“ Virginia Cuppaidge addresses one of the principle tenets of abstraction: the experience of nature is more than the eye can see - the cosmic realms and the microscopic world also can be realized through abstracted images.”
Noted art historian Joan Marter,professor at Rutgers University
Born in Brisbane, Virginia Cuppaidge studied in Sydney with Desiderous Orban, Stanislaus Rapotec, Marea Gazzard, John Olsen and Robert Klippel before moving to New York in 1969 to ‘see the best abstract art going on at the time and live in the art museums.’
Although Cuppaidge has lived in New York for more than forty years, she has come to the realisation that her abstract work is routed in her Australian experience – she believes the Australian landscape is in her system.
Cuppaidge’s exhibiting career has traversed the American, Canadian and Australian art scenes, with thirty seven solo exhibitions and numerous public commissions and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976.
Virginia has exhibited in USA and Australia. Galleries include: Stella Downer Fine Art – Sydney, Rosenberg + Kaufman Fine Arts – New York, Robin Gibson Gallery – Sydney, Gallery A – Sydney, AM Sachs Gallery – New York, Bloomfield Galleries – Sydney, Susan Caldwell Gallery – New York.
1973 First solo show New York City at AM Sachs NY.
Virginia has had a lively teaching career and was adjunct associate professor of art at C.U.N.Y, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Bronx Community College, 1992–2008.
Since 2017, Virginia lives in Australia, and is currently writing "The New York Stories". An account of arriving in New York in 1969, meeting up with Australian sculptor Clement Meadmore, adapting to the huge metropolis, working at the Max Hutchinson Gallery in SoHo, and surviving as an artist in New York City for five decades.