''Francis Upritchard's Moneksy and Sloth'', London: Whitechapel Gallery and Garden Press, 2014.

Public gallery exhibitions

* 2016 ''Francis Upritchard: Jealous Saboteurs'', Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne and

; ''Dark Resters'', Ilam Campus Gallery, University of Canterbury and Ivan Anthony Gallery Auckland * 2014 ''Hammer Projects: Francis Upritchard'',

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

Los Angeles; Whitechapel Gallery Children's Art Commission,

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...

* 2013 ''Potato Poem'', Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (MIMOCA), Kargawa, Japan * 2012 ''Francis Upritchard: A Long Wait'', Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; ''A Hand of Cards'',

Nottingham Contemporary Nottingham Contemporary (formerly known as the Centre for Contemporary Art Nottingham (CCAN)) is a contemporary art centre in the Lace Market area of Nottingham. The gallery opened in 2009. The gallery describes its site as being "the oldest i ...

, Nottingham *2011 ''Echo'', Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoor, the Netherlands; ''Gesamtkunsthandwerk'' with Martino Gamper and

*2010 ''IN DIE HÖHLE'', Wiener Secession, Vienna *2010 ''Save Yourself'',

*2009 ''Save Yourself'', New Zealand representation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, *2008 ''Rainwob I'',

; ''Rainwob II'', Artspace, Auckland and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne *2006 The Walters Prize,

*2005 ''Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed'', Artspace, Auckland * 2004 Artist in Residence, Camden Arts Centre * 2003 ''Boxing Arms'',

Dunedin Public Art Gallery The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, Dunedin Town Hall, and other facilities such as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Upritchard, Francis 1976 births Living people New Zealand contemporary artists People from New Plymouth 21st-century New Zealand sculptors Ilam School of Fine Arts alumni 21st-century New Zealand women sculptors