“Voices at the End” featuring two large piano works was a major feat for the six pianists involved but also a brave move by the festival to put on a programme of minimalist music. But, the packed Auckland Town Hall showed that there is an avid audience for such work. Hopefully future festivals will aim for other innovative work. It was also great that a major American work, Steve Reich’s “Six Pianos” from fifty years ago could be paired with New Zealander John Psathas’s “Voices at the End”.
“Six Pianos” is a minamilist piece for six pianos and Steve Reich’s idea was originally for a piece titled “Piano Store” that could be played on all the pianos in a piano store and was initially played on an ensemble of sixupright pianos so that the close proximity would allow for very precise timing and avoid the the resonances of grand pianos.[
The six pianos played overlapping variations on a simple melodic theme for the piece’s duration. The developments and manipulations which occur are subtle, the shifts barely noticeable, creating a mesmeric minimalism.
There are changes in the simple melodic structures as well in the rhythms and the volume of the different pianos.
Unlike many piano performances the pianists appeared to be less engaged with the music performing almost robotically, all part of a programmed approach to playing.
Overall the work seemed to be like a flowing river or ocean surge with waves and surges endlessly repeating, creating an ever-evolving organic entity with an internal life of its own.
In contrast to the simplicity of the Reich work John Psathas’s “Voices at the End” was more complex, almost operatic in its reach.
Inspired by the film “Planetary” the piece expands on various themes around ecological and organic systems and the need to move from an industrial growth society to a life sustaining society.
The work has five sections which included texts ranging from the Sanskrit “Mahabharata” through to the greeting from the United Nations to others living in Outer Space sent on the NASA Voyager spacecraft in 1977.
In each of the sections there are different moods created from the dreamscape of the opening section building through the tone poems with the music becoming the dramatic background to a Sanskrit tale.
The various sections express concerns about the social and ecological challenges and there is an intense dialogue between the pianos. At one point there was what could be a dirge or love song to Earth with an edgy counterpoint between nature and the man made.
The sounds and music range from the brutish sounds of actual bombs being dropped in war through bird song, passionate dance and jazz rhythms, Eastern music and a beautifully mannered minimalism.
The six pianists in both works were Stephen De Pledge, Arts Foundation Laureate Michael Houstoun, Somi Kim, Jian Liu, Sarah Watkins and Liam Wooding
“The Artist” should come with a warning – make that two warnings. Don’t sit in the front row. You could get to go on stage as The Artist’s sttoge. Also, if you can remember where it is, bring a table tennis paddle.
We are in an artist’s studio where we encounter The Artist (Thom Monckton) who over the course of an hour produces / assembles / finds several artworks which in the end are brought together for an art exhibition. Monckton explores a number of the tropes about art and artists which he plays with or gets lost in.
He must be a French artist because he wears a blue and white striped top but no beret – so he is bit like Picasso, but his activities have him more like, Marcel Marceau the great mime artist. But then again he is also disconcertingly like the very un-French Mr Bean.
Monckton is a conjurer, acrobat, mime and contortionist who creates endless visual jokes, making use of the artists equipment and the everyday items of the studio. His attempts to get hold of a brush have him entangled in a table, a set of shelves and a rogue ladder while his attempts to secure some fabric to a stretcher with a staple gun are complicated, hilarious and dangerous.
There is an elaborate set-up around a still life where the fruit are given a life of their own and the traditional image of a bowl of fruit, bottle of wine and glass gets reworked in a clever visual joke where the artist paints one of the real green apples red so it matches the apples in the painting .
There was a bit of audience involvement. One young woman was cajoled onto the stage to sit for a portrait and then got given the job of painting artist’s portrait. There is also a rapid game of ping pong (remember the paddle) as he fires balls into the audience. The audience provided feedback with waves of laughter, but Monckton was particularly concerned with the chuckles of a young child pointing at his watch, letting the parents know it was past the young ones bedtime.
Monckton displays brilliant timing and pace in a mixture of physical theatre, mime and visual humour which makes this act classy and entertaining.
While he is silent apart from a few guttural phrases the background sound and music are brilliantly integrated into the performance.
