Rupert Nesbitt is an artist and painter based in Newport Rhode Island and Brooklyn. He graduated from The Cooper Union with a BFA in 1991 and received his MFA in 2007 from Vermont College.
In the early 1990’s his work involved documenting the act of climbing New York City’s numerous bridges. That exploratory sensibility resulted in extensive international travel in the developing world including eleven summers working in Egypt as an illustrator on archaeological digs for the University of Toronto and Penn State. The experience led to more illustration work in the field of toy design, ultimately resulting in multiple trips to Hong Kong and China as an animator of robotic toys. Animation developed into a full time occupation using digital 3D software. The interest in simulating reality in the digital realm broadened into a project simulating paintings. Which has turned into a current practice producing commissioned artworks.
Draftsmanship is the commonality across these diverse activities. But more broadly, it is an interest in the problems of representation; the act of observing something in the world and making a second version of it. Representation in general and draftsmanship in particular both have a curious doubling in making a second version of a subject. Inherent in this doubling is the concept of a “copy” which entangles a host of other interests and disciplines; from drawing to DNA to learning languages to camouflage to forgery. Beyond the production of artworks has been a parallel interest in writing, speaking, and curating. From founding a public art organization, to critiquing a client’s painting collection, leading an art discussion Salon to a recent TEDx talk; Rupert Nesbitt’s interest in the world is omnivorous.
Rupert Nesbitt is an artist and painter based in Newport Rhode Island and Brooklyn. He graduated from The Cooper Union with a BFA in 1991 and received his MFA in 2007 from Vermont College.
In the early 1990’s his work involved documenting the act of climbing New York City’s numerous bridges. That exploratory sensibility resulted in extensive international travel in the developing world including eleven summers working in Egypt as an illustrator on archaeological digs for the University of Toronto and Penn State. The experience led to more illustration work in the field of toy design, ultimately resulting in multiple trips to Hong Kong and China as an animator of robotic toys. Animation developed into a full time occupation using digital 3D software. The interest in simulating reality in the digital realm broadened into a project simulating paintings. Which has turned into a current practice producing commissioned artworks.
Draftsmanship is the commonality across these diverse activities. But more broadly, it is an interest in the problems of representation; the act of observing something in the world and making a second version of it. Representation in general and draftsmanship in particular both have a curious doubling in making a second version of a subject. Inherent in this doubling is the concept of a “copy” which entangles a host of other interests and disciplines; from drawing to DNA to learning languages to camouflage to forgery. Beyond the production of artworks has been a parallel interest in writing, speaking, and curating. From founding a public art organization, to critiquing a client’s painting collection, leading an art discussion Salon to a recent TEDx talk; Rupert Nesbitt’s interest in the world is omnivorous.