Brit Bunkley (born 1955 in New York City) is a New Zealand/U.S. artist whose art practice includes sculpture, installation, public art and video, since the 1990s with an emphasis on 3D digital media. Awards include the National Endowment for the Arts, the CAPS grant, and the Rome Prize Fellowship. His work expresses a keen interest in history, politics and the environment. Matthew Crookes wrote for the Creative New Zealand funded arts agency, Circuit that “Bunkley’s practice throws up many contradictions: the emphasis on the surface, yet the references are to things and ideas outside the work itself. Pessimism mixed with dry humour. The maker of monuments now deconstructing them. Bunkley has taken the ‘unspoken power’ of monuments and unpacked it, and laid it bare.”

Early life and education

Brit Bunkley was born in New York City. He attended

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

and

Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...

1973-1979. He received an MFA from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in New York in 1984. He immigrated from New York City to New Zealand in 1995 to take up a teaching position as head of sculpture at the Quay School of the Arts Whanganui. He became a New Zealand citizen in 1998.

Public sculptures

His early career in the U.S.A. included a number of permanent public art commissions including ''Gate Mask'' in New York City of which Michael Brenson wrote in the New York Times: “Rubbing together a new suburban façade that seems to be rising and an old façade that seems to be sinking into the ground creates sparks with social and political colorations.” The sculpture was moved from Manhattan to the Islip Art Museum. Islip, NY in 1984. Other works included a sculpture commission at City College, NYC, a New York M.T.A. Arts for Transit Commission, Long Island Railroad, Bay Shore Station, Bay Shore, N.Y. and the front entrance of the

Minnesota History Center The Minnesota History Center is a museum and library that serves as the headquarters of the Minnesota Historical Society. It is near downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is considered one of Minnesota's finest public buildings. The History Cent ...

, St. Paul, Minnesota both completed in 1992. In 2012 he completed the commission, ''Hear My Train a’ Comin’'' in Whanganui, NZ. He has recently completed a number of temporary public art projects with Andrea Gardner including ''Peaceable Kingdom Whanganui'' in Whanganui, New Zealand, 2020.

Digital and video art

Bunkley began making experimental digital and video art in the 1990s as a response to his new place of residence in NZ. In a 2003 interview, he said “Because of my relative isolation from sources of commissioned work, I jumped head first into the 3D digital realm which has proven not only a technical challenge but opened up creative possibilities that I never knew existed.” His first solo exhibition of 3D digital art, ''Monuments and Icons,'' was at the

Sarjeant Gallery The Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui at Pukenamu, Queen's Park Whanganui is currently closed for redevelopment. The temporary premises at Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay currently house the Sarjeant Collection, and all exhibitions a ...

in Wanganui, New Zealand in 1998. Bunkley organized and participated in the digital sculpture exhibition at Wellington's

Adam Art Gallery Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, ''Intersculpt 2001'' He exhibited video 3D animations at Te Papa (the Museum of NZ), Wellington, NZ for the 2002 exhibition ''st@rt up : new interactive media and animation''. In 2002 he was invited as an a''rtist-in-residence'' ("working artist") for ''

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

: 2002's art gallery'' in San Antonio, Texas. He exhibited digital 3D video as part o
''Ciberart-Bilbao'' ''2004''
in Bilbao, Spain. Bunkley, along with Ian Gwilt, organized and exhibited in the 3D digital sculpture and 3D animation exhibition, ''MadeKnown'' at the UTS Gallery in Sydney Australia in 2005. Art critic Mark Amery, in a 2013 Circuit Podcast, said that Bunkley's “video work is in more film and video festivals around the world, be it Moscow or Oslo, than any other New Zealand artist that Circuit can think of.” Bunkley has screened and exhibited his video artwork at numerous exhibitions and festivals including: * ''Visions in the Nunnery'', Bows Art/Nunnery Gallery, London, 2022 * ''Art Takes 2021,'' Ki Smith Gallery, NYC, NY, 2021 *The NewMediaFest2020 screening in Berlin, Teufelsberg, Berlin, Germany, 2020 * NewMediaFest2020 7/8 WOW Jubilee VIII U.S.A. Torrance Art Museum Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2020 *LesRencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Le Carreau Du Temple, Paris, France,

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of the World's Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and so ...

, Berlin, Germany, 2019 * Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, Germany, 2019 *

International Short Film Festival Oberhausen The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for the short form. The festival holds an International C ...

, Oberhausen, Germany, 2018 * ''Ghost Shelter/6'' at The Federation Square Big Screen, Channels Festival, Melbourne, Australia, 2017 * Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, Greece, 2017 *''E.V.A.'' Experimental Video Architecture¸ Isolab, Venice, Italy, 2016 *''FILE 2015;'' Fiesp Cultural Center, São Paulo, Brazil, 2015 *''Melbourne Art Fair'', Melbourne, Australia, 2014 * ''Paradox of Plenty,'' public exhibition for the month of September at the Oslo Central Station'','' Oslo Screen Festival in collaboration with Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2013 *''Now&After’12'', Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russian Federation, 2012 *Rencontres Internationales Paris/Madrid/Berlin,

Pompidou Center The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris 2010, the Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid, Spain, and the

, Berlin, Germany, 2011 * ''Sanctioned Array-Other2 Specify,'' White Box Gallery, NYC, U.S.A., 2010 Install 10

Selected solo exhibitions

*''How they Dream/The Gilded Age,'' The Scott Lawrie Gallery Auckland, NZ, 2022 *''Blood River,Moon Roll and other Favourites'' at the Institut für Alle
Mögliche
Stützpunkt Teufelsberg, Berlin, Germany, 2019 *''Ghost Shelter 2016-2018'' at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand, 2018 * ''Ghost Shelter 17'' at Te Uru, Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand, 2017 * ''Ghost Shelter Berlin'', Abteilung für Alles Andere, Berlin-Mitte, Germany, 2016 * ''The Happy Place'' at Sanderson Contemporary Art, Auckland, New Zealand, 2015 *''Paradox of Plenty,'' Pah Homestead'','' TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, 2013 *''Don’t Worry, Be Happy'', Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2010 * ''Slow Train a Comin’'', NZ Film Archive -Pelorus Trust Mediagallery, Wellington, New Zealand 2007 * ''Rural Vignettes'', video installation, Auckland NZ Film Archive Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006 *''I have a Feeling We Are Not in Kansas Anymore'' ''Toto'', Lopdell House, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005 * ''Following Gravity’s Rainbow'', NZ Film Archive -Pelorus Trust Mediagallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 2005 *''3D Works: Signs (“and other similar entities”)''
''Te Tuhi - The Mark''
Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand, 2002

Selected awards

Bunkley has received numerous awards and grants for his sculpture and video, including the Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome 1985–86, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

fellowship (1980). *

Fellowship, 1980 * C.A.P.S.,

Creative Artists Public Service Creative may refer to: *Creativity, phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created * "Creative" (song), a 2008 song by Leon Jackson * Creative class, a proposed socioeconomic class * Creative destruction, an economic term * Creative dir ...

, N.Y. State Artist Fellowship 1983 *

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell (1905–1996), ...

(N.Y.S.C.A.), Project grant, 1984 *

Rome Prize Fellowship The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

, 1985 -1986 * Winner of the 2008/2009 Connells Bay Temporary Installation Project, Connell's Bay Sculpture Park, New Zealand, 2008 * Winner of Sculpture Whanganui, "Hear My Train a' Comin'", Whanganui, New Zealand, 2011 *''Now&After 2012,'' 3rd prize, the

Moscow Museum of Modern Art The Moscow Museum of Modern Art is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Moscow, Russia. It was opened to public in December 1999. The project of the museum was initiated and executed by Zurab Tsereteli, president of the Russian Aca ...

, 2012 * ''Sustainability Short Film Competition,'' second prize;

UNCG The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-a ...

and The

Weatherspoon Art Museum The Weatherspoon Art Museum is located at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the southeast with a focus on American art. Its programming includes fifteen or more e ...

, Gainsborough NC, USA, 2019

References