This Saturday Mt Eden Village sees the annual Artists in Eden, one of Auckland’s great community arts events which has taken place each year for the past 33 years.
The event in which artists create interpretations or respond to Mt Eden is a unique event and an example of the community arts in action – artists and the community focussed on some common theme and outcome, the artists aware of the audience and purpose, the audience participating in the event as viewers and commentators.
The day provides artist with the opportunity to demystify the production of art, to let people see how artists create their work, how it evolves on the page or canvas.
David Blair
The public have an opportunity to engage with the artists to discover how and why an artist works in a particular way and what their relationship to Mt Eden is. It was also a way for the artist to move their studio outside and let people see how they work
This year forty artists will be taking part including Dick Frizzell, George Baloghy Russell Jackson and Peata Larkin. There are also several younger emerging artists who have won the Eden Arts Art Schools Awards and the Young Mt Eden Artists Award including Brittany Walker-Smith and Rhea Maheshwari
Over the years there have been over fifteen hundred paintings, drawings photographs and sculptures produced by close to 100 artists and many of the artists have taken innovative approaches. Jeff Thompson brought along his machine for knitting strips of corrugated iron into a sculpture of Mount Eden.
Nigel Brown made a woodblock print producing a two coloured print in an edition of three and in the case of Robert Ellis his participation led to his major series of paintings –“Maungawahua / Mt Eden”.
Among the artist who have taken part in previous years have been Pat Hanly, Don Binney, Peter Siddell, Terry Stringer, Alexis Hunter, Clyde Scott, Geoff Tune, Martin Ball, Peata Larkin, Dick Frizzell and Stanley Palmer
Jeffrey Harris creates dreamscapes where the real and surreal, the spiritual and the earthly the sacred and profane jostle with each other with a rich imagery which grapples with issues of love, sex and death.
In his latest exhibition of new paintings from this year he draws on medieval styles of depiction, artists of the Trecento such as Giotto, Francis Bacon and Colin McCahon. His cartoon-like approach and the Christian imagery creates a unique view of the social. psychological, and spiritual dilemmas of society.
Like many artists over the years, his use of Christian symbolism, has overtones of ancient meaning as well as contemporary psychological interpretations.
Many of the symbols used by Harris are multi layered as with the case of the severed or floating head.
The symbolism of severed head as its roots in early art – David slaying Goliath, St John the Baptist’s head demanded by Salome and Judith slaying Holofernes.
The Symbolists such as Redon saw this floating head as the embodiment of purity and martyrdom as well as the dangerous eroticism of the femme fatale, which leads to the emasculation of the male while Freudians would see it as a symbol of castration.
But there are many other rich symbols – the snake, the two headed snake, the crucifix, the crucified man, the book, the drop of blood, the candle, the single tree.
It means that these works are narratives combining biblical tales, recreated myths, dream sequences and psychological insights.
In using Christian imagery Harris creates ambivalent narratives. While the Bible stories are about God/Christ, Harris uses them as symbols of human suffering, addressing issues of personal spirituality and angst.
These stories range from the simple depictions of Adam and Eve in “Female and Male” where Adam prefigures Christ by piercing his side with a spear. But the two figures hold symbols of violence – the woman a pistol and the man a spear and sword. The violence done to the Male/Christ figure is self-inflicted, the image suggesting that our suffering, violence and antipathy are self-generated.
Jeffrey Harris, Family
His “Crucifixion and Figures in Landscape derives from the many religious paintings as well as Colin McCahon’s technique of placing the biblical scenes in local landscapes.
“Family” has a much more ambivalent sexual content with a Christ figure into bondage confronted by a religious dominatrix. There is also an emasculated penis image on the wall.
Finlandia may be a celebration of Finland but it has been used to celebrate many events and landscapes including films such as Die Hard 2 and was briefly the national anthem of Biafra.
It was fitting that it was the opening work for the APO’s Nordic Fire, their first concert of the year. It was the heralding of a new era just as Finlandia heralded the new nation.
It is a rousing monumental work and in the hands of conductor Vincent Hardaker the drama of the music unfolded in a precisely controlled manner without bombast. The spring-like section had an eloquence and tenderness, contrasting with the intensity of much of the music.
The nationalism which inspired Finlandia was also at the core of the major work on the programme, Grieg’s Holberg Suite which celebrated the bicentenary of the late eighteenth-century Norwegian writer Ludwig Holberg. Greig composed the work for string orchestra (originally for keyboard) in the style of Holberg’s musical contemporaries, the Baroque composers Bach and Handel as well as the Norwegian Johan Berlin .
As with many baroque ensembles the players all stood and rather than responding to a conductor the players took their directions from lead violinists, notably Andrew Beer.
The players formed a tight U shape which gave a greater sense of intimacy and the group seemed to be functioning more as an integrated unit.
While the music had its grounding in a classical framework there were traces of folk music which gave the work a special quality. The various movement had changing emotionally, rich sounds from the joyous and elegant to the nostalgic and melancholic. In the final dancelike movement several of the players seemed to be inspired by the local hall dance atmosphere and ready to dance themselves.
Between the two nineteenth century works the orchestra played two contemporary Finnish works. The first by Kalevi Aho was his Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra featuring Stephen Logan the APO’s Principal Timpanist as soloist. Seated at the front of the stage behind his five drums wearing his red velvet jacket he looked like. and was received by the audience as a rock star.
Aho’s work continued the dramatic music of Sibelius with the timpani playing the major role. Initially Logan’s drumming was relatively simple, dancing above the shimmering strings of the orchestra. As the work progressed so did the intensity of the drumming along with changes in the orchestra as various instruments accompanied the soloist, weaving a dense landscape of sound as a background. At times he became a frenetic rock band drummer while at other time he took a more measured approach as though carefully selecting his choice of drum.
It was revealing and instructive to see a timpanist up close and focussed on his instruments. The various sized drums, their tuning, the different drumsticks as well as his use of his hands all contributed to the sonic textures as he explored the full potential of his instruments.
While the work seemed initially to grow out of Finlandia with its changing landscape of sound the work also explored novel sounds including jazz and South American rhythms.
While Logan and the drums were the main focus of the performance, he was occasionally backed up by two other percussionists playing a range of instruments including snare drums, gongs and big bass drum.
The other Finnish piece on the programme was Magnus Lindberg’s Gran Duo for Woodwinds and Brass where the earthy brass instruments and the more dynamic woodwinds produced buffeting waves of sounds which created contrasts as well as well as synergies. The suggestion by Vincent Hardaker that the work might be seen as having the same impact as The Rite of Spring which premiered 100 years ago was possibly overoptimistic and premature.
An additional highlight to the evening was Nicola Baker, The Principal Horn Player performing a Mozart Horn Concerto as her farewell to the audience after many years of playing with the orchestra.
Forthcoming Concert
March 8 Shoulder to Shoulder
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra celebrates International Women’s Day with a selection of women composers in Shoulder to Shoulder. Three New Zealand composers, Ruby Solly, Dorothy Ker and Rachael Morgan will feature alongside several other international composers including Germaine Tailleferre the only female member of Les Six, the early nineteenth century group of avant-garde musicians.
The Auckland Art Fair offers art a range of prices from modest prices to works priced at over $1 million.
Under $2500
Bronwynne Conish, Cat Mummy Series ($850each) [Artis] Work which explores ancient forms, symbols and myths of Egyptian cultures
Mark Wooller, Horotui Bay – Queen St Gully ($1400) [Black Door Galley] The artist often examines Auckland’s past through symbols and maps.
Under $5000
Susan Te Kahurangi King, untitled hand coloured litghograph ($2800) [Auckland Print Studio] New work from APS at Unitec. The outlines printed from a lithograph stone and then hand colouredTanya Martusheff, “of a dilemma” ($4000) Commissioned project for the Art fair consisting of three elements of disconnected indutrial/domestic constructions.
Under $15,000
Andrew Beck, Coalesce, ($11,000) [Visions]
A work in which light, shadow, surface, reflection and time are brought together.
Michael Dell, Untitled landscape at Moutere 9$8500) [Foenander]
His hazy out-of-focus work conflates the notions of traditional landscape painting and pin-hole photography.
