Biography
Simon Ingram
b. 1971, Wellington, New Zealand
Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand
Broadly speaking Simon Ingram’s project is an inquiry into the conversation between art and contemporary technology. More specifically, it develops the modernist notion of the autonomous, self-made artwork in relation to painting as a constructional and computationally based self-organising system. His practice articulates itself in three distinct lines of work: machines made from Lego robotics and generic constructional materials that paint autonomously in oil paint with a brush; paintings made by the artist that use artificial life systems as a method to govern composition and decision making; and video work related to his painting machines’ production. Drawing on divergent strands of knowledge (artificial life, painting, critical theory), the project re-stages and reinvents painting as a critical, contemporary project that explores painting’s conceptual signification while remaining resolutely fabricational.
With the machines, Simon Ingram customises off-the shelf Lego to make self-making paintings that expose hand-made painterly gesture to a model of painting that is mechanistic and electronic but which maintains dialogue with certain gritty, material and traditional givens in the practice of painting such as makerly thickness, gesture and support. Painting Assemblage No.6, on show at Victoria University of Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery and Auckland University of Technology’s St Paul Street Gallery in September 2007, appropriated the gallery as studio to paint an algorithmically generated T-square fractal. Attached to the gallery wall, and clutching its brush, the machine’s “paint head” travelled over a 2 x 2 metre raw linen canvas painting each stroke in thick white oil colour, periodically dipping its brush into a dripping Lego paint pot. Although the format of the fractal was determined by the machine’s software, the sequence of brush strokes and decisions on their length and density were generated on-the-fly and in relation to the moment-to-moment life of the painting - all of which contributed to the complex visual field of the paintings produced which were pictorially lyrical and dense yet produced entirely by a machine over the course of the exhibition.
Simon Ingram has exhibited locally and internationally for over ten years and is a Senior Lecturer at Elam School of Fine Art. His work is held in key NZ collections such as those of Jenny Gibbs, Glenn Schaeffer and the Chartwell and Fletcher Trusts. Recently he was awarded a University of Auckland Best Doctoral Thesis Award, a Creative New Zealand New Work Grant and a Francis Hodgkins Fellowship. In 2007 his work featured in four public gallery exhibitions in New Zealand: Just Painting at Auckland Art Gallery; Four Times Painting at Victoria University of Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery; The Secret Life of Paint at Dunedin Public Art Gallery; PX: A Purposeless Production/A Necessary Praxis at Auckland University of Technology’s St Paul Street Gallery. In 2008 his work featured in five local and international exhibitions: Drawing for an autopoietical painting: Monochrome in C (2005) with Monochrome in K at A Centre for Art, Auckland; My Eyes Keep me in Trouble at The Physics Room; Julian Dashper - 1994, 2001, 2008, Simon Ingram - 1996, 2002, 2008, Salvatore Panatteri - 1998, 2003, 2008 at Newcall Gallery in Auckland; Yo Yo Modernism at CCNOA center for contemporary non-objective art in Brussels: Minus Space P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center - MoMA affiliate in Long Island City, New York.
Education
2006 DocFA, University of Auckland, New Zealand
1999 Masters in Visual Arts, Sydney College of Art, University of Western Sydney, Australia
Certificate in Information Technology, Sydney TAFE, Sydney, Australia
1995 Post Graduate Diploma, University of Western Sydney, Australia
1992 BA Fine Art, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2007 Simon Ingram - Drawing for an autopoietical painting: Monochrome in C (2005) with Monochrome in K, A Centre for Art, Level 3, Rm 5 Achilles House.
2006 Matter Thinks. SnowWhite Gallery, Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand.
Reading Room - Jackson Mac Low Interview With a Painting. Rm103, Auckland, New Zealand.
2005 Painting as Machine. George Fraser Gallery. The University of Auckland. Auckland, New Zealand.
Drawing Machine. Clubs Project Space. Melbourne, Australia.
Drawing Machine. Canary Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Garden. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
2004 Painting as Machine. Auckland, Te Tuhi - The Mark. Curated by Rhoda Fowler. Auckland, New Zealand.
Towards a Painting That Thinks. MOP Projects. Curated by Billy Gruner, Ron and George Adams. Sydney, Australia.
2003 Dialogical Paintings. Rm103. Curated by Nick Spratt. Auckland, New Zealand.
Simon Ingram. MOP Projects. Curated by Billy Gruner, Ron and George Adams. Sydney, Australia.
SPACE paintings. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
2001 Lines. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
AEIOU. Published Art Bookshop. Curated by Sharon Tredennick. Sydney, Australia.
