Artist: Fiona Jappy

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Fiona Jappy creates paintings that investigate concepts of place, heritage, identity, and belonging.  After graduating from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) Degree in Painting and then completing her MFA studies in 2D/Painting at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA, she relocated back to Elgin.  With returning to her childhood home after an absence of ten years, the research for her work now examines the connection she has to the landscape of the North East of Scotland and the important role that memory has in the definition of place. 

“When I first returned to this area, I felt an incredible sense of displacement rather than the previous familiarity and comfort.  There always seemed to be a persistent feeling that home was no longer here, that it was somewhere else.  However, through time, I now find myself drawn once again to being here.  Part of my family’s heritage lies in the local landscape, and by looking at the passage from past histories to now, with the absence of those bygone times to their presence today, I study the personal relationship I have to the concept of place.”   

I returned to my childhood home in 2004 because of my circumstances at the time.  I didn’t feel well; I had recently been diagnosed as having the Epstein - Barr virus which subsequently led to Post-Viral Fatigue.  As a result, my current situation, the local area and surrounding landscape became the focus for my research.  My family’s heritage with the North-East coast and the fishing industry is important in my investigations, but especially key to the majority of my work is the relationship I had with my grandmother.
Whilst studying for my MFA I was already examining how issues of time, space, absence, and dislocation, had shaped my experiences with living in a different culture, and the artwork I created mapped out journeys that revealed my mind’s way of remembering and defining such lived experience.  On returning to Scotland, my investigations into the concept of place, and the question ‘what is home?’ were now to be looked at from me returning/being ‘home’. 
The work is about travelling back, both physically and psychologically to places which form a great importance in my memories. They are also about a distance, something so far out of reach, something that now only seems to exist in the mind, which is there due to family histories being long gone but also due to my current situation. This is why I paint houses with no windows and doors - they are there, but you cannot get to them. The people; family, that lived there are long gone. I also guess I have such an infatuation with houses because I presently don’t own my own home and have a great desire to do so.  Painting them this way also removes the ‘home’ element from them. The style of the houses is typical to the fishing villages on the North-East coast of Scotland where my father’s side of the family come from. 
In addition to being about the past, they are also about the present and the future. The constant travelling through the landscape to investigate issues related to place.

I also always hope that in my work there is a sense of open-endedness to what is being conveyed so the viewer can make a personal connection with the paintings. Each piece does stand alone in its own right, but when viewed with others there may be an indication of a story; a story that I hope exposes the viewer to their own journey with regards to the concept of place.
Finally, the 17 miles referred to in ‘On the Way’ is the distance from Elgin to Buckie; from my parents’ home to where my grandmother lived, a journey that was always travelled every Saturday in my childhood years.  Now when I go on that journey, it is only memories that are now present.

CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 North East Open Studios, Open studio from 12 - 21 September, Elgin
From Past to Present, Footprints, Hopeman
2008 Home, Touched By Scotland, Ryehill, Oyne
2007 Salt in My Blood, The Market House Gallery, Monaghan, Ireland, November/Jan 2008
2004 Where? (MFA Thesis Exhibition), Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA

JURIED / INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS
2010 Olivia Irvine and Fiona Jappy, UNIONgallery, Edinburgh
2009 Summer Mixed Exhibition, Just Art, Fochabers
Nairn Open Art Exhibition, The Court House, Nairn (Part of the Nairn Book & Arts Festival)
Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition 2009, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
COAST Festival Fine & Applied Art Fair, Macduff Town Hall, Macduff
Aberdeen Artists’ Society 75th Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
Spring Mixed Exhibition, Just Art, Fochabers
2008 Recent Works, Level 9 Gallery, Cave Creek, AZ, USA, December 2009 - Present
Christmas Show 2008, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen
Christmas Exhibition 2008, Inchmore Gallery, Inchmore
Moray Arts Club Open Exhibition 2008, Elgin Library, Elgin
Aberdeen Artists’ Society 74th Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition 2008, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Group exhibition, Inchmore Gallery, Inchmore
2007 Christmas Exhibition 2007, Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen
Mapping, Bury Art Gallery, Bury
Aberdeen Artists’ Society 73rd Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition 2007, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2006 Aberdeen Artists’ Society 72nd Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
2005 Aberdeen Artists’ Society 71st Annual Exhibition, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen
Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition 2005, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
2004 Ménage a Cinq, Mad Art Gallery, St Louis, MO, USA
Walls, Sleeth Gallery, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, WV, USA
Mapping Memory, Art Saint Louis, St Louis, MO, USA, Juror Clara Coleman
2002 Scenes and Locations, Cedarhurst Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, IL, USA
2000 Graduates 2000, The Strathearn Gallery, Crieff
Society of Scottish Artists 106th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Recent Works, Sep 2000-Nov 2003, work on display at: ScotlandArt.com
1999 Society of Scottish Artists 105th Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
Small Works, Southside Gallery, Edinburgh

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009 Moray Arts Club Members’ Exhibition 1, Elgin Library Gallery, Elgin
2008 The Aspect Prize 2008 Exhibition, Paisley Museum & Art Galleries, Paisley
Moray Arts Club Members’ Exhibition 2, Moray Art Centre, Findhorn
Moray Arts Club Members’ Exhibition 1, Elgin Library Gallery, Elgin
2007 The Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
9 x 12 Works on Paper Show, Fort Worth Community Arts Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA
The Aspect Prize 2007 Exhibition, Paisley Museum & Art Galleries, Paisley
2006 The Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham, Dec/January 2007
The Aspect Prize 2006 Exhibition, Paisley Museum & Art Galleries, Paisley
Moray Arts Club Members’ Exhibition, Elgin Library Gallery, Elgin
2005 Field of Extremes, Institute for New Media, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Inverness Art Fair, Old High Church Halls, Inverness
Moray Arts Club Members’ Exhibition, Elgin Library Gallery, Elgin
Work Highly Commended by David Blyth
2004 Christmas Mini-Print Exhibition, ArtLink ExChange, Hull
The Postcard Show, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
The A6 Show, Arthouse Gallery, London
Domestic Affairs, Locus Media Gallery, New York, NY, USA; art benefit for Equality Now
The View so Far, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
2003 MFA Preview Exhibit, Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale, IL, USA
Mini-print 9 Exhibition, Vergette Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
Cosmopolitan, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
From the Margin Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO, USA
Latitude/Longitude, Two Person Exhibition, Fiona Jappy / Baggs Mckelvey, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
Process and Performance Art, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
2002 Untitled (we can do better), Glove Factory, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
Mini-print 8 Exhibition, Vergette Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
Faculty & Graduate Exhibition, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
The Philadelphia Exchange, Southern Illinois University Museum, Carbondale, IL, USA
Works, Gallery HQ, Carbondale, IL, USA
Pulp Works on Paper, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Pulp Works on Paper, Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2001 Mini-print 7 Exhibition, Artspeak Gallery, Windsor, ON, Canada
Mini-print 7 Exhibition, Vergette Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
Printmaking Show, Vergette Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
AD501 Painting Exhibition, Surplus Gallery, SIU, Carbondale, IL, USA
2000 B.A. Degree Show, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
Royal Scottish Academy Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland

AWARDS
2009 HI-Arts Visual Artists’ Award, Creative and Professional Development Grant
2008 The Hope Scott Trust Grant, Creative and Professional Development Grant
2007 Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust Award
HI-Arts Visual Artists’ Award, Creative and Professional Development Grant
2000 Pillans and Wilson Award, major painting prize in the Royal Scottish Academy Student Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE / PUBLIC ART PROJECTS
October 2009 Drawing Workshop with Portgordon Art Group, Portgordon
March 2009 Picture This Graphic Communication Workshop, Moray Art Centre, Findhorn
January 2009 Art Workshops at Anderson’s Primary School, Forres
October 2008 Drawing Workshops with The B.A.L.L. Project, Hopeman
April 2008 Drawing Workshop with The B.A.L.L. Project, Keith
Feb –  Aug 2008 Artist for Hungry for Success Programme
March 2007 Drawing Workshops with The B.A.L.L. Project, Hopeman
Oct 05 – July 2006 Public artwork for Cluny Square, Buckie
Sep - Oct 2005 Lead artist for outdoor mural project at Craigellachie Primary School,
May – Aug 2005 Artist for Hungry for Success Programme
Oct 04–May 2005 Artist for New Elgin Primary School Arts Project, Elgin
Summer 2003-2004 Judge of drawings and short stories by psychology students,
Southern Illinois University, USA.
Fall 01-Spring 2004 Teacher of various drawing classes (Instructor of Record) and art history discussion groups (Graduate Assistant)
Employed by the School of Art and Design, Southern Illinois University
Fall 01–Spring 04 Member of GAPP: Graduate Association of Painters and Printmakers
Fall 2003-Spring 04 Treasurer for GAPP: Graduate Association of Painters and Printmakers