Melbourne artist John Knap studied graphic design then completed a
Graduate Diploma in Secondary Art teaching. John has continued to exhibit his own work while teaching art for the past eleven years.

His first solo exhibition, 'Fragments of Class' in August 2000, was a sell-out and featured large acrylic works using painted layers of iconic black and white images
and vibrant primary colours.

Since then John has had many successful exhibitions featuring a variety of
mixed media. As he explains "I've taken hundreds of individual pieces of opulent wallpaper and woven them, before covering them with shellac to give an
aged look of richly woven, historic tapestries."

Faces are also a prominent feature of John's narrative. Using them as a base image,
he then applies colour and lavish wallpaper, which are placed to reveal facets
of the face below. Finally, layers of shellac are added to give the appearance
of an old-fashioned hoarding.

Part of John's current body of work uses colour prints to create small
iconic images of faces. Some of these are famous, some everyday and
others religious. They have a distortion to them that make them
incredibly interesting while layers of shellac add even more depth.

John also works on private commissions while continuing to produce
artwork for his next exhibition.