Julian Dashper: To the Unknown New Zealander

Texts by Jenny Harper, Julian Dashper, Peter Vangioni, Mark Kirby
Published by the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, 2007
28p, color, softcover, 8.25 x 6 inches
ISBN: 978-1-877375-14-9

Biography
Julian Dashper was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on February 29, 1960 (leap year day) and died in Auckland on July 30, 2009.  During his brief but influential career, he mounted more than 140 solo exhibitions of his work worldwide, including in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. 

His major New Zealand exhibitions include Julian Dashper’s Greatest Hits, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (1992); The Big Bang Theory, Artspace (1994); and The Twist, Waikato Museum of Art and History (1998). In 2005-2006, a mid-career survey of Dashper’s work, Midwestern Unlike You and Me, curated by Christopher Cook and David Raskin, traveled throughout the United States, including to the Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, Iowa; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska; and Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas.

In 2010 here at the gallery, we mounted the well-received, posthumous solo exhibition Julian Dashper (1960-2009): It Is Life, which marked the one-year anniversary of the artist’s passing and featured a single artwork entitled Future Call, as well as written tributes to him by more than 70 artists and others internationally. Dashper’s work was also presented in our survey exhibitions MINUS SPACE at MoMA/PS1, NYC (2008-2009) and MINUS SPACE en Oaxaca: Panorama de 31 artistas internacionales in Oaxaca, Mexico (2012), as well as the group exhibitions Neither Here nor There but Anywhere and Everywhere (2012) and On Paper (2016), among other projects.

In 2001, Dashper was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and was an artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. His work is included in public collections internationally, including the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery; Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin; Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Robert McDougall Gallery, Christchurch; Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui; Suter Gallery, Nelson (all New Zealand); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany.