b. 1978, Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in Sydney
A celebrated presence in the Australian art scene, Jasper Knight’s work has long been associated with the built environment. Knight’s paintings challenge austere readings of the industrial landscape and replace them with something deeper: living infrastructures—the bones upon which contemporary life is fleshed.
His recent series Talking Underwater and The Lost Weekend marked a new direction in Knight’s practice, as the only two figure-based exhibitions in his twenty-year career as an artist spanning over fifty shows. These shows were an exciting departure for Knight, whose previous exhibitions FIREWORKS, Dusk to Dawn and The Shade Bakers have focused on soft botanical observations of urban life and even earlier work, which used assemblage to create hard-edged abstractions reminiscent of industrial landscapes. He recently exhibited a new series entitled The Streets at Art Paris in the Gran Palais, combining inspirations from French New Wave cinema and motifs of muscle cars and traffic jams.
Knight is an eight-time finalist in the Archibald Prize, a four-time finalist of the Sulman and Wynne Prizes, and is a past winner of the Mosman Art Prize. His work is represented in major national and international collections including the National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Australian Consulate (Manila, Philippines) and the Australian Consulate (Singapore). He has exhibited work internationally in a solo capacity and in group presentations in Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Manilla, Miami, Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei.
His portrait book, 50 Portraits, was published by Artist Profile in 2025 and his Monograph is being published by Thames and Hudson.
His work is held in Artbank, Australian Consulate of Manila, Australian Consulate of Singapore, Bathurst Regional Gallery, Bond University Art Collection, Goulburn Regional Gallery, Gold Coast City Gallery, Macquarie University Art Collection, Maitland Regional Gallery, National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Newcastle Regional Gallery, Shoalhaven Regional Gallery, Sydney University Art Collection, Private collections in Australia and internationally.
