Brit Bunkley

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Brit Bunkley
Born1955
New York City
NationalityNew Zealand, United States
EducationMacalester College

B.F.A. Minneapolis College of Art and Design

M.F.A. Hunter Collage
Websitehttps://www.britbunkley.com/

Brit Bunkley (born 1955 in New York City) is a New Zealand/U.S. artist whose art practice includes sculpture, installation, public art and video, since the 1990s with an emphasis on 3D digital media. Awards include the National Endowment for the Arts, the CAPS grant, and the Rome Prize Fellowship. His work expresses a keen interest in history, politics and the environment.

Matthew Crookes wrote for the Creative New Zealand funded arts agency, Circuit[1] that “Bunkley’s practice throws up many contradictions: the emphasis on the surface, yet the references are to things and ideas outside the work itself. Pessimism mixed with dry humour. The maker of monuments now deconstructing them. Bunkley has taken the ‘unspoken power’ of monuments and unpacked it, and laid it bare.”[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Brit Bunkley was born in New York City. He attended Macalester College and Minneapolis College of Art and Design 1973-1979. He received an MFA from Hunter College in New York in 1984. He immigrated from New York City to New Zealand in 1995 to take up a teaching position as head of sculpture at the Quay School of the Arts Whanganui. He became a New Zealand citizen in 1998.

Public sculptures[edit]

Gate Mask, at the Islip Art Museum, Islip, N.Y., 1985

His early career in the U.S.A. included a number of permanent public art commissions including Gate Mask in New York City of which Michael Brenson wrote in the New York Times:[3] “Rubbing together a new suburban façade that seems to be rising and an old façade that seems to be sinking into the ground creates sparks with social and political colorations.” The sculpture was moved from Manhattan to the Islip Art Museum. Islip, NY in 1984.[4] Other works included a sculpture commission at City College, NYC, a New York M.T.A. Arts for Transit Commission,[5] Long Island Railroad, Bay Shore Station, Bay Shore, N.Y.[6] and the front entrance of the Minnesota History Center,[7] St. Paul, Minnesota both completed in 1992. In 2012 he completed the commission, Hear My Train a’ Comin’ [8] in Whanganui, NZ. He has recently completed a number of temporary public art projects with Andrea Gardner including Peaceable Kingdom Whanganui in Whanganui, New Zealand, 2020.[9]

Digital and video art[edit]

Bunkley began making experimental digital and video art in the 1990s as a response to his new place of residence in NZ. In a 2003 interview, he said “Because of my relative isolation from sources of commissioned work, I jumped head first into the 3D digital realm which has proven not only a technical challenge but opened up creative possibilities that I never knew existed.”[10] His first solo exhibition of 3D digital art, Monuments and Icons, was at the Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui, New Zealand in 1998.

Bunkley organized and participated in the digital sculpture exhibition at Wellington's Adam Art Gallery, Intersculpt 2001[11] He exhibited video 3D animations at Te Papa (the Museum of NZ), Wellington, NZ for the 2002 exhibition st@rt up : new interactive media and animation. In 2002 he was invited as an artist-in-residence ("working artist") for SIGGRAPH: 2002's art gallery in San Antonio, Texas. He exhibited digital 3D video as part of Ciberart-Bilbao 2004 in Bilbao, Spain. Bunkley, along with Ian Gwilt, organized and exhibited in the 3D digital sculpture and 3D animation exhibition, MadeKnown at the UTS Gallery in Sydney Australia in 2005.[12]

Art critic Mark Amery, in a 2013 Circuit Podcast, said that Bunkley's “video work is in more film and video festivals around the world, be it Moscow or Oslo, than any other New Zealand artist that Circuit can think of.”[13] Bunkley has screened and exhibited his video artwork at numerous exhibitions and festivals including:

