Capper and Cuppaidge sing in harmony at Maitland Regional Art Gallery

The work of leading Australian painters Chris Capper and Virginia Cuppaidge will unite this autumn in the exhibition Singing in Harmony at Maitland Regional Art Gallery. 

“This exhibition will be a treat for the senses bringing together two highly accomplished artists here in Maitland,” said Gallery Director Gerry Bobsien. 

“Both these artists have had a significant impact on the Australian cultural landscape and we are very fortunate to have them both here presented in the same space in an exhibition that reveals a shared preoccupation with paint, colour and nature.” 

Virginia Cuppaidge has had a distinguished international career spanning thirty-three solo exhibitions since 1965 in Australia, the USA and Canada. She studied at the Mary White School of Art and Design in Sydney, before relocating to New York in 1969. 

In 1973, she held her first solo show at AM Sachs Gallery and that same year, exhibited a work from her Geometrics series in the historic feminist exhibition ‘Women choose women’ at the New York Cultural Centre. 

Cuppaidge was Associate Professor of Art at City University New York from 1992-2008 and lived and practiced in New York for over 40 years before returning to Newcastle to live permanently in 2017. 

“The work I’ve created for this exhibition is based on two series of paintings I did in New York in the 1970’s: the Geometrics and Skyspace,” Cuppaidge said. 

“They are essentially inspired by nature and just when I’m finishing a work, a title comes to mind; a memory to be awakened by the colours I’m using.” 

Chris Capper studied art in the 1970’s and his career also spans five decades with over 35 exhibitions held nationally including a celebratory survey exhibition of his career held at MRAG in 2007. 

“My pictures are still life, generally flowers,” said Capper. “This just happens to be my vehicle to be a beginning or foundation...sometimes after working on a picture for a long time, another thought or expression comes along on top and that is the conclusion.” 

Singing in Harmony is on display from 8 March to 22 June 2025. For more information about MRAG’s current and upcoming exhibitions, visit mrag.org.au