MARCEL COUSINS

Born: 1972 Melbourne

• Contemporary
• Painter
• Known
• Established

Marcel Cousins fourth solo show at the Helen Gory Galerie ‘is as arrestingly beautiful as it is masterful in technique’.
Edward Colless, Head of Art History VCA 2003

Marcel has a deep and ongoing affiliation with Asian culture. He completed his Masters Degree in 2002 at the Tokyo National University of Fine Art, gathered up a host of awards there as well as in Australia.

With work collected in the National Gallery of Australia, ArtBank, the Michael Buxton Collection and other important private institutions, Cousins is an artist whose exhibitions and artworks should not be missed.

The resultant works of “OFFICIAL LANGUAGE” are an investigation of ‘The real’ in terms of simulation rather than emulation, repetition rather than originality, and appropriation rather than creation.

“Images depend on there meaning not from its association with the real but it’s association with other images. The differences are in constant negotiation with historical contexts and cultural interpretations.

Working with enamel paint, airbrush and stencils, I have produced a body of work resembling and mimicking official formats commonly seen on passports, money, cheques, identification papers and so on.
By utilizing hard edge graphics and saturated hues the works set out to reveal a depthlessness.
There is a concentration on style aimed at luring the bearer into believing what they possess, is real and authentic.
Shedding light on images that interplay between possession and power.
The documents’ value is gained from a specific place in space, time and context, which will in [a short] time be eroded and superseded…
Official documents of today will become documentation of an image-based language of the past, replaced by the magnetic strip or other digital modes of verifying identity, ownership and authenticity.” Marcel Cousins 2004

Cousins explores commerce, culture and history using easily identifiable icons in a totally unconventional context, highlighting the transient nature of visual or written language. Depending on where the viewer comes, language by nature with its endless creative capacity can’t help but generate unexpected meanings. Our attempt to codify and make sense of our complex world is ever changing and evolving.

Marcel Cousins
Born, 1972, Melbourne Australia

QUALIFICATIONS
2000-2002 Japanese Government “Monbusho” Scholarship Award to study printmaking under Professor Nakabayashi at Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Art, Masters Student[received First Class Honours]
1999 Research Student/Printmaking at Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Art, Monbusho Scholarship
1994 - 1996 Bachelor of Fine Art, Major Printmaking, Victoria College of The Arts Victoria (First Class Honours 95/96)
1993 Bachelor of Graphic Design, Swinburne University, Victoria (incomplete)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2003 Fishing in a Bath Tub, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
2002 Looking in the Rear Vision Mirror, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
2002 Please Pass The Pepper, Miyuki Gallery, Tokyo
2001 If You Want To Be Moved Take The Bus, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1999 Careful!, I know judo and four other Japanese words Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
1998 Insert Coins Maki Gallery, Tokyo

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2004 New Social Commentaries, Warnambool Art Prize, Warnambool Art Gallery
33 Degrees, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
2003 Royal Rumble, Kings artist run space, Melbourne
Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Gold Coast
2002 The Mysteries of Japan, Satelite Gallery, Paris
D’lan contemporary art space, Brisbane
2001 this is me, ddm gallery, Shanghai, China
1997 – 1999 Trash live exhibition Tokyo waterfront site – curated by Mr Yamagishi, owner/director Maki Gallery
1998 Victoria College of the Arts, Union Grant Exhibition
Larger Than Life Gallery Chika, Ebisu Tokyo with Daisuke Deguchui, Ikuyo Kawaguchi, Trinh Vu
Fremantle Print Award Exhibition Fremantle Western Australia
1997 ActivArt Asiz Gallery, Tokyo (supported by the Australian Embassy)
Fremantle Print Award Exhibition Fremantle, Western Australia
Australian Printmedia Award Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Sydney
1996 Annual Summer Print Show Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
Hong Ik University 50th Commemorative Exhibition Hong Ik University, Seoul, South Korea (including work from Japan, America and China)
Faraway So Close Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne
Computer Art and Technology Exhibition Stop 22 Gallery, Melbourne
1995 Fremantle Print Award Exhibition Fremantle, Western Australia

AWARDS
2004 Finalist in Alice Springs Art Prize (winner to be announced)
Finalist in Geelong Art Prize (winner to be announced)
Kao Foundation Grant,Japan
2003 Acquistion Award, Conrad Jupiters Art Prize 2003
2000/02 Monbusho Scholarship, Japanese Ministry of education, Masters Student
2002 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize finalist
2001 Fremantle Print Award, finalist, Western Australia
2000 Dyson Bequest awarded by the Director of the National Gallery of New South Wales
1999 Japanese Monbush Scholarship, research project, National University of Fine Art, Tokyo
1998 Victoria College of the Arts, Student Union Grant
Queens Trust Young Achievers Award to undertake an internship at Shin Nishon Zokei Co. print studio Tokyo, Japan under print master Masao Ikeda
1996 Principal Lecturer’s Award VCA, Melbourne
T’gallant wine label award, work placed on the Chardonnay 1996
Queens Trust Young Achievers Grant
Logan City Art Award Finalist, Logan Queensland
Canson Print Award work exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney
1995 Victoria College of the Arts, National Gallery of Victoria Women’s Association Encouragement Award

COMMISSIONS AND COLLECTIONS
2003 Artbank
Gold Coast City Art Gallery
The Michael Buxton Collection
2002 Illustrated "Cheelin the Giraffe Who Went To China" A Silk Road Project
2001 Artbank Australia Collection
2000 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
1998 Artbank Australia Collection
1996 Victoria College of the Arts Collection

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2004 Imprint, Spring 2004, Vol 39, number 3, pg 25
2003 Catalogue No 18, full page image in Conrad Jupiters Art Prize Catalogue
2003 Vogue Mag, Nov 2003, FRAMED
2003 ABC TV, Asia Focus, closing the progamme, Sunday Nov 19
2003 Cream, oct/nov/dec 2003, artofficial, ‘Kissing Cousins’
2003 Monument Issue #57, Nick Dent, Site Exhibition
2003 Australian Art Collector Issue #26, Edward Colless
2002 The Age,Domain, Holly Evans, diary with image
2002 MVC, Micheal Magnusson, June, full page with image
2002 Oyster Magazine Issue 40 June /July,full page with image
2002 Australian Style, July, full page article with images, Holly O'Neil
2002 Black and White, Issue 61 June/July. Pg 6 mixed media Felicity Loughrey
2002 Catalog Magazine, /futureshock78.html, Ishil Ishytar
2002 Art Monthly, March, Neilton Clark
2002 Monument Issue 47 April/May 02, Listing with Image,
2002 Australian Art Collector, Andrew Frost [Review] Issue 20, April-June 2002
2001 Australian Style, June Issue Ticket To Ride Andrew Frost
2001 Printmaking Today, Vol10No1, London E2 8AG, Learning To Look Both Ways
1999 The Sunday Age Kay Stewart [Review] 28 November
1999 Asashi Evening News[Japan], Debut Leaves lasting Imprint Monty Dipietro

RESIDENCY
2003 Three month residency in artist studio, Japan. April/June