Under $50,000
Robert Jahnke tā te whenua kōwhai ($25,000) [Milford Gallery] Similar to the work he has displayed in the current Toi Tu Toi Ora exhibition of contemporary Maori art at the Auckland Art GalleryJude Rae SL 437 ($25,000) [Two Rooms] Still life works which emphasis a beauty in the industrial object.Neil Dawson, Kotare Tail Feather $25,000 [Jonathan Smart] The artist has used the feathers in many of his public sculptures . these domestic scaled works reveal the intricacies of the artist’s work and their delicacy gives the illusion of weightlessnessBill Culbert, Strait Manukau ($24,000) [Fox Jensen McCrory] One of the most significant NZ artists working in Europe for many years who explored light from many perspectives.
Under $100,000
Billy Apple, Mistral 10 $100,000 [Starkwhite] The red and green hull of a Mistral class boat along with two framed designsRobert McLeod , Sisters with Rose Bush ($72,000) [Ivan Anthony] A reworking of Pre-Raphaelitism style and themeDaniel Boyd, Untitled, (TGRTOPIADL) ($72,500) [Station] Boyd is of aboriginal ancestry addressing issues of colonialism and the environment with a style combining pointillism and traditional techniques.
Everyone knows that art can be a good investment. If you have a large Colin McCahon in the family you know that someone made a brilliant decision at some stage.
The returns on art purchases in NZ can be high. The works of Colin McCahon may be out on their own but they do give an indication of the way that prices can go for New Zealand master painters. McCahons which originally sold for $200-$500 are now readily selling for $100,000-$500,000 and there was a recent sale of $1.7 million.
So how do you get to be the brave, fearless, serious art collectors going where only the foolhardy seem to venture. There is no absolute way to do it but there can be a few hints.
Overall, it is a matter of developing an idea for quality, for what is new, brave, exciting and confronting. It is also about understanding the processes of how an artist produces and sell arts work. There is also the need for self education about art and artists.
What follows is a check list. Some of points are more important than others. Some are absolutes. Some are interconnected. Some are difficult to use. Use them carefully and you may be successful.
The Galleries
In all the main centres there is a hierarchy of galleries This is determined by their track record, the perception, prestige and manner of the dealer, and their record of reliability.
The dealers of the major galleries are always on the lookout for new talent and their decisions on who can be poached from other dealers and from other cities. Likewise, there are many artists keen to be taken on by these galleries.
The Dealers
Dealers are normally synonymous with their galleries but some gain an importance regardless of the gallery.
Dealers know a lot, unfortunately a lot of what they know they won’t tell. Generally they are interested in promoting artists in their own stable and so their opinions will be biased towards those artists they represent. Some of them by the nature of their business are not able to get out and look at other dealer galleries so are not aware of the other artists exhibiting.
Cultivate one or two dealers. They are useful people to ask questions about art and artists, they are also useful for a second opinion. It is through their knowledge and perceptions that you can get a better understanding of your own approach to art. They are also the people who can ensure that when you do buy art works they are the best for you. The dealer helps set prices for the art and selects work for the exhibitions. They are the ones who will alert special buyers to individual works which come on the market.
Reading
This consists in reading books, magazines and catalogue, following the reviews in the daily newspapers, going to lectures. There are a few books on the history of New Zealand art. Each of them has their weakness so it is best to read them all.
There are a number of catalogues produced by dealer galleries, public galleries and the artists themselves. They are useful for solid information on the background of the artists as well as giving some understanding of their previous work. Sometimes these are a little dense in terms of the writing style but the illustrations are always useful. Catalogues give an indication of the commitment of the dealers, artists and institution to the particular artist.
Writers and Curators
Writers are often good indicators of where things are going and who to watch. They are the people who are following overseas trends, they get to speak to artists and generally have a good overview. Some of the writers are also important curators as well. There are of course the problems of bias both real and perceived. Writers who are close friends of artists, writers who are dealers, writers married to dealers, writers married to artists.
Keep an eye on what the contemporary curators are doing. If anyone is going to be perceptive it’s them even if sometimes they seem to be widely askew in their thinking.
Francis Upritchard, Yvonne
Award and Fellowship Winners
These are useful indicators. The judges are often important writers, curators and collectors. The Walters Prize nominees in 2020 were the collective Mata Aho, Fiona Amundsen, Sonya Lacey andSriwhana Spong..
