Sam Kissajukian’s 300 Paintings grew out of an intense period of making art: during a 2021 manic episode, the Sydney-based comedian and visual artist produced 300 large works. After recovery, diagnosis and treatment, he returned to performing in 2022 and shaped the experience into a stage work combining comedy, visual art and personal storytelling. It is a record of one person’s experience—not a claim that mental illness is necessary for creativity.
What is Sam Kissajukian’s 300 Paintings about?
300 Paintings follows Kissajukian’s account of making a large body of work during a period of significant change in his mental health, and of finding a way to tell that story after returning to performance. His official biography describes him stopping stand-up during a six-month bipolar manic episode in 2021 and making 300 large paintings that documented his mental states. The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) gives a more detailed chronology: an episode beginning in June 2021, followed by a five-month depressive episode, diagnosis in May 2022, and a return to performing in September 2022. The descriptions differ in how they divide and label the episode and its aftermath, so the timeline is best understood as each source’s account rather than a single universally stated duration.
The work draws on that personal history to explore the bipolar mind through both words and images. A.R.T. describes it as a fusion of comedy and visual art; the Theatre Development Fund likewise presents it as a performance built around Kissajukian’s paintings and story. Those are artistic framings, not clinical explanations of bipolar disorder.
How did Kissajukian make the paintings?
In an A.R.T. interview, Kissajukian said that after quitting stand-up he was “tired of words” and felt drawn to a visual medium. He described working on a large scale as physical and gestural, and said he used six-by-three-foot pieces of cardboard and brown packing paper because painting was the cheapest way in. His explanation gives a practical as well as emotional dimension to the work: he chose a medium that let him work with his hands and large surfaces, without first investing in conventional canvases.
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That account is his reflection on his own process. It does not establish a general link between bipolar disorder and artistic ability, nor does it suggest that an episode is required to make meaningful art.
How does 300 Paintings combine comedy and art?
The performance is neither simply a gallery exhibition nor a conventional stand-up set. An ArtsHub review of a 2023 Fringe World performance describes stand-up alongside an onstage visual montage and art documented chronologically. The images give the audience a visual record to encounter as Kissajukian tells his story; comedy provides another mode for approaching material that could otherwise be difficult to express.
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The presentation can also extend beyond the stage. At New York’s Vineyard Theatre, the production was paired with a curated exhibition that audiences could tour before or after the performance, according to the theatre listing on the Theatre Development Fund site. That format lets viewers spend time with the artworks separately from the pace of the live show.
What does the humor around the art reveal?
Kissajukian’s story does not present the paintings only as solemn documents. A Stanley Street Gallery exhibition page recounts his anecdote about labeling a work “Where’s Wally”: one visitor, he said, searched it for four hours. The joke belongs to the exhibition context, but it also illustrates how a viewer might approach the work—looking closely, taking the image seriously, and finding humor in the act of looking.
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Where has the work been presented?
Kissajukian’s official biography describes more than a decade of stand-up and international touring, as well as solo exhibitions in Australia, Edinburgh and New York. A.R.T. says 300 Paintings toured festivals, theaters and arts institutions in Australia and the UK. Its biography also records an 80-night Vineyard Theatre run in New York during 2024 and a return engagement in 2025. These are past engagements, not current show dates.
A.R.T.’s 2025 production page described the piece as a “gallery talk-meets-stand-up performance” and listed an October 1–25, 2025 engagement at Farkas Hall. That engagement has passed; consult the artist or venue’s current listings for any future dates.
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Sources and further reading
- Sam Kissajukian’s official biography
- American Repertory Theater biography
- Theatre Development Fund listing for Sam Kissajukian: 300 Paintings
- A.R.T. interview: “300 Questions with Sam”
- Stanley Street Gallery exhibition page: “Paintings of Modernia”
- ArtsHub’s 2023 review of 300 Paintings at Fringe World
- A.R.T.’s 2025 300 Paintings production information
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