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Francoise Dupre

Orléans
French born, London-based artist, Françoise Dupré make textile-based art and drawing installalions.
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Françoise Dupré is a French artist, an independent researcher and curator.  Currently based in Orléans, Loire Valley, France; she trained at University of the Arts London (Camberwell and Chelsea) and was, until 2018, a senior lecturer and researcher at Birmingham School of Art, BCU.  Dupré has developed an international career with exhibitions, residencies, commissions and self-initiated projects in the UK, USA, Australia and Europe. 

Dupré’s current studio-based project, COUTURE investigates the performativity of drawing through stitching (piercing, looping).  Couture aims to develop a hybrid practice of installation works that combine stitching and drawing with the practice of memory.  For more information vist: https://francoisedupre.com/

Between 2003 and 2016, the artist developed a collaborative-participatory model of art making in the social, working mostly with women groups, using textiles for its plasticity and sociability, its cultural specificity and transnationalism. Her socially engaged practice is discussed in her 2014 published chapter From Brixton to Mostar, social practice through textiles – in Cultural Threads edited by Jessica Hemmings.

Dupré’s most recent project, DORA PROJECT marked Dupré’s new focus on the practice of memory.  The project explored the contemporary relevance of WW2 history and the performative process of remembrance through the activating of individual and community archives and memories.  The project also marked the artist’s return to drawing.  For more information visit: https://doraproject.wordpress.com/

 

Born in France, based in Orléans, France

EDUCATION

1997-95 City University, London, MA in Museum & Gallery Management
1990-88 Chelsea College of Art and Design, MA History and Theory of Modern Art
1982-78 Camberwell College of Arts, Foundation Studies and BA (Hons) Fine Art

EXHIBITIONS

Solo exhibitions

2017.  Tracing lace, Peckham Festival, Haymerle Road [ space ] studios, London                  

2015.  Belles îles flottantes, Camberwell Arts Festival, Haymerle Road [space] studios                   

2012 AOI (étrangère), La Vitrine, Paris, France
2012 étoile, The Gallery at Idea Store Whitechapel, London. 
2011 Spirals, Lion Brand Yarn Studio, New York, USA 
2011 autre mers (other seas), Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University
2009 Mille-fleurs Cejvan Cehaja Hamam, Mostar, French Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
2007 joie de faire (the making of stuff), Menier Chocolate Factory Gallery, London, UK
2004 parterres, Charles Darwin University Gallery, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
2004 autres mers (other seas 1), installation in 2 shopping sites: Arcade off High Street, City Centre Birmingham for Birmingham Artists Window Project and Beau Monde, boutique in Soho, London, UK 
2004 de fil en aiguille… snáth nasc, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and Kilkenny city gallery, Ireland
2003 french knitting, The Gallery, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK
2002 les merveilles de Françoise Dupré, Can’Art galerie, Toulouse, France
2002 tricot français Beau Monde, Soho, London, UK

Group exhibitions
2015-17 Migrations, touring: Kaneko  Centre, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; National College of Art & Design Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; ADspace, UNSWA&D, Sydney, Australia; Huddersfield Art Gallery, England. 
2014 Knitting Nottingham, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2013 Until it breaks, ARTicle gallery, BCU, School of Art
2012 States of Being: Constructing identities, 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning
2011 Mailles, Maison du Danemark, Paris, France
2010 ARMA, Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award, 5 year celebration, North Wall Art Centre, Oxford, UK
2009-07 Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, and touring, USA 
2008 Sacha Craddock’s Curated Selection http://www.axisweb.org/sachacraddock
2007 Cabin Comforts, a Saviour Scraps event, Secret Project Robot Space, New York, USA 
2006 Nana is the new black KickArts Gallery Cairns, Queensland, Australia
2006 Blurring the Boundaries: Fashion Design Innovation in Contemporary Knitting, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2005 (dis)comfort, Angel Row Gallery Nottingham, UK
2005 Art in Romney Marsh, Ivy church, Romney Marsh, UK
2005 Canvas, Babylon Gallery, Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK
2005-06 Knit 2 Together Concepts in Knitting, Crafts Council England, London, touring, UK and Ireland
2004-05 Hats & Gloves, Leicester City Gallery and touring, UK
2004 The Garden of Earthly Delights,  Brockwell Park, London, UK 
2003 50-50, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2003 Material Spaces, Tullie House Art Gallery and Museum, Carlisle, UK 
2001 Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi, Sydney, Australia
2001 emplacements, British Council Gallery, St Petersburg, Russia
2001 Itinérance, Hopital de la Milétrie, Poitiers, France and Galerie Éphémère, Charleroi, Belgium 
2000-2001 Méssagers de la Terre, Espace Contemporain RUR’ART Rouillé, Poitiers, France
2001 Extra-Ordinary, Bowes Museum, County Durham and touring, UK 

