Paul Kaptein

Hand carved wood (English Lime), graphite
H48 x W65 x D20
2023

Private Collection, San Francisco

Hand carved wood, graphite
H85 x W25 x D23
2023

Hand carved wood
H61 x W18 x D5
2023

2021
Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite.
H52 W46 D28cm

City of Joondalup Art Commission

2019
Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite.
H80 W41 D28cm

WINNER: 2019 Joondalup Invitational Art Prize

Collection of the City of Joondalup

2018
Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite.
H57 W31 D13cm

Image: Ian Hill

2016
Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite
h80 w30 d25

St Joseph's Commission

Mary & St Marcellin

Commissioned by St Joseph’s College, Sydney as part of the chapel refurbishment. Each sculpture is life sized.

2015
Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite. 
h36 w44 d25

Royal Perth Hospital Collection

2017
Laminated, hand carved + carbonised wood
H54 W47 D27cm

Private collection NYC

‘All These Mountains Will Melt At Dawn’ is a major sculptural commission consisting of ten life-size figurative works by Paul Kaptein for The Syndicate. Pushing the boundaries of figuration, these anatomical forms reveal themselves as fragmented, morphed, merged, remade and transformed. Oscillating between creation and destruction, emerging from and receding into space, these transitory figures are apprehended on the verge of collapse or reform.

This ambitious series presents a departure from Kaptein’s widely regarded works that are praised for their meticulous hand-carved skill. This new body of work challenges traditional casting processes to interrogate established systems and exploits a visible tension between form, space, temporalities and transient states.

“These sculptures were made mostly in 2020. They were never intended as a response to a global pandemic, but as the year went on they started to represent the year that was - a year of compression, dismantling and rebuilding as failing systems of corruption and dysfunction were/are being exposed and interrogated. The anthropocentric view point winding down. Things are being broken apart, torn down, and re-imagined.

These works point toward the emergence of new systems from the collapse of old structures, reformed as organic composites of nature and and reclaimed frameworks. These works were considered landscapes primarily and figures secondarily. They signify the movement, change and transience of bodies caught in the process of transformation. Through notions of alchemy, transformation, metamorphosis and regeneration,  they exist as a fusion point between order/disorder, balance/imbalance, creation/destruction, science/mysticism, materiality/spirituality, blurring the boundaries between humanity, spirituality and nature. The sculptures are not to be seen as a fact - but a process of becoming new forms through a withdrawing of consent from old ways of being.”
PK

For PDF catalogue please email:
info@paulkaptein.com

2017
Industrial plasters, pigment, foam
H40 W25 D25cm

WINNER
Stockland Sculpture Prize, Minnawarra Art Award.

MUTE FIGURE #7
(IT'S SEXY UNTIL YOU RECOGNISE IT - THEN IT'S REPULSIVE)
2017
Industrial plasters, pigment, foam
H40 W25 D25cm

MUTE FIGURE #8 (ALL IS DRIFT AND DISSOLVING)
2017
Industrial plasters, pigment, foam
H40 W25 D25cm

2015, Laminated, hand carved wood
H68 W30 D20

private collection Perth

2015, Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite
h74 w43 d52

Private collection Perth

2015 Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite
h53 w29 d19 cm
Private collection

2015 Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite
h49 w46 d31 cm

2015, Laminated, hand carved wood, graphite
h39 x w19 x d18cm

2015 Hand carved wood
h68 w30 d20

private collection NYC

2015 Laminated, hand carved wood
h69 w9 d74
Private collection

2014 laminated hand carved wood, graphite
h50 w48 d28 cm

Private collection Wellington, NZ

2014 Laminated hand carved wood
h63 w61 d61 cm

Private collection Los Angeles

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
(Huon Pine - Lagarostrobos franklinii)
h54  w51  d30

Private collection Auckland

2014 Laminated, hand carved wood.
h58 w28 d30cm

Mandorla Art Award 2014 - Winner
Collection of the New Norcia Museum Art Collection

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
h21 x w17 x d39

Private collection Perth.

2015, Laminated, hand carved wood
h24 w9 d23

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
h83  w45  d19

Private collection Corona, USA

2012 laminated, hand carved wood
(Douglas fir - Pseudotsuga menziesii)
h48  w51  d30

Private collection Cape Town.

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
(Poplar - Liriodendron tulipifera)
h35  w9  d8 cm

Private collection Corona, USA.

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
(Huon Pine - Lagarostrobos franklinii)
h70 x w30 x d21 cm

2015 laminated hand carved wood, acrylic, graphite.
wh58 w50 d33 cm

WINNER
Mid West Art Prize 2015 - City of Greater Geraldton
Overall Award for Excellence

collection of University of Western Australia

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
(Jelutong - Dyera costulata)
h51 x w34 x d19

Collection of The City of Wanneroo

2013 laminated, hand carved wood
(Jelutong - Dyera costulata)
h15 x w47 x d40

Private collection Perth

2013, laminated, hand carved wood
h33 x w34 x d36 cm

The Horn Collection

2012 Laminated, hand carved wood
Life size 

Aquired by Art Angels. Private collection, Perth.

2014, Laminated, hand carved wood, Steel.
h45 x w34 x d19

Collection of Edith Cowan University

Laminated, hand carved wood
h186 x w 60 x d64 cm

Private collection.

2011-12, Resin, wood, acrylic, sand
Fig. 130cm high

Strand Ephemera, Townsville, QLD,
TRANSART, City of Perth, WA

1998, Glass, brass, wood, air