Christopher Jewitt is a multi-disciplinary artist currently based in Melbourne. He likes exploring what he knows about his practice in places he knows nothing about. While completing his BA Photography course, majoring in Photojournalism, he received a scholarship to China, during which he won Top Documentary Photographer at Nankai University. Since then he has funded and organised independent residencies in Murcia ESP, Miyazaki JPN, Chalais FR, Paphos CYP and Palermo IT. These isolated intensives have constituted his frenetic image construction.
Christopher Jewitts paintings express his interest in everyday objects in a tempest of colour and marks. He draws (these) objects one on top of the other in roguish figurations until his canvases take on a tactile and whimsical appearance. This allows for multiple angles of sense making.
Layering zigzags across swirls, daubing lines beside dots, think and thin, opaque and semi-transparent, patterns are created, found and lost again.
Jewitt’s paintings combine voltaic saturations of colour and are both gawky and voluptuous. Pure shock blue spins with deep spectrum red, twisted by Australian grey green, and mahogany brown scumbles across lilac pastel – a sumptuous meal for the eyes. Portraying subject matter in a playful manner between abstract and figurative, his style is reminiscent of childhood notebook doodles and simple scribbles. But in the creative discord harmony is always possible.
EDUCATION
2007 - 2011 BA (Drawing + Photojournalism) RMIT University
2011 Student exchange, Tianjin Normal University, CHINA
2013 Master of Teaching, Visual Art, Melbourne University
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 What We Miss, Boom Gallery, Geelong, AUSTRALIA.
2020 Hidden Narrative, Modern Times, Fitzroy, AUSTRALIA
2018 Bubble & Squeak, Rubicon ARI, North Melbourne, AUSTRALIA.
2017 Objectifs Raisonnables, La Barre, Chalais 36370, FRANCE
2016 Lujo Simple, La Postiza, Murcia, SPAIN.
2015 C’est Bon, La Barre, Chalais 37360, FRANCE.
2014 The Workers, Mailbox Art Space, Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000, AUSTRALIA.
2014 Domestos, Tinning Street Gallery, Brunswick, AUSTRALIA.
2014 Family Bonds, House Of Bricks Gallery, Collingwood, AUSTRALIA.
Selected GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Surface + Form, Boom Gallery, Geelong, AUSTRALIA.
2015 The Mad Minute, Rubicon ARI, North Melbourne, AUSTRALIA.
2015 Reciprocity: Learning from, giving back. George Paton Gallery, Carlton, AUSTRALIA.
2014 Connections: Teaching, art, life. George Paton Gallery, Carlton, AUSTRALIA.
2014 Blueprint, Brunswick Arts Space, Brunswick, AUSTRALIA.
2011 Design Awards, Nankai University, Tianjin, CHINA.
AWARDS & GRANTS
2011 YAAD Scholarship to China, RMIT
2011 Nankai University, CHINA, Top Photographer Documentary (WINNER).
ARTIST RESIDENCIES/INTERNSHIPS/SIDE PROJECTS/ASSISTING
2017 La Barre, AIR, Chalais, INDRE, FRANCE.
2016 La Postiza, AIR, Murcia, SPAIN.
2015 La Barre, AIR, Chalais, INDRE, FRANCE.
2012 Mimma Randino, Assisting Artist, Palermo, SICILY.