COMMISSIONS
2012 fleurs (bonne mamans) and stripes and flowers Antinatal Department Royal London Hospital for Vital Arts (Barts and The London, NHS Trust) http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/commissions-royal-london-hospital
2008 spiral (1) and spiral (2) Paintings in Hospitals Loan Collection, UK 
2008 spirals The Barkantine, Barts & The London NHS Trust, Isle of Dogs, London, England
2001Vermis Albinos (3 of a kind) Extra-Ordinary exhibition Bowes Museum, County Durham, England
1998 Young things for Me and You exhibition, Walsall Museum & Art Gallery, Walsall, England

PUBLICATIONS

Research cited in

McFadden, David Revere, 2008. Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting.  New York: ACC Editions, p.15, pp.88-91, p.143.
Meskimmon, Marsha, 2011. Contemporary Art and the Cosmopolitan Imagination.  London: Routledge, p.98.
Nargi, Lela, 2010. Knitting around the World.  Minneapolis: MBI Publishing, pp.27-28, pp.30-31.
Painsonneau-Marillaud, Christine, 2012. L’Histoire des Tricotins et des outils tricoteurs.  Lille: TheBookEdition.com, p124, pp 132-133.
Scott, Jac, 2003. Textile Perspectives in Mixed-Media Sculpture. Marlborough: The Crowood Press Ltd,pp.116-17.
Sterk, Beatrice, 2008. Knitting Art, TEXTILFORUM, 1/2008, p.26. TEXTILE FORUM English edition
Turney, Joanne, 2009. The Culture of Knitting.  Oxford: Berg, pp.109-10
Turney, Joanne, 2014.  Emotion, Design and Material Culture. London: Bloomsbury  

Commissioned articles and chapters
2023 Magdalena Abakanowicz Every Tangle of Thread and Rope in http://www.lacritique.org/                                                                        2014 From Brixton to Mostar, social practice through textiles.  In Cultural Threads edited by Jessica Hemmings, London: Bloomsbury
2008 Making Stuff, Summer/Autumn Dialogue journal, Axis, www.axisweb.org/dialogue/francoisedupre 
2005 de fil en aiguille… snáth nasc, CONTEXTS Arts and Practice in Ireland, Vol 4 issue 2/2005, The Art Work Issue, pp 60-67
2003 The Red Banner Knitwear Factory, Arts Council of England Website Interrupt:  Artists in Socially Engaged Practice, national symposia transcript 
2000 Little Volcanoes, Contemporary Glass Society Conference transcript 

Published artworks, exhibition catalogues
2011 Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture. Front cover Volume 9 Issue 3
2011 autre mers (other seas), Crafting the everyday, here and there, exhibition booklet 
2009 OUVRAGE [uvra:ž] French Cultural Centre, Mostar, French Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina
2009 exotic mk Milton Keynes Gallery’s Offsite Education Programme, exhibition booklet
2008 Project B: sebilj exhibition booklet
2006 Axis Seasons Greetings set of postcards
2007 Project B: avlija exhibition leaflet
2007 joie de faire (the making of stuff) publication Article Press, distributed by Central Books 
2005 Knit 2 Together Concepts in Knitting, Crafts Council England

COLLABORATIVE-PARTCIPATORY PROJECTS

2016-14 DORA PROJECT a cross-generational archiving and participatory project that addressed, through art, the contemporary relevance of the history of World War Two and early rocket engineering.

2012-2011 Brixton Calling!  198 Contemporary Arts and Education, London               
2012-2009 St Alfege Millennium project, homage to Tijou, Greenwich Royal Parish Church of St Alfege, London, 

2011-2003 here and there  

  • OUVRAGE [uvra:ž] (2011-2009) French Cultural Center, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina exotic mk  (2009) Milton Keynes gallery, UK
  • de fil en aiguille... snáth nasc (2003) Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2008-2007 Project B 

  • 2007-2008 Project B: sebilj, New Generation Arts, Birmingham, UK
  • 2007 Project B: avlija, Birmingham Architecture Week & New Generation Arts, Birmingham UK

2007-2006 joie de faire (the making of stuff), Paintings in Hospitals

  • Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award 
  • Artist residency, John Radcliffe Hospital, Feto-Maternal Medicine Department, Oxford 
  • Solo exhibition at Menier Chocolate Factory Gallery, London.  

2005 and 2011 projects with London-based Somali Women’s Group Back to Basics. 

  • Farshaxanaka Dumarka (women artists) Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University commission
  • Fujaan Crafts Council England commission for International touring exhibition Knit 2 Together (2005-2006) 

2003-1997 emplacements 

  • 2003 Manchester Week, St Petersburg a series of events for the City 300th anniversary, Russia 
  • 2002 The Red Banner Knitwear Factory, transnational situational events St Petersburg, Russia
  • 2000 New Holland, transnational situational events St Petersburg, Russia  
  • 1999 relocation, a weekend event Museum House, Bethnal Green, London, UK 
  • 1999 disEMplacements, group exhibition Woodlands Art Gallery, London, UK 

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