Winners of the Wallace Awards last year included Russ Flatt, Darryn George, Glen Hayward and Martin Basher,
High Profile Artists
Artists who appear in the paper, make the new on TV and are generally perceived to have a public profile are an indication that they have either made it or are on the way.
Artists such as Michael Parekowhai generated a lot of publicity over his “The Lighthouse” on Queens Wharf in 2017
Yuki Kihara was to have been New Zealand representative at the Venice Biennale and Francis Upritchard was the representative in 2009.
Arts Council Grants
The grants made by the Arts Council are made by peer panels consisting of artists, curators and arts administrators. They allocate funds on the basis of substantial information as well as references from other notable arts people. The grants are published each year in Arts Council publications. There are regularly new artists appearing on the lists.
Overseas Exhibitions
A number of New Zealand artists are having exhibitions overseas in public galleries and dealer galleries. This will often mean they pick up overseas institutions, corporates and individuals as buyers and their prices can be pushed up.
Overseas Magazines
Buy the occasional overseas art magazine to keep up with what is fashionable and current. Most artists and writers use these magazines for pointers and ideas. Some use them for the main source of ideas.
Sales Records
If an artist has one or two sell-out shows, it should be taken as a sign instant success and/or great talent.
Other artists may not sell all the work through an exhibition, but the work will sell over a six to nine month period after the show. This is where conversations with dealers are useful.
There are some artists though who develop a short-term fashionable period with sell out shows followed by a drop in sales and often in prices. If you are being cautious it is probably best to wait for two or three exhibitions by an artist before making major commitments. This may be a more expensive alternative but there is a greater degree of certainty.
If you find an artist you like but always seems to have sell-out show let the dealer know. Sometimes at a sell-out show the occasional sale does not proceed and the next person on the list may well be able to acquire it.
You can check on prices of artists sales at auction at the web site of the auction houses such as Webb’s, Art + Object and The International Art Centre.
Mathew Allan, Tall Diptych
Rarity
As an artist’s career develops more and more art works go into public galleries, major corporate collections and private collections. When the artist’s works become hard to procure the prices go up. At this point it is possible to buy quite expensive works and sell within the short term. There are probably only around a few hundred McCahon works left which will ever come on to the market. Of these less than one hundred will be significant paintings.
Age
It is always useful to buy artists of your own generation. It is more likely that you will have an empathy with their ideas and concerns and the works will tend to be cheaper. On the other hand it is also useful to buy artists who are much older as the work of senior artists can often grow in value towards the end of their career as they become less productive. The onset of death also adds significantly to the value of the work.
The Photographers
One of the great unrealised investment areas in New Zealand photographers. This applies to our historical photographers as well as the new innovators such as Fiona Pardington and Yvonne Todd. This group of artists offers excellent investment opportunities.
Richard McWhannell, From El Paso to Encinal: The John Wayne Tour
Orexart
Until March 3
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Richard McWhannell’s recent exhibition “From El Paso to Encinal: the John Wayne Tour” is record of the trip he made through Southern Texas in 2019.
He has titled the exhibition “The John Wayne Tour” as the purpose of the trip was to transport a portrait of John Wayne from El Paso to Encina for friend. This seemingly trivial rationale is not unlike the basis for many of the tales of the wandering cowboy ontheir picaresque mission.
Accompanying the exhibition is a written account of his journey which brings together personal notes about the journey, references to the history and culture of the area along with musical and film references.
One wall of the gallery features more than a dozen small to medium sized works which are like a display of postcards documenting the journey. There is a small portrait of “John Wayne” ($2600), who inspired the trip along with images of the places the artist visited. many of these places have resonances with songs and films associated with the area.
Richard McWhannell, Rosa’s Cantina
There is a painting of “Rosa’s Cantina” ($2400) made famous by the Marty Robbins ballad “El Paso” as well as famous buildings such as the Palacio Federal ($4600) in Nueva Laredo and less important places such as the Three Palms Motel, Presidio ($4600) and the “The Concordia Cemetery, Shafter” ($4200), the resting place of many names of Texas history including the infamous gunfighter John Wesley Hardin.
