Bio
Born 1969 in Wellington, New Zealand. Lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jonathan Campbell is a professional bronze caster and works as a master foundry-man, having cast works in bronze for many of New Zealand's most respected artists in addition to his own work. He was trained as a foundry assistant to Paul Dibble, Elizabeth Thompson and Terry Stringer.
In his early works, his large and intricate assemblages in cast bronze explore the realm of the obsessive collector. Through the figure of the magpie - an avid, beady-eyed collector, often seen in Campbell's sculptures clutching its prize - Campbell undertakes a kind of anthropology of collectors and collecting, threaded with ideas of memory, power and possession. His recent works, Bronzerrotypes, are a sculptural interpretation of the Daguerreotype photographic process. Daguerreotypes - photographic images printed on a silver-plated copper - were commonly used in the 19th Century to record portraits. Symbolism within Campbell's work reflects elemental relationships between origins, family trees, personality and character.