  • Visions in the Nunnery, Bows Art/Nunnery Gallery, London, 2022
  • Art Takes 2021, Ki Smith Gallery, NYC, NY, 2021
  • The NewMediaFest2020 screening in Berlin, Teufelsberg, Berlin, Germany, 2020[14]
  • NewMediaFest2020 7/8 WOW Jubilee VIII U.S.A. Torrance Art Museum Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2020[15]
  • LesRencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Le Carreau Du Temple, Paris, France, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2019
  • Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, Germany, 2019[16]
  • International Short Film Festival Oberhausen , Oberhausen, Germany, 2018[17]
  • Ghost Shelter/6 at The Federation Square Big Screen, Channels Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2017
  • Athens Digital Arts Festival,[18] Athens, Greece, 2017
  • E.V.A. Experimental Video Architecture¸ Isolab, Venice, Italy, 2016[19]
  • FILE 2015; Fiesp Cultural Center, São Paulo, Brazil, 2015[20]
  • Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia, 2014
  • Paradox of Plenty, public exhibition for the month of September at the Oslo Central Station, Oslo Screen Festival in collaboration with Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2013[21]
  • Now&After’12, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russian Federation, 2012[22]
  • Rencontres Internationales Paris/Madrid/Berlin, Pompidou Center, Paris 2010, the Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid, Spain, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2011
  • Sanctioned Array-Other2 Specify, White Box Gallery, NYC, U.S.A., 2010
Ghost Zone, a video and digital sculpture installation at the Sargent Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand, 2018[23]

Selected solo exhibitions[edit]

  • How they Dream/The Gilded Age, The Scott Lawrie Gallery Auckland, NZ, 2022
  • Blood River,Moon Roll and other Favourites at the Institut für Alles Mögliche/Stützpunkt Teufelsberg, Berlin, Germany, 2019[24]
  • Ghost Shelter 2016-2018[25] at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand, 2018
  • Ghost Shelter 17 at Te Uru,[26] Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand, 2017
  • Ghost Shelter Berlin, Abteilung für Alles Andere, Berlin-Mitte, Germany, 2016
  • The Happy Place at Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland, New Zealand, 2015[27]
  • Paradox of Plenty, Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, 2013
  • Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010
  • Slow Train a Comin’, NZ Film Archive -Pelorus Trust Mediagallery, Wellington, New Zealand 2007
  • Rural Vignettes, video installation, Auckland NZ Film Archive Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006
  • I have a Feeling We Are Not in Kansas Anymore Toto, Lopdell House, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005
  • Following Gravity’s Rainbow, NZ Film Archive -Pelorus Trust Mediagallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2005
  • 3D Works: Signs (“and other similar entities”), Te Tuhi - The Mark, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand, 2002

Selected awards[edit]

"Hear My Train a' Comin''" 2012

Bunkley has received numerous awards[10] and grants for his sculpture and video, including the Rome Prize Fellowship[28] at the American Academy in Rome 1985–86, the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship (1980).

Further reading[edit]

