ABOUT Kim Carpenter
Kim Carpenter AM is a celebrated multi-award winning artist and international set and costume designer (over 100 productions) working in the fields of visual theatre, dance, drama, children's theatre, opera, puppetry, physical theatre and musical theatre. For more about his theatre work see here
Kim is a storyteller. He works instinctively from his imagination. Through his mind’s eye he collects images from daily life and adapts or subverts them into whatever stories or themes he is currently exploring. His art is often based on literary works and focuses on characters and stories in atmospheric, stylised and often fantastical worlds.
His medium is a combination of paints, inks, Caran d’Ache crayon and collage on Arches Water Colour Paper. He is represented in Australian and International exhibitions and private collections.
Recent Exhibitions
2024
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Maunsell Wickes
2022
WILDE: Life and Fantasy
Maunsell Wickes
2020
The Happy Prince
ARO Gallery Sydney
2015
Art For The Theatre
Theatre of Image Retrosective
Danks St Gallery, Sydney
QUOTE
“His core natural gift is his drawing and painting underpinned by highly individual vision of the world.”
“There is a wonderful kind of youthful, fresh spontaneity about Kim's art. It is fresh and fruity – and honest”,
Edmund Capon OBE AC (late Director of The Art Gallery of NSW) The Australian Financial Review
EDUCATION
Motley Theatre Post-graduate Design Course, Sadler's Wells Opera and English National Opera London
Diploma in Theatre Production, National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney
John Olsen's Bakery Art School, Sydney
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS & RESIDENCIES
Member of The Order of Australia (AM), Churchill Fellow, Australian Centenary Medal, Australian Production Designers Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.
Green Room, 2 Helpmanns, 3 Australian Writers' Guild Awards, 2 Sydney Theatre Awards, Arts Hub Award
Australian Artist-in-Residence at Atelier Artistique International de Seguret, France and at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts