Boris Cipusev (born Ljubljana 1988) is an Australian artist known for his highly detailed and colourful drawings in felt-tip pen and watercolour pencil. His work often incorporates text sourced from signage and advertising billboards, which he encounters in the commute between his residence in the suburb of Preston and his Northcote-based studio at Arts Project Australia, where he has worked since 2007. A series of his text-based works were acquired for the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in 2014, and appeared in their blockbuster exhibition of contemporary art, Melbourne Now, in the same year.
Career, themes and style
Since 2007, Cipusev has been a regular studio artist at Arts Project Australia (APA), an organisation devoted to supporting and promoting artists with an intellectual disability. Although he received no formal training prior to commencing his studio residency there, his participation in the program at APA has provided him with access to fine art materials and the informal tuition provided by the practicing artists employed by the organisation. Shortly following the commencement of his work at APA he began exhibiting regularly in Australia and participated in his first international group exhibitions in 2014, in the Scotland and Canada (see EXHIBITIONS). In 2013, David Hurlston, Curator of Australian art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), selected a series of fifty drawings, entitled Who Next? (2010), for the landmark exhibition Melbourne Now. These works were also acquired for the collection of the NGV. Since that time Cipusev has continued to exhibit his work at the APA gallery and at La Trobe University.
Cipusev’s drawings have been noted for their visual representations of text. The works usually consist of a carefully placed word drawn in highly coloured felt-tip pen against a white background.[1] His manner of combining multiple word or word-number combinations which are open for deciphering and interpretation by viewers, has seen his work described as “enigmatic” and “poetic.”[1] His works are typically inspired by his immediate environment; advertising in the landscape, objects in his domestic home and workplace, television, the names of people he knows or figures from popular culture.
Selected group exhibitions
- Paper Projects, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 2016
- That’s Funny, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2015
- Connected, Yarra Gallery, Federation Square, Melbourne, 2014
- Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, 2008 – 2014
- The Soft Knife, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, NSW, 2014
- Turning the Page, Gallery 101, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 2014
- Hybrid Making – new work from Australia, Canada, Scotland, Project Ability Gallery, Scotland, 2014
- Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013 – 2014
- Repeat, Restate… Reiterate, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2013
- Detours through abstraction, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2011
- High Views, Northern Exposure Festival, Northcote Town Hall, Melbourne, 2010
- Hidden, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2010
- Frank and Friends, Sheffer Gallery, Sydney, 2010
- Licorice Allsorts, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, 2009
- Studio Days, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne, 2007
Collections
- National Gallery of Victoria, AUS