  • Brenson, Michael (1984-07-13). Sculpture Goes Outdoors for Summer. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331
  • The Commuters May Rush, But the Art is There to Stay, The New York Times, December 2, 2001
  • Drayton, Joanne (2005). Critical Illusions. Whanganui, New Zealand. ISBN 047310010X[10]
  • Titmarsh, Mark (2006). MadeKnown, Digital Technologies and the Ontology of Making. Sydney, Australia: DAB DOCS 2006. pp. 88, 96. ISBN 0-646-46244-X[31]
  • Brieske, Claudia (2006). Virtual Residency, ISBN 978-3-9812208-0-3 pp 146–147
  • Brennan, Stella. Ballard, Susan, (2008). Aotearoa Digital Arts Reader. Aotearoa Digital Arts. ISBN 978-0-9582789-9-7. OCLC 244390710, pp 36–37[32]
  • Marshall, John. Perimeters, Boundaries and Borders. (2008) ISBN 978-0-615-21355-2. 2008 OCLC 890642295. [33]
  • Hurrel, John. Han, Young Sun. (2008) Beautiful Terrors, SBN-13: 978-0-473-14107-3, ISBN 0-473-14107-8
  • Bloodworth, Sandra. (2006). Along the way, MTA Arts for Transit. Monacelli Press. p. 169. OCLC 607170011[5]
  • Fleming, Ronald Lee. (2007). The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design. Merrell. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-85894-371-8[6]
  • Oil, Dust Devils and Disneyland, Art News New Zealand, Summer 2015 pp 86–88
  • Apperley, Jane. (2016). The Artists: 21 Practitioners In New Zealand Contemporary Art c. 2013-2015. ISBN 9780992249342, ISBN 0992249341, pp 11– 16[34]
  • McClintock, Sarah [edited by Kylie Sanderson]. (2017). Twenty / Twenty : 20 artists / 20 writers /. ISBN 9780473403706 pp 12 –19[35]
  • Woodward, Robin. Straight, David (2019). Connells Bay Sculpture Park. Connells Bay Sculpture Trust. ISBN 0473484056, 9780473484057, pp 22–23[36]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand". CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  2. ^ "Summer Reading Series #3: Brit Bunkley's Ghost Shelters". CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  3. ^ Brenson, Michael (1984-07-13). "Sculpture Goes Outdoors for Summer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  4. ^ Harrison, Helen A. (1984-09-23). "Art; the Workings of the Artist's Mind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  5. ^ a b Bloodworth, Sandra. (2006). Along the way : MTA Arts for Transit. Monacelli Press. p. 169. OCLC 607170011.
  6. ^ a b Fleming, Ronald Lee. (2007). The art of placemaking : interpreting community through public art and urban design. Merrell. pp. 84–85. ISBN 978-1-85894-371-8. OCLC 260119345.
  7. ^ "Art and Architecture". Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  8. ^ a b Staff Reporter (2011-05-06). "Bunkley artwork wins riverbank spot". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  9. ^ WhangaChron (2020-03-29). "Peaceable Kingdom: Three-dimensional art on a Whanganui wall". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  10. ^ a b c Drayton, Joanne (2005). Critical Illusions (PDF). Wanganui, N.Z. pp. 6, 20–22. ISBN 047310010X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ "Intersculpt 2001 | Adam Art Gallery". Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  12. ^ "Made Known · UTS ART". art.uts.edu.au. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  13. ^ "CIRCUIT CAST Episode 4: Pulp Fan Fiction, Online Sales and Beautiful Creatures". CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  14. ^ "Institut für Alles Mögliche / Berlin". CLAUDIA BORGNA. 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  15. ^ "NewMediaFest2020 7/8 WOW Jubilee VIII USA Torrance Art Museum" (PDF).
  16. ^ "Program Catalog ONLINE". Program Catalog ONLINE | Kasseler Dokfest. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  17. ^ "CIRCUIT at Oberhausen IFF 2018 by". CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  18. ^ "*/13th Athens Digital Arts Festival | Catalogue". Issuu. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  19. ^ "Experimental Video Architecture – EVA | My Art Guides". My Art Guides | Your Compass in the Art World. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  20. ^ "FILE SAO PAULO 2015 – VIDEO ART". FILE FESTIVAL. 2015-06-04. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  21. ^ "THREE SHORT FILMS AT OSLO CENTRAL STATION". Oslo Screen Festival. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  22. ^ "Return of the Spider Man, New Zealand Herald, 23 September, 2013". 18 September 2023.
  23. ^ "Brit Bunkley: Ghost Shelter 2016-2018 / 2 June – 26 August, 2018 – Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui". Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  24. ^ "ONGOING". Institut für Alles Mögliche. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  25. ^ "Ghost Shelter – Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui". Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  26. ^ "Window Space 2017 - Te Uru". www.teuru.org.nz. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  27. ^ "Exhibition | Sanderson Gallery". www.sanderson.co.nz. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  28. ^ "List of fellows of the American Academy in Rome (1971–1990)", Wikipedia, 2020-07-18, retrieved 2020-09-30
  29. ^ "ARHIVE". now-after.org. Retrieved 2020-09-26.
  30. ^ "Film & Discussion Series - UNCG Sustainability". Sustainability. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  31. ^ Titmarsh, Mark (2006). MadeKnown, Digital Technologies and the Ontology of Making. Sydney, Australia: DAB DOCS 2006. pp. 88, 96. ISBN 0-646-46244-X.
  32. ^ Brennan, Stella. Ballard, Susan, 1969- (2008). Aotearoa Digital Arts reader. Aotearoa Digital Arts. ISBN 978-0-9582789-9-7. OCLC 244390710.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ Marshall, John. (2008). Perimeters, boundaries and borders. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-0-615-21355-2. OCLC 890642295.
  34. ^ Apperley, Jane; Darragh, Tamara; Sanderson, Kylie; Sanderson Contemporary Art, issuing body (2013-01-01). "The artists : 21 practitioners in New Zealand contemporary art c. 2013-2015 / edited by Jane Apperley, Tamara Darragh & Kylie Sanderson". The artists : 21 practitioners in New... | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  35. ^ Sanderson, Kylie; Sanderson Contemporary Art, issuing body (2017-01-01). "Twenty / twenty : 20 artists / 20 writers / [edited by Kylie Sanderson]". Twenty / twenty : 20 artists / 20 wri... | Items | National Library of New Zealand | National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  36. ^ Woodward, Robin; Gow (Photographer), James; Straight, David (2019). Connells Bay Sculpture Park. Connells Bay Sculpture Trust. ISBN 978-0-473-48405-7.
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