1999 Informational Space. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Simon Ingram. Gallery South. Curated by Gallery South board. Sydney, Australia.
1998 Studio show. 18th Street Santa Monica. Santa Monica, California, USA.
1997 Industrial Watercolours. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Information Paintings. CBD Gallery. Curated by CBD Gallery board. Sydney, Australia.
1996 Instrumental. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Paintings With Rules. CBD Gallery. Curated by CBD Gallery board. Sydney, Australia.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008 Yo Mo Modernism, CCNOA - center for contemporary non-objective art, Brussels, Belgium.
Minus Space. Curated by Phong Bui, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / MoMA Long Island City, NY.
Julian Dashper - 1994, 2001, 2008, Simon Ingram - 1996, 2002, 2008, Salvatore Panatteri - 1998, 2003, 2008. Newcall Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
My Eyes Keep me in Trouble. Curated by Tillman. The Physics Room - A contemporary art project space in Christchurch. Christchurch, New Zealand.
2007 A Greater Purpose. Curated by Anouska Akel, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland.
Four Times Painting. Curated by Tina Barton. Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington.
The Secret Life of Painting. Curated by Justin Paton, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand. University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.
Julian Dashper, Billy Gruner, Simon Ingram, John Nixon. Curated by Sydney Non Objective (SNO), Sydney, Australia.
A Purposeless Production/A Necessary Praxis. Curated by Leonhard Emmerling. St Paul st Gallery, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
2006 Just Painting. Curated by Natasha Conland, curator Contemporary Art,
Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand.
Satellite. Curated by John Di Stefano. Shanghai, China.
The Future of Painting. Curated by Ben Curnow. Canary Gallery, Auckland.
Four Nails. St Paul street Gallery, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand. Curated by Mary Louise Brown, Julian Dashper and Simon Ingram.
2005 Snake Oil - Chartwell Acquisitions. Curated by Robert Leonard. Auckland Art Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
2004 Seeds of Order, Chaos of Rhythms. Curated by Allan Smith. Anna Bibby Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
New New Zealand Art. Curated by Ben Curnow. MOP Projects. Sydney, Australia.
Duets - Launch of the Abandoned Sculpture Project. Curated by Lauren Winstone. RAMP Gallery, Waikato Institute of Technology. Hamilton, New Zealand.
2003 From the Shadows to the Sun. Curated by Ben Curnow. Rm103. Auckland, New Zealand.
Yellow Pages Germany. Curated by John Armleder. Braunschweig, Germany.
Images of Desire. Curated by Jan van der Ploeg. Artwalk, Staatsliedenbuurt district. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Portraiture - The Art of Social Commentary. Curated by Rhoda Fowler. Te Tui-The Mark. Manukau City, New Zealand.
Group Show. Curated by Billy Gruner, Ron and George Adams. MOP Projects. Sydney, Australia.
2002 Images of Desire. Curated by Jan van der Ploeg. Artwalk, Staatsliedenbuurt district. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Group show. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
2001 False Narratives. Curated by Ruark Lewis. Experimental Art Foundation (Adelaide, Australia), City Art Gallery (Wollongong, Australia), RMIT Gallery (Melbourne, Australia).
Saturated Skins. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Curated by Bill Riley and Noel Ivanoff. Auckland, New Zealand.
Actually. Rubyayre Gallery. Curated by Simon Ingram, Jason Markou and Jeorg Hubmann. Sydney, Australia.
1998 Screen Show. Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Jim Speers & Simon Ingram. Curated by CBD Gallery board. CBD Gallery. Sydney, Australia.
1997 Toby Curnow & Simon Ingram. Pendulum Gallery. Curated by Pendulum Gallery board. Sydney, Australia.
1996 CBD benefit show. CBD Gallery. Group exhibition curated by CBD Gallery board. Sydney, Australia.
1995 Debut Exhibition. Curated by Toby Curnow. Inhouse Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
A Very Peculiar Practice, Aspects of Recent New Zealand Painting. Curated by Allan Smith. Wellington City Gallery. Wellington, New Zealand.
Selected Biography
Conland, N. (2007). Four Times Painting. Edited by Christina Barton. Published by The Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington. Wellington, New Zealand.
Di Stephano. J. and the Satellite curatorial board. (2006). Shanghai, China.
Laird, T. (2005). New Zealand Listener, April 14 - 28. Auckland, New Zealand.
Gifford, A. (2005). “Magic of the Machines.” The New Zealand Herald, Weds March 30. Auckland, New Zealand.
Smith, A. and S. Ingram. (2004). Towards a Painting That Thinks. Manukau City, ArtSchool Press, Manukau Insitute of Technology. ISBN 0-476-00671-6. Auckland, New Zealand.
