Violeta Chapovska is an Australian Macedonian artist working in installation, video, printmaking, and site-specific performance. She completed her BA in Fine Art at the University of Cyril and Methodius Skopje in 1991 and her MFA at RMIT, Melbourne in 1995. Chapovska's art practice embodies cross-cultural exploration into the concepts of identity, nature, and gender. In 2022, she was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris and the NES Artist Residency in Iceland in July 2023. Her site-specific performances include Land-Print projects at Pelister-National Park, Macedonia, 1994-2018 (el 2180 m); Seine (Île Saint-Louis, Paris 2022) and Measurements (Iceland 2023). Chapovska’s work has been exhibited at private and public galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Macedonia, the National Gallery of Australia, MUMOK Vienna, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, the Museum of the City of Skopje, Dianne Tanzer Gallery Melbourne, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, and the Australian Print Workshop. Chapovska’s work is held in many international, national and state collections. She was a recipient of the James Northfield Lithography scholarship from the Australian Print Workshop in 2016. In 2020, she won the 18th Grand Prix Biennial Award (DLUM-The Association of Macedonian Artists). Violeta Chapovska lives and works in Naarm, Melbourne.
VIOLETA CHAPOVSKA
1995 MA in Fine Art, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne
1991 BFA Academy of Fine Arts, University of Cyril and Methodius, Skopje
SOLO EXHIBITIONS and PROJECTS
2025 Spatiality and Temporality, The National Gallery of R.N. Macedonia, Skopje
2024 Sea, Salt and Silk. The Oratory, Abbotsford Convent
2020 SALT. Open Graphic Studio, Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia
2018 Land Print Project 3 ‘Salt’. Small Lake, Pelister, Macedonia
2012 Testimonies and Confessions. Maroondah Art Gallery, Melbourne
2012 Name Day fortyfivedownstairs Gallery, Melbourne
2011 Familia The National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje
2004 The Love-Sick Girl, Series on Hysteria, Aikenhead Gallery, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne
1999 Bodily fluids, CIX Gallery, Skopje, Macedonia
1996 Duality, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne
Snow, National Gallery of Macedonia, Skopje
Land Print Project 2 ‘I and the eye’, Pelister National Park, Macedonia
1994 Land Print Project 1 ‘Small Lake’, Pelister National Park, Macedonia
Conversation in the garden, Dianne Tanzer Gallery, Melbourne
1992 Recent works, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS and PROJECTS
2023 Measurements video performance, Skagaströnd, Iceland
2021 Traces and Memories, Counihan Gallery in Brunswick, Melbourne
2020 18th Winter Saloon, DLUM, NGM, Skopje, R. North Macedonia
2019 Perceptions Engendered, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
2017 Dual Narrative, Australian Print Workshop, Melbourne
2011 Fragments, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia
2009 Gender Check, MUMOK, Museum Moderner KunstStiftung Ludwig, Wien, Austria
2003 Fifth International Women’s Art Festival, Aleppo, Syria
2002 III International Triennial of Contemporary Art, Balkan Art ‘02, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
2001 Perfect Match, Capital and Gender, Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia
Shining the site, Museum of Contemporary Art, Public Art Project, Skopje
2000 Artists and Refugees, Museum of the City of Skopje, Macedonia
The first Peep Show in the city, CIX Gallery, Skopje, Macedonia
1998 Distance, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Geelong Print Prize, Geelong Art Gallery, Geelong, Australia
1997 28th Alice Prize, Alice Springs, Australia
I Darebin - La Trobe Acquisitive Art Prize, Melbourne, Australia
1996 Inhales-Exhales, II Yugoslav Art Biennial, Vrsac, Yugoslavia
13th Biennial Prints Acquisitive, Mornington
1995 Video Space, Festival of Performing Arts, Kapolch, Hungary
RESIDENCIES
2023 NES Art Residency, Skagaströnd, Iceland
2022 Cité internationale des arts, Paris, France
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES
2021 TRACES AND MEMORIES, exhibition catalogue, Suzana Milevska, Counihan Gallery
2021 IMPACT 11, International Printmaking conference, Hong Kong, Land Print Projects 1994-2018
2020 SALT, Suzana Milevska, exhibition catalogue essay (Publisher Museum of the City of Skopje)
2109 Perceptions Engendered, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje
2018 Visual Arts in Macedonia-20th century/Book 2: MULTIMEDIA ART, Abadzieva Sonia
2011 Familia, Dr Wendy Garden, Dr Suzana Milevska, catalogue essays, National Gallery of Macedonia
2010 Gender Check, Femininity and Masculinity in the Art of Eastern Europe, MUMOK, Wien
2001 Capital and Gender, International Project for Art and Theory, Museum of Skopje
1996 Australian Printmaking in the 1990s, by Sasha Grishin (Craftsman House)
COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Australia, The Queensland University of Technology Art Collection-Brisbane, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Museum of the City of Skopje, National Gallery of Macedonia, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Private collections
SCHOLARSHIPS, GRANTS and PRIZES
Grand Prix, 18th Winter Salon, Association of Visual Artists of Macedonia (2020)
James Northfield Scholarship for lithography, Australian Print Workshop (2016)
Soros Open Foundation grants (1994 and 1996)