Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Words: Gabriel Knowles Images: Tristan Ceddia & Jasper Knight

Jasper Knight’s contribution to as a young pop-artist and curator cannot be underestimated. As an artist his deceptively detailed depictions of our industrial and urban landscapes are as striking as they are bright. As the curator and founder of Sydney’s Chalk Horse Gallery, Knight has created a community and platform for up and coming artists and curators to show their wares, which arguably is his greatest achievement. The Blackmail dropped by Knight’s warehouse studio in the lead up to his latest show for a quick tour.

“I paint vertically. It’s a gloss on gloss thing. I know I’m painting well when they background is doing as much for me as the foreground.”

“It’s quite sculptural really, I would like to think. I used to plan it quite meticulously but it doesn’t matter so much I think.”

“It’s about the 1964 World Trade Fair in New York at Flushing Meadows. They had a lot of pop artists at the fair, they commissioned a lot of artists including Warhol, he had a work called Thirteen, it was about the 13 most wanted men in America at the time. It also launched the muscle car in America which interests me because I paint a lot of cars.”

“I don’t think a lot of artists place enough importance on showing overseas, it’s criminal. I place a lot of emphasis on showing overseas, it’s very important to me.”

“I was meant to have a really big show in Thailand which I’ve had to cancel obviously.”

“It’s great, I don’t have to sell for a dealer and I get to show with interesting artists.”

“We’re not precious about maintaining the integrity of the white cube.”

“It works like any other gallery these days, there are three or four artists that are paying the bills and then the rest are genuinely good artists doing solo shows.”

“It’s a lot of hard work, I’m there until midnight most nights.”

Jasper Knight
Chalk Horse

Next story: Ace Of Spades – Lemmy