Fowler, R. (2003). Portraiture, The Art Of Social Commentary. Te Tui-the Mark. Manukau City, New Zealand.
McNamara, T.J. (2003). “Dynamic variations of simple patterns.” NZ Herald. Auckland, New Zealand.
Green, T. (2001). “Lines.” PostWest Magazine. University of Western Sydney. Edited by Ben Genocchio. Sydney, Australia.
Smith, A. (2000). “Informational Space.” Like Art Magazine. RMIT. Edited by Robin McKenzie. Melbourne, Australia.
Green, T. (1998). “Industrial Watercolours.” The Physics Room website (http://www.physicsroom.org.nz/). Edited by Tessa Laird. Christchurch, New Zealand.
Smith, A. (1997). New Zealand Modernism, The Content of Form, Paintings From the Gibb’s Collection. Edited by James Ross. Auckland, New Zealand.
Smith, A and Davis, L. (1995). A Very Peculiar Practice, Aspects of Recent New Zealand Painting. Wellington, City Gallery. ISBN 0-908818-31-9.
Selected Bibliography
Ingram. S. (2008). Conference presentation and contribution to proceedings. “Tipping painting’s verticality on its side.” In the The International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Melbourne.
Ingram. S. (2006). Short monograph. “The Value of Andy Barber’s No Collar Abstraction.” New Artist Show. Artspace, Auckland.
Ingram, S. (2006). Short monograph. “Milan Haber’s ‘Deep Drawing.’” SnowWhite Gallery, Unitec, Auckland.
Ingram, S. (2006). Conference presentation and contribution to proceedings. “Painting as a Thinking Machine.” In the conference workshop Computational Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence for Beauty and Happiness. The Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Boston.
Ingram, S. (2006). Short monograph. “Simon Denny’s Bright Lumpen Object Sentences.” Catalogue essay for forthcoming publication at Michael Lett Gallery. Auckland, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2005). Essay/interview. “Ingram Interviews Armanious: The Potting Shed Cosmologist.” Natural Selection. Edited by Gwynneth Porter and Dan Arps: http://www.naturalselection.org.nz/ Auckland, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2005). Conference presentation and contribution to proceedings. “Painting Life: Automata in Painting and A-life.” International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society. University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Ingram, S. (2004). Artist portfolio. "Dialogical Paintings." Landfall (207): 128-137. ISSN 00-23-7930. University of Otago. Dunedin, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2004). Journal article. "Machinic Practice in Painting." Junctures - The Journal for Thematic Dialogue 2(2): 33-44. ISSN 1-877139-65-3. Otago Polytech. Dunedin, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2004). Full conference paper. “Materialist practice in painting and self organising systems.” Processing Novelty. Intermedia and Time Based Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland. http://processingnovelty.creative.auckland.ac.nz Auckland, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2002). Artist portfolio. “Spirit Level Drawing.” Probe Magazine. Edited by Gywn Porter. Manukau Institute of Technology. Manukau City, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2002). Short monograph. Fusinato’s Kinaesthetic Monochromes.” Exhibition catalogue, Gus Fisher Gallery, The University of Auckland. Edited by Robin Stoney. Auckland, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2002). Short monograph. “Jan Van der Ploeg.” Lives of the Artists. Edited by Elizabeth Pulie. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (2002). Article. “Jim Speers.” Illusions. Edited by Lawrence McDonald. Wellington, New Zealand.
Ingram, S. (2002). Short monograph. “Maddie Leach's Ice Rink and Lilac Ship.” Haiku review (#1 spring 2002) published by Carnival Askew. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (2000). 3 Short monographs. “Andreas Gursky, Gerhard Richter, Rosalie Gascoigne.” Biennale of Sydney Education Kit. (3 essays). Edited by Craig Judd. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (2000). Article. “Doug Aitken and Pippilotti Rist.” Postwest, University of Western Sydney. Article. Edited by Ben Genocchio. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (2000). Article. “Mimi Tong.” Like Art Magazine, RMIT. Edited by Robin McKenzie. Melbourne, Australia.
Ingram, S. (1999). Artist portfolio. Magazine cover image, and “Review of Los Angeles Studio residency.” Postwest, University of Western Sydney. Edited by Ben Genocchio. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (1998). Artist portfolio. “Lay Bare the device.” Material. Edited by John Nixon. Sydney, Australia.
Ingram, S. (1994). Article. “Walters’ Double Bind”. Post, Art History Department, The University of Auckland. Edited by Caleb Stuart. Auckland, New Zealand.
http://www.humanitiesresearch.net/humanz/users/individuals/ingram_simon