The artist also pays homage to the great contemporary western “Giant” with a couple of paintings of the large installation works by the American artist John Cerney which celebrate the actors and set of the film. One of these “Reata Homestead and Rock Hudson” features the façade of the house used in the film and Rock Hudson in his car. The other, “James Dean” ($4600) is of the actor with a gun slung over his shoulders. The portrait of Elizabeth Taylor which Cerney also installed is not included.
The two large landscape of the dramatic mountain Christo Rey ($12,500) which show it changing from morning till evening feel as though they could be the beginnings of the artists own series of works like Cezanne’s “Mont Sainte-Victoire”.
Images of sites such as “Christo Rey” and “Nueva Loredo” also see the artist delving into the contentious history of the area with Donald Trumps wall just over the horizon in the Christo Rey paintings and the contested area of Nueva Loredo. There is also his painting” “Rio Grande at Castelon” ($4200) where the narrow river which is the border between the USA and Mexico is no barrier to people wanting to cross.
With his limited palette the artist manages to give a sense of unreality to many of his vistas and views, managing to convey the vastness and ruggedness of the area. He also captures the desolation and bleakness as well as the seemingly impermanent nature of the buildings. Taken altogether the works present a surreal vision of the landscape providing a metaphor for the bareness of the political and social framework of the place.
Next week the Auckland Art Fair will be hosting over forty art galleries from New Zealand and around the Pacific showing the breadth and diversity of art from the region.
As well as exhibiting the latest and best in New Zealand contemporary art there are galleries showing major international works, historical works, aboriginal art as well as craft work by significant artists.
GOW LANGSFORD GALLERIES
Gow Langsford Gallery will exhibit a work by British Modernist Henry Moore alongside a key painting by Frances Hodgkins.
Moore’s “Mother and Child: Block Seat” which will have an asking price in excess of $2 million is a rare opportunity to see works by this major British sculptor. The last time an artwork by Henry Moore was exhibited in New Zealand was in 2017, when the Auckland Art Gallery mounted Moore’s life-sized “Fallen Warrior”. Founding Gow Langsford Gallery director John Gow (MNZM) says of the Moore, “this is one of the most significant artworks to ever be exhibited at an Art Fair here in New Zealand, and it is the only work by Henry Moore of this scale in the country.”
Of Hodgkins’ “Christmas Tree” he says it is “the most major late-1940s oil painting by Hodgkins. It’s a rare occasion that we can offer New Zealand a work of this quality onto the open market. This is one of the very few major works that is not in a public collection.” Alongside these masterworks the Gallery will exhibit works byColin McCahon and Tony Fomison as well as mid-career artists Graham Fletcher and Grace Wright.
Frances Hodgkins Christmas Tree and Henry Moore, Mother and Child: Block Seat
TIM MELVILLE GALLERY
The Tim Melville Gallery be presenting an exhibition of three new stone sculptures by Joe Sheehan alongside an Alberto Garcia-Alvarez triptych dating from 1977, and an installation of Aboriginal artworks.
Joe Sheehan’s new sculptures weigh between 400kg and 700kg and are a major development from his 2019 sell-out exhibition ‘Real Estate’.
JOE SHEEHAN, Invisible City ($45,000)
The Garcia-Alvarez triptych is painted on canvas gifted to him by Colin McCahon in the 1970s when he had just arrived in NZ from California. He had come to NZ to teach at Elam, just as McCahon was departing the University to paint full-time. He invited the artist and his young family to visit him (and his young family) at Muriwai. Knowing that he would not yet have any materials McCahon offered Alberto a roll of green canvas to tide him over … from which this triptych was created.
ALBERTO GARCIA-ALVAREZ, Aidoneus Bed (triptych), 1977 ($65000)
The Aboriginal works being presenting include a new screen-print by celebrated Arnhem Land bark artist Nonggirrnga Marawili, who recently had a major exhibition at Sydney’s MCA as part of the 2020 Sydney Biennale.
NONGGIRRNGA MARAWILI, Baratjala
SUITE GALLERY
Suite Gallery will be showing Tia Ansell, a Melbourne based New Zealand artist and New York based artist Douglas Stichbury.
