MICHELLE CULPITT
www.michelleculpitt.com
michelleculpitt@gmail.com
phone 0439 616 013
BIOGRAPHY
Michelle Culpitt is an Australian arts worker, artist and writer based in Darwin – Northern Territory. Born in 1974, Culpitt attended Castlemaine Technical College as a teenager studying fine art and majoring in photography based on black and white darkroom practices. Culpitt went on to study at Prahran College of TAFE with sculptor Aleks Danko, painter Tony Clarke and photographer Graeme Hare who taught her the gum bichromate process, which she has worked with for more than 20 years. Studies continued at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Media Arts -­‐ film, photography and sound (graduating with high distinction) and an honors year in photography at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. In 2013 she completed a Masters of Social Sciences at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in International Development. Since 2013 Culpitt has managed her own arts business – Tent 29. Her artist profiles and reviews have been published in Art Collector, Imprint, Art Monthly, Art Link and Art & Conversation. ART PRACTICE
Michelle Culpitt is a graduate of RMIT media arts, Sydney College of the Arts -­‐ honours in fine art and RMIT -­‐ masters in social science. She has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Alice Springs and Darwin. In 2015 Culpitt was the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts development grant to attend the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland. Culpitt’s art practice is process driven. She uses historic photographic techniques such as the daguerreotype, photogravure and cyanotype methods. Culpitt takes these techniques and layers them with contemporary photographic digital tools, extensive historic research and plant matter and materials from the sites where she works, sites of colonisation and places at the frontier. SELECTED AWARDS AND EXHIBITIONS
2016 ‘The Dark Reactions’, solo exhibition, Nomad Arts Darwin 2015 The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland -­‐ artist / writer in residence -­‐ 1
The Reykjavík International Literary Festival, Iceland – research Australia Council for the Arts development grant recipient Finalist, ‘Josephine Ulrich and Win Schubert Photographic Award’, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Queensland 2014 ‘Sun Studio’, exhibition Castlemaine State Festival, Victoria ‘Burrow’, exhibition with sculptor Annee Miron and author Jaspreet Singh, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, Northern Territory Arts NT presentation and promotion grant recipient ‘Experimentum Prt I: a survey of native plants and their suitability in making anthotype photograms’, solo exhibition Tactile Arts, Darwin, Northern Territory Artist in residence, Tactile Arts, Darwin, Northern Territory NT Literary Awards finalist 2013 Literary Arts Residency, The Banff Centre, Canada Regional Arts Fund grant recipient Arts NT grant recipient Copy Agency Ltd grant recipient EMPLOYMENT
2015 -­‐ 2016 Regional arts broker, Arts NT, Northern Territory Government 2013 Onwards Tent 29 creative project management Clients include Regional Arts Australia, Desart Inc, The National Institute for Experimental Arts at the University of NSW Art & Design, Tjungu Palya Art Centre, Tjala Arts and the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum. 2015 Highlights include: •
Writing and producing the publication ‘Regional Arts Impact Australia – that’s a fact!’ for Regional Arts Australia http://regionalarts.com.au/wp-­‐content/uploads/2015/12/RAA—
Thats-­‐a-­‐fact1.pdf •
Project Managing ‘We are in WonderLAND: new experimental art from Central Australia’ a residency program, symposium and exhibition at the National Institute for Experimental Arts, UNSW Art & Design https://www.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-­‐galleries/we-­‐are-­‐
wonder-­‐land-­‐new-­‐experimental-­‐art-­‐from-­‐central-­‐australia •
Curating ‘Women of Gold’ at the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historic Museum http://www.castlemainegallery.com/upcoming-­‐exhibition/ 2
2008 – 2013 Desart Inc, Alice Springs Northern Territory Senior program manager (including a year as acting EO in 2011) 2005 – 2008 The Association of Northern Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists Industry Development Officer 2000 – 2005 Maningrida Arts and Culture Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Assistant Director / Arts Administrator 1998 – 2000 Biennale of Sydney Arts Administrator Referees available on request 3