Iain Cheesman was born in England in 1963. He emigrated with his family to NZ as a child, he lives in Waiuku, Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland, NZ). He worked in Electrical Engineering in NZ and the UK prior to going to art School in 1999.He has a BFA from Otago Polytechnic, Ōtepoti, NZ and a MFA from Elam Art School, Tamaki Makaurau, NZ.
Iain’s art practice is varied and expansive, it is multi-disciplinary with footprints in sculpture, poetry, drawing and painting. There is often an underlying sense of humour within his work, and in equal measure there is often more serious concerns on life and how it is to be human.
The materials he uses are diverse and vary between bodies of work, from self-milled timber, felt, found objects, embroidery, stainless steel tube and rod, welded PVC rod, paint. The art can be small and demanding or large-scale and skeletal. For Iain it is the impact of the artwork that has bearing on its presence, not necessarily its scale.
The words he uses are at times political, or judgemental, they can be poetic or abrasive, they can be existential and therefore needy. Language is like a spine that joins or links the frame of his art.
To date he has published three short volumes of poetry that forms part his studio practice. Cheesman’s practice does not readily fit into a tidy box within the context of New Zealand art. It contains within it many strands for Cheesman is his own eccentric, iconoclastic, contradictory multitude.
He has had several solo shows since 2003 – Contact (Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, 2004), An Automatic Welcome (The Physics Room, Christchurch, 2004), Needy (FHE Galleries, Auckland, 2011), The Scholar Official (Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2012) and Boom! (The Vivian, Matakana, 2018) where he launched his first book of poetry. His artworks are in private collections in NZ and Australia. The Aigantighe Art Gallery Timaru, Ashburton Art Gallery, The Wallace Collection.