Tia Ansell is a Melbourne based New Zealand artist whose practice combines both painting and weaving. Woven on a 4 or 6 shaft loom, and using a combination of threads such as cotton, linen, bamboo and silk to give different qualities of colour, texture and feel, woven surfaces provide the substrate for the painted surfaces. The woven grids form the basis of Tia’s work, representing the urban landscapes of her neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Her painting represents snippets of her immediate surroundings; a shaft of light, a window frame or a shadow. Ansell’s aluminium frames, based on a museum storage tray, allow the weaving and painting to be reflected, extending the illusion of a repeated pattern
Tia Ansell, Oxford, cotton, wool and silk weaving, – $2,000
Douglas Stichbury who won the Parkin Drawing Prize in 2014 and is now based in New York will be showing works which continue to explore his interest in speculative 20th century science fiction. Using industrial software Stichbury’s images are initially planned digitally through simulations, before being painted in dry brush oil on linen, a process inspired by Joan Miro’s raw linen paintings and brutalist abstract painting of the 1960s.
The paintings are based on a concept for a film titled the Glass House by the pioneering Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein which was pitched to Paramount Films in 1930 but never made. The premise for the film, set sometime in the future, was of a completely glass residential building without consistent privacy, a musing on the architecture of surveillance and control.
Douglas Stitchbury, Glass House, dry brush oil on linen, $12,500
MASTERWORKS GALLERY
Masterworks Gallery is showing work by Thomas Carroll (Ngāti Maru, Hauraki), Tania Patterson and Mike Crawford (Ngāti Raukawa, Pākehā)
Following the guidelines from experienced practitioners, Thomas Carroll has pursued his interest in Māori music, reconnecting to his own whakapapa and culture and finding his place within Taonga Puoro community. In these works he has used found timbers from a nearby beach, native Beech, Rata and Totara along with a newer addition of sand.
Patterson has created her bird portraits to honour the many threatened indigenous bird species in Aotearoa. Portraiture has historically been used to memorialise an image, recording the subject’s appearance and personality for the future. Tania feels it is important she does this as a means highlight the precarious nature of their future here.
Crawford has built a practice exploring the Māori lineage of his heritage and his interest in sculptural vessels. Research into hue (gourds) and their traditional use as storage for preserving birds has seen the evolution of his practice to forms that combine both bird and vessel characteristics. In his new bird/vessel forms he has captured these forms in flight, their movement expressed through reflective properties of glass. The rich history and the plethora of bird life in Aotearoa provides him with a wealth of inspiration for further investigation with these forms.
Tania Patterson – Kōtare, Kingfisher. Mike Crawford – Tāiko, Chatham Island Petrel (cast black glass, $6,000. Thomas Carroll (Ngāti Maru, Hauraki) – Kōauau, Cross-blown Flute $1,500
ARTIS GALLERY
Artis Gallery will be exhibiting work by ray Ching and Andy Leleisi’uao
They will be showing a major new work by Ray Ching prior to his exhibition opening at ARTIS Gallery later this year. This exhibition will coincide with the launch of his latest limited edition book – ‘Fabled Lands’.
Now living in the UK, during 2010 Ching ventured into the genre of graphic novels, with the first publication titled ‘Aesop’s Kiwi Fables’ in which the tales were told by native birds, who took the place of the original actors.
Raymond Ching is renowned as New Zealand’s leading contemporary bird and figure painter. Merging realism with fictional compositions, Ching’s oil paintings are incredibly detailed, with an almost photographic quality.
RAY CHING, The Pentinent
Wallace Art Award Winner Leleisi’uao’s is one of the most significant contemporary Pacific artists. Known for his distinctive visual language that shows alternate universes populated by strange creatures. Immigrant communities and their experiences are central to Leleisi’uao’s works. An “artist of diaspora”, his work is reflective of his experience as a New Zealand born Samoan. He draws inspiration from ancient and modern history, news headlines and personal experiences.
His work is included in the permanent collections of Te Papa Tongarewa Wellington, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Pataka Museum & Art Gallery Lower Hutt, the Chartwell Collection and the Wallace Arts Trust .
