Kurt Campbell

Kurt Campbell

Senior Lecturer – New Media

http://www.kurt-campbell.com
+27 (0)21 650 7172

Dr Campbell has recently been awarded the prestigious Mandela Fellowship to Harvard University for 2017.

He is on the editorial board of the international journal “Arts” based in Switzerland, and writes regularly for a number of peer reviewed scholarly publications. Recent writing projects include publishing in the European Journal of English Studies and Harvard University’s Transition.

Campbell’s recent artworks combine sculpture and Augmented Reality (AR) to facilitate interactive art experiences. The conceptual frameworks of his visual research often engage the post-apartheid, post-colonial space of aesthetic ideation in South Africa. Recent exhibitions that reflect these creative and conceptual concerns include Night Fighter (2014) and Boxing Ghosts (2015) at the District Six Museum. These projects were largely concerned with historical interpretation through exhibition making and the productive possibilities that early pugilists from Cape Town offer in thinking the limits of racial subjectivity and self-craft in contemporary society.

Campbell holds a BAFA and P.G.C.E. from the University of Cape Town and a Masters degree (MAFA) from Stellenbosch University where he taught for four years before joining the Michaelis School of Fine Art. His PhD was completed at the Centre for Humanities Research (NRF Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities) at the University of the Western Cape. His doctoral thesis positions the writing of the blinded champion boxer Andrew Jeptha as an important contribution to Postcolonial and Disability Studies.

Solo Exhibitions

• 2015 “Boxing Ghosts: Augmented Reality Art in conversation with the District Six Museum Archive”.
  District Six Museum.
• 2014 “Night Fighter”. The Black Box Gallery and project space. Cape Town.
• 2011 “From the Experiences of a South African Boxer in Britain” Cape Town City Hall, commissioned as part of the Republic: Art, Authority, Nationhood conference.
• 2007 “Fever Sleep” Wordart, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
• 2007 “Pillows for Death” Netherlands, Fundament Foundation, Tilburg.
• 2004 “Video Gaze” Curve Space Photographic Studio, Woodstock.

Group Exhibitions

• 2014 “20 years of Democracy: Toward a brave new world: Work from the permanent collection 1994-2014″. IZIKO National Gallery of South Africa.
• 2013 “Three and a Half Meters: Committee’s Choice” Main Gallery of the Association for Visual Arts (AVA).
• 2010 Spier Contemporary Art Biennale. National Touring Group Exhibition
• 2010 “Artworks in Progress 10” Group Exhibition of the academic staff. Michaelis Gallery. Curated by Nadja Daenke.
• 2007 Print 07. Bell Roberts Gallery at Lourensford. 4 August- 4 October 2007.Group exhibition of print portfolios
• 2006 “Spit 2” Exhibition of prints from Staff of the Stellenbosch Art Department. University of Stellenbosch Gallery
• 2003 Printmaking group exhibition (3rd Impact! Printmaking Conference): University of Stellenbosch Gallery
• 2002 “Photo Art 2002” (Photographic Exhibition): SASOL Museum

Awards

• 2013 International Visiting Scholar award. The Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change Fellowship. Minnesota University.
• 2013 NRF PhD and Project Thuthuka Grant
• 2012 Mellon Humanities Research Project Award
• 2009 Gordon Institute of the Performing and Creative Arts project seed funding
• 2008 UCT Research and Innovation Concept Funding Gant for typeface development
• 2007 Fundament Foundation (Netherlands) International Artist in Residence Grant
• 2001 Nelson Mandela Foundation Bursary.
• 2000 Member: Golden Key National Honour Society
• 2000 Design South Africa Scholarship.
• 1999 National Arts Council Scholarship.

Publications

• Campbell, K. (2014). Harvard University Hutchins Center for African and African
  American Research. To think as a boxer: thoughts on reading Shadow Boxing. Transition journal, No. 116, Nelson Mandela, pp. 120-127
• Campbell, K. (2014) Time to Time, Text to text: The divergence of Andrew Jeptha’s booklet in the exhibition Night Fighter Catalogue Essay from the exhibition Night Fighter ISBN: 978-0-620-58930-7
• Campbell, K (2013): The Sociogenic Imperative of Typography, European Journal of English Studies, 17:1, 72-91
• Campbell, K. (2012). Mandindi’s Mirror: books, reading and textuality. Uncontained: Opening the Community Arts Project Archive. Eds Heidi Grunebaum and Emile Maurice. ISBN 978-1-86808-729-7
• Campbell, K . (2010). More than just a Pretty Face: responding to the hegemony of the serif, Artworks in Progress, journal of the staff of the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, Cape Town . ISBN: 978-0-620-48450
• Recasting the Colophon : typography specimen and catalogue published by Kurt Campbell 2009. ISBN 9780620457347.
• Campbell, K. (2009). Negating the Serif: Postcolonial approaches to Typographic Design Conference proceedings of the 12th National Design Educator’s Forum of South Africa. ISBN 978-1-920176-63-1
• Campbell, K. Colonial Pillow Series. Pg 77-79. Artworks in Progress, 2008. Vol 9. ISBN 978-0-620-42166-9
• Campbell, K. Fever-Sleep: Solo Exhibition Catalogue of Kurt Campbell. Published by the artist 2007. Featuring images of the work and interview with the artist.
• Design Achievers: 20 years of nurturing design leadership in South Africa. 2007.Published by the SABS Design Institute. Pg 67-69.ISBN 978-0-626-19934-0
• Spit: Visual Journal of Stellenbosch University Art Department. 2005. Vol1. Pg 42-45. “1.9.9.4. degrees centigrade”.
• Artworks in Progress: Journal of the Staff of Michaelis School of Fine Art. 2006. Volume 8. Pg 58-61.

Conferences

• 2014. University of Leeds History Department. Transgressing Racial Boundaries Conference.“Boxing clever: A South African boxer’s text from 1907”. Cape Town.
• 2014. International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS). “‘Muscular Dreams: Understanding the violence of early racially charged boxing films” (1900-1920)”. Cape Town.
• 2013 “The Imperative of typography”. Typecon. Portland, Oregon, U.S.A
• 2009 “Negating the Serif: Postcolonial approaches to typeface design” – 12th National Design Educators Forum of South Africa. Graaff Reinet.
• 2008 “The Postcolonial Visualogue” – South African Art Historians Conference. University of Stellenbosch.
• 2003 “Critical Lessons from the Theory of Technology” – Design Education Forum of South Africa. Clarence.
• 2000 “Design and Social Cohesion” – Zsennye International Design Conference. Hungary

Collections

• Iziko National Gallery of South Africa, Permanent Collection
• Fundament Foundation, Netherlands, Curator Collection

Selected Design Projects

• Founder of the Iron Age Digital Font Foundry.

Selected Leadership Positions

• 2009 Design Education Forum of South Africa Management Committee member
• 2006 Chairman of the South African Bureau of Standards Design Achievers Awards
• 2004 Committee Member: University of Stellenbosch Marketing Committee.
• 2003 Expert Panel Adjudicator: South African Bureau of Standards Design Achievers Awards