ABOUT

Inter-disciplined arts-worker, Andrew Clapham operates within the diversity of current art practice, as if he were a peer of the Renaissance artists of the past. Navigating multiple approaches with energy and verve, Clapham’s primary discipline of print-media informs his creative decision-making across a carefully controlled range of methods. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts (with Honours) and a Masters degree in communication design. He is founder of AMCD studio, a design-focused enterprise working for private and public institutions and holds teaching positions at RMIT University. Printmaking underpins Clapham’s visual and conceptual production; he perceives this discipline as an intersection between art and design. Informed by printmaking’s historical relation to commercial production and its significance as a creative technology in the visual arts, Clapham is able to maintain a precise position, while working on both commercial and creative projects. This versatility is reinforced by his stylistic exploration of abstraction.

Clapham’s aesthetic is determined by multiple defining principles, including abstract image creation, activist approaches, and re-presentations of the altered landscape, interpreted through basic forms, typography, and print. Hybridised creative methods define Clapham’s strategy. He characterises this approach through the definition of the Art Worker; artist, designer, printmaker and illustrator are all functions within this collective term. Such broad specialisation is underpinned by the merging of craft and design or traditional printmaking with digital processes.

Andrew has exhibited widely in Australia, significantly in the prestigious RMIT School of Art Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria and the Melbourne-based printmaking hub, Port Jackson Press. He has been a finalist in numerous art prizes, including, but not limited to, the Swan Hill Print and Drawing Acquisitive Award. Clapham has also developed large-scale public art projects for the City of Melbourne, Merri-bek Council and Stonnington Council in Victoria. His print work has enabled projects with significant studios, such as print collaborations with the internationally-focused Studio Ongarato and Negative Press, a publisher of limited editions and artists’ books. Adding to Clapham’s professional output, he also holds a board membership position at the Sunshine Print Artspace.

Inter-disciplinary artistic approaches enable Clapham to diversify his creative output and extend his professional network. This hybridisation and multi-faceted skill-set position Clapham as an artist of this time, exploring the new paradigm of decentralisation in an ever-expanding artistic network. The definition of Art Worker is an apt cipher for Clapham’s creative practice. As a dedicated studio artist, activist, professional illustrator and designer, Clapham’s unique position creates a strong foundation to explore and respond to new developments in an environment of accelerating change.

Words By Joel Gailer

EDUCATION AND WORKSHOPS

LECTURER: RMIT University, School of Art

BA, Photographic Screen Printing Workshop

2020 — 

LECTURER: RMIT University, School of Design and Social Context

MA, Communication Design, Placemaking and Poster Design Studio 

2022

LECTURER: RMIT University, School of Art

BA, Ceramics & Printmaking, Print and Clay Studio

2022 — 2023

WORKSHOP: MPavilion

Have you seen the Melbourne Flag? 

2022

GUEST LECTURER: RMIT University, School of Art

BA Second-Year Printmaking Studio

2020

WORKSHOP: Sunshine Print Artspace

Guerrilla Screen Printing Workshop

2018

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024. Signals of an Evolving Hoddle Grid,  Metro Tunnel Art,  Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2023. Melbourne Now: Print Portfolio, National Gallery of Victoria, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2023. Printmaking Today: 2nd Edition,  Institut Teknologi Bandung Galeri Soemardja , Bandung (IDSA)

2022. Manufactured Landscapes, Printmaking Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2021. Alter-, Five Walls, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2021. Sydney Contemporary 11,  Carriageworks, Sydney (AUS)

2021. RMIT Print Exchange 2021, RMIT, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2021. 260 Sydney Road Flags, City of Moreland, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2021. Transforming, GMH Gateway Hub, City of Melbourne, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2020. Screenprint on Screen, Megalo Print Studio, Canberra (AUS)

2020. BSide Blindside 2020, Blindside, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2020. RMIT Print Exchange,  RMIT, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2019. VMFF The Social Studio Ten Year Retrospective, School House Studios, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2019. 33 Saxon Street Flag Project, Siteworks, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2019. Art Can Save the World, Sunshine Print Artspace Auction, Sunshine Print Artspace, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2019. Circle, Blak Dot Gallery, Naarm/ Melbourne (AUS) 

2018. Art For Alex, Neon Parlour, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2018. Makers Marks, Memphis Projects, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2018. Swan Hill Print and Drawing Prize, Swan Hill Regional Gallery, Swan Hill (AUS)

2017. LWOO with Andrew Clapham, Port Jackson Press, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2017. Tracing the Line in Contemporary Printmaking, Port Jackson Press, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2017. Print + Form, Siteworks, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2016. Degradation and Decay, Daisylegs Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2016. Image as Language, Text as Image, The Good Copy, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2016. Proof; The Best of Contemporary Printmaking, Port Jackson Press, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2015. RMIT Graduation Exhibition, RMIT, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2013. Open Studios, University of Newcastle (UK)

2013. RMIT Graduation Exhibition, RMIT, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

2012. Crème, RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne (AUS)

SELECTED PROJECTS

2024.  Peter Westwood and Julia Powles What We Feel And What We Know, Verein für Original–Radierung München e.V. Munich (GER)
Custom Screen Printer

2022. Paste Up Program at Siteworks, Brunswick Design District, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Commissioned Artist, Designer and Curator

2019. Phillip Doggett-Williams, iWitness, Kudos, Lorne (AUS)

Custom Screen Printer

2019. Emily Floyd, Anti-totalitarian Vectors, Anna Schwarts Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Print Assistant at Negative Press

2019. Sunshine Print Artspace Open Studio, Gorilla Poster Making, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Graphic Design and Screen Printing Demonstration

2019. Eugenia Lim Forefilment 1 & 2, Gertrude Contemporary, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Custom Screen Printer

2019. Forest Guardians, Prahran Square, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Graphic Designer, Commissioned Artist & Custom ScreenPrinter

2018. The Work Of Art: An Exhibition Of Art, Labour And Working Life, Mission to Seafarers, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Graphic Designer and Temporary Installation

2018. AAANZ, Art Politics and Histories, the Social Content of Art, 2018, AAANZ Conference, RMIT, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Communication and Graphic Designer

2017. Forms of Resistance, Testing Grounds, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Designer and Custom Screen Printer

2017. A Love Story from Southbank, Testing Grounds, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Graphic Designer

2017. Irene Barberis, Tapestry of Light, Canterbury Cathedral Gallery, Canterbury (UK)

Custom Screen Printer

2017. Fabio Ongarato, De Natris Skurit Prints, Naarm/Melbourne (AUS)

Commissioned Artist

© Andrew Clapham 2024

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