ANDY LELEISI’UAO, Usland Village in Kamoa
BARTLEY + COMPANY ART
Roger Mortimer’s magnificent large triptych Pakiri will feature prominently on Bartley & Company Art’s stand. Showing the ongoing development of Mortimer’s distinctive juxtapositioning of contemporary marine maps of Aotearoa New Zealand with medieval imagery, this ‘map’ covers the north Auckland east coast from Tawharenui in the south to Ruakaka in the north and includes Little Barrier and Great Barrier Islands. At a time of huge anxiety in the world, Mortimer’s work speaks to the notion of the moral imagination. How do we collectively construct a vision of right and wrong when so many in the western world no longer believe or trust in the given, in the untrammelled ‘progress’ of capitalism and concepts of heaven and hell that have defined and shaped western thinking and social frameworks?
Roger Mortimer, Pakiri, watercolour, gold dust and acrylic lacquer on canvas,
The gallery will also be showing several dramatic new paintings by Kelcy Taratoa. Exploring the complexity of cultural identity in the 21st century, Taratoa’s vibrantly-coloured super-flat paintings blend references to traditional Maori pattern with geometric modernism and space invader games. Ambiguity is at the heart of all of his work conceptually and materially.
Kelcy Taratoa, The Grey Matter, acrylic on canvas
Helen Calder is concerned with colour, form and how painting operates in space when freed of its traditional support on canvas and stretcher. Her three-dimensional paintings, paint skins’ offer a direct engagement with the materiality of paint, its colour, textural possibilities and weight. Here painting engages with the history of abstraction and pushes at its limits to adopt the terrain of sculpture.
Helen Calder, Orange and Green Red, acrylic paint skin on steel rod
Work by Claudia Jowitt will also be included. Her ‘painting’ allows sculptural force, and the three-dimensional, to pull on the two-dimensional painted surfaces. Conceptually there is also an interaction between an investigation of the feminine in art and the insertion of place into abstraction.
Claudia Jowitt, Baka III, acrylic, spray paint, rayon yarn, Fijian vau, paua shell, kina shell, cowrie shells, moulded acrylic, clay forms, bronze powder on linen
In her recent exhibition “Inflection” Belinda Griffiths continues her focus on the figure. In her previous work the figure has often been linked to the landscape, but this exhibition includes many images of birds. These are from a series of daily paintings she made of the blackbirds in her garden undertaken during lockdown.
The artist says of these works, “A daily return to the natural world became more than just a quaint idea, but an essential way for me to spend time and connect with something concrete that extended beyond the challenges of lockdown, a way to connect to something bigger than myself.”
As well as “portraits” of birds there are several which are of figures incorporating birds. In these, she links ideas about birds with humans, drawing on history, mythology and symbolism.
Birds generally represent freedom because of their ability to roam the earth and are often seen as symbols of rebirth, intelligence, peace, and love. They can also be omens of death and films like “The Birds” have given the creatures some sinister qualities.
Griffiths’ works inhabit a realm between the abstract and the realist as she attempts to capture the essence of a figure (or a bird ) with calligraphic gestures, The birds can be seen as harbingers of change as well as expressions of the human condition.
In many cases using a minimum of means, as with “Traced in the Shadow 4” ($950) rather than the depiction of the bird we have the impression of movement and the bird’s feathers are indicated by tentative brush strokes.
A set of six images of birds entitled “When the birds come back” ($800 each) look as though they could be six separate studies of the same bird capturing different impressions or notions about birds – inquisitive, agitated and disdainful. The most intriguing of the set is “When the birds come back #3” where we see only the lower half of the bird as it has just taken flight and it looks like a mistimed photograph of the escaping bird.
Belinda Griffiths, When the black bird flew out of sight #2
The idea that birds represent aspects of the human heart is conveyed in “When the blackbird flew out of sight 2” ($3000) while in “Inescapable Rhythms” ($3000) bird and man appear to be as one.
There are two large figurative works which are more detailed than the calligraphic works. “Inflection 1” ($6000) looks as though it is a portrait of one of Antony Gormley’s rusted Corten steel sculptures, the glowing figure seeming to be emerging out of the black background.
New Zealand Arts Review 