Denise (Dee) Copland

For background on the artist and works, see below.

Current Works

About the Artist

I have long had an interest in the actions and thought processes that occur when humankind and/or other life forms and ecosystems are teetering on the threshold between life and death be that as a consequence of Nature’s fury or by misfortune, or through wide spread industrialization. How living things respond to such forces and turbulence is largely governed by the choice to survive or not. In the case of humankind survival it is often at the cost of others.

My point of view is not a Utopian or dystopic one but rather one that is based on allegory and adaptability to a changing planet. These concerns and memories of such things combined with historical and contemporary notions of survival have underscored my work for several years.

More About the Artist

Denise (Dee) Copland graduated Diploma of Fine Arts with Honours in Printmaking, School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 1977 and Certificate of Graphic Design, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, 1971.

She has been awarded several national awards to include a prestigious Antarctic Arts Fellowship in 2001-2002 and has taken up several Artists-in-Residences since 1985. She lectured at the School of Fine Arts (1982-4), University of Canterbury, was a Senior Lecturer at the School of Art & Design, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology until the end of 2006 and has lectured at several other Polytechnics and Summer schools throughout New Zealand. She is now a full time artist living in Portobello, Dunedin.

Denise has exhibited extensively in over 25 solo and 170 group exhibitions since 1977. She has, by invitation, exhibited work in the Eight International Artists, Orleans, France (2007); 7^th Triennale Mondial de L’estampe, Auvergne, France (2006) and numerous other International Print Biennales in Europe and Asia. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions in NZ, Japan including Shared Lines; Sendai x Christchurch Art Exchange, Sendai (2012); Asia Print Adventure, Hokkaido, Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo ( 2003); USA; France; Australia including Melt, Sydney University Art Gallery, Sydney (2009) and Project space, RMIT University of Melbourne, Melbourne (2008).

Copland collaborated with, and printed for a number of NZ artists to produce, in 1989, a limited edition boxed collection of prints titled 6 Artists – 6 Prints. In 1985 she created The Intaglio Print – Chemically assisted processes, a limited edition hand printed educational book.

Her work is held public and private collections in NZ and internationally.