John Copeland
John Copeland is interested in the energy of the initial gesture of the painting. The translation of emotion through body motion to canvas, in a conscious but unfiltered manner. The new works are about letting go, letting go of the anxieties of painting, while confrontationally motivating simultaneously constricting, and through that process, creating room for a more intuitive expression. Vibrant brush and line work, paint applied with a sculptural approach rising from the canvas. Applied, scraped and pulled, every gesture intact, the very motion recorded. Bold, dynamic and stripped down, while synchronously poetically elusive. Figurative and abstract, earnest, precise, ambiguous and disarmingly loose, this new body of work stand as a jubilant testament to the year-long process Copeland has undertaken in its creation.
Born in 1976 in California, US
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, US
EDUCATION
BFA, California College of Arts and Crafts, California, US
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Destino Matar, Eighteen, Copenhagen, Denmark
This Is Not My Beautiful House, Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City, Mexico
2021
Heavy Reverb, Huxley-Parlour,
London, United Kingdom
2020
I Feel It In My Bones, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2018
If You Can Read This, You’re In The Wrong Place, Eighteen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Your Heaven Looks Just Like My Hell, Newport Street Gallery London, UK
2016
Wolves Wait At Your Door, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014
Electric, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2013
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, Galerie Alex Daniels-Reflex Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012
You’ll Never Be The Same, Galleria Marabini, Bologna, Italy
Answers To Questions I Never Asked, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2011
I am who I am: The Portrait Reconsidered, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, US
Art Brussels, with V1 Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
2010
Times of Grace, Reflex Art Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dirty Old Town, Volta with V1 Gallery, New York, US
High Life, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2009
Old Glory, Nicolas Robinson Gallery, New York, US
2007
Galerie de Meerse, Hoofddorp, The Netherlands
2006
Undercurrents, 31Grand, Brooklyn, New York, US
2005
o.k., Juice Gallery, San Francisco, California, US
2004
Moonshiner, 31 Grand, Brooklyn, New York, US
2001
Paintings from Underground Trains, BBH Gallery, New York, US
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
V1 XX - Twenty years of V1 Gallery, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Art Herning, V1 Gallery, Herning, DK
2021
Lampadephoria, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
It Was Askew (Sedated Poisen), V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2020
MINE IV, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Today’s Special #7, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Today’s Special #1, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Art Herning, Group Presentation with V1 Gallery, Herning, Denmark
2019
MINE III, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Birds, CHART Art Fair with V1 Gallery, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark
New Mythologies: Figurative Abstraction in Contemporary Painting, Huxley-Parlour, London, UK
2018
Tables, Pots & Plants – A song for Matisse, V1 Gallery at VOLTA14, Basel, Switzerland
2017
Nude, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Simulation/Skin; Selected Works from the Murderme Collection,
Newport Street Gallery, London, UK
Paint It Black, Chart with V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
NY Art Book Fair, PS1, New York, US
2015
13, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014
Volta10 Basel, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen Denmark
2013
Chicken Or Beef, curated by Jesper Elg, The Hole Gallery, New York, US
Bad Painting, John Copeland & Katherine Bernhardt, V1 Gallery at Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
Volta9 Basel, with V1 Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
Summer Reading, The Hole, New York, US
2012
Tonight We Won’t Be Bored – Ten Years of V1 Gallery, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Arco, Reflex Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Volta8 Basel, with V1 Gallery, Basel, Switzerland
WONDERS – Masterpieces from Private Collections in Denmark, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, Denmark
Market, V1 Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Hell Raisers, Galerie Lange + Pult . Zurich, Switzerland
2011
Status- Somewere between position and condition, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
What’s He Building in There?, curated by Jesper Elg and Mikkel Grønnebæk, Fuse Gallery, New York, US
I am who I am: The Portrait Reconsidered, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, US
2010
Album, V1 gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Big Picture, Priska Juschka Fine Art, New York, US
2009
Selector, PLSMIS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Art Copenhagen, V1 Gallery booth, Denmark
John Copeland-Florian Sussmayer, NEXT fair with Nicholas Robinson Gallery, Chicago, US
The New Yorkers, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Volta, V1 Gallery. Basel, Switzerland
2008
The Boys Are Back in Town, V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sex, Drugs and Rock + Roll, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, US
Glass Houses curated by Eddie Martinez. Werkstette Gallery, New York, US
John Copeland – Wes Lang, NEXT Fair, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, Chicago, US
The Boys Are Back in Town, Roma Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, US
Strangefolks, Allston Skirt Gallery with Elizabeth Huey and Logan Grider, Boston, US
2007
I Remember Nothing, Sehlman Helwaser Art Gallery, New York, US
We are Moonrakers, OKOK Gallery, Seattle, US
Also Known As, Fette’s Gallery Los Angeles, California, US
We Are Near, Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, US
Personal Effects, Fette’s Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
2006
Private Viewing, Columbia University, New York, US
Grand Union, The Front Room, Brooklyn, New York, US
2005
John Copeland / Nicola Lopez at Irvine Contemporary Art, Washington D.C., US
Featured artist with 31grand, Scope NY, New York, US
Life in a Box, Fabrica Features Gallery, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Young Americans, Wake Forest University, Charlotte and Philip Hanes Art Gallery, Winston-Salem, US
2004
Vote With Your Art, OK Harris, New York, US
Russian Doll Show, Hope Street Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, US
2003
Scratch, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, US
Lead Poisoning, New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
Strange Bedfellows, Art Department, Manchester, UK
Assembly, The Front Room, Brooklyn, New York, US
I Walk the Line, 31grand, Brooklyn, New York, US
2002
Dime Bag,New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California, US
Decipher 1.0, NY Arts Gallery, New York, New York, US
Ten Fold, The Project, New York, New York, US
2000
Sketch, UICE, San Francisco, California, US
1999
Open, JUICE, San Francisco, California, US
1998
Introductions at Laurence L, Hulberg Fine Art, San Francisco, California, US
SPECIEL PROJECTS
Whitney Museum 2007 Artist Collaboration for Summer of Love Art Party, New York, US
PUBLICATIONS
I Feel it in My Bones, exhibiton catalogue, V1 Gallery/Trojan Horse Press, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2020
If You Can Read This You’re in The Wrong Place, exhibition catalogue, Eighteen/Trojan, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2018
Your Heaven Looks Just Like My Hell, exhibition catalogue, Newport Street Gallery, United Kingdom, 2018
Climbing Coors Mountain, V1 Gallery /Trojan Horse Press, Copenhagen,
Denmark, 2017
Simulation/Skin, Newport Street Gallery, United Kingdom, 2017
Electric, exhibition catalogue, V1 Gallery/Trojan Horse Press, Copenhagen, 2015
Times of Grace, Reflex Editions, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2010
Fourteen Hills, Volume 10, No. 1 Art by John Copeland and Chris Johanson
We Are Near, Allston Skirt Gallery, April, 2007
Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art, Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
Selected Works From Journals 7-22, Exhibition Catalog, 2004
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