Tats, soul and passion
From a celebration of 20 years of Scape to a hands-on exhibition about the science of the sun, there is plenty to see in local galleries this month, writes Warren Feeney.
The city’s galleries are dominated by group exhibitions and shows that prove that the more the merrier is a credible proposition; that failure can equally be a measure of success; and that scientific learning may work best when experienced as a fairground attraction.
Miranda Parkes, The Merriest (Jonathan Smart Gallery)
There is no better place to begin a visit to the city’s galleries than by raising your spirits with The Merriest.
Miranda Parkes was recipient of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 2016 and her current exhibition had a previous incarnation, showcasing the evidence of her Dunedin residency, as The Merrier in October 2017 at the Hocken Library Gallery. Parkes constructed papier-mache objects, acrylic on canvas paintings, floor works made from found materials on glass and steel stands, and a large hand-dyed silk banner. The abundance and variety of objects that occupied the Hocken Gallery is shared by The Merriest at the Jonathan Smart Gallery, delivering on its promises as a blissful encounter with the colour, materials and form of Parkes’ work. The Merriest is open until April 21.
Untitled #1050 (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu)
Surveying painting and sculpture in Aotearoa from the 1960s and 70s when international abstract art was at last acknowledged as a relevant means of expression in our culture, Untitled#1050 includes the work of many wellknown artists; Gretchen Albrecht, Ralph Hotere and Colin McCahon are among the list.
Yet, its authority resides in the astute visual conversations going on between artists like Gordon Walters and Julia Morison. And then there is Don Driver’s Painted Relief No. II (1972), with its parallel bands of colour, protruding from the painting and advancing and receding as a subject in themselves, deliberately confounding the sureness of our expectations of the reality of a painting as a flat surface. Untitled #1050 runs until October 24.
Viv Kepes, Motoko Kikkawa, Donna-Marie Patterson & Arabella Spoors, Forms of Perception (PGgallery192)
Forms of Perception brings together the work of four artists, working in a variety of media, critically reflecting on the influence and vulnerability of the natural world.
Viv Kepes transforms the details of the plant species in her paintings into subjects worthy of veneration and multi-media artist Kikkawa’s works on paper are equally convincing in their calligraphy and description of their subjects. Patterson’s sculptures and installation made use of industrial materials to reconsider the spirit and energy of the natural world, while Spoors’ photographs record places of cultural and heritage significance in which the complex nature of responses to site by Nga¯ i Tahu Ma¯ ori and Pa¯ keha¯ are evident. Forms of Perception is open until April 20.
Scape Public Art: Celebrating 20 Years (Studio 125 Gallery)
Scape’s 20th anniversary exhibition features artists from its biennial events, including a number who have also contributed to its education programmes and legacy of public art in Christchurch.
Exhibiting the work of 22 artists, Celebrating 20 Years includes new paintings by Philip Trusttum, jewellery by Jennie Sherwin and a commissioned anniversary sculpture by Neil Dawson. There is also a new sculpture by Seung Yul Oh, Ode Pou, in which the artist’s ‘‘moments of balance and counterpoint’’, are manifest in the contrasting scale and complementary forms of its subjects. Scape Public Art: Celebrating 20 Years is open until April 28. Holly Best, An Imprecise Organisation of Forms (Ilam Campus Gallery) Holly Best received significant attention for her work in the 2016 survey exhibition, The Devil’s Blindspot: Recent Strategies in New Zealand Photography, at the Christchurch Art Gallery. Her photographs seemed to be more than about drawing attention to their potential for failure than they were about their subjects – or were they? It is an idea pursued with further inquiry in An Imprecise Organisation of Forms, with the ‘‘rightness’’ or failure of her photographs impossible to clarify. The only certainty is that these assumedly erroneous images cannot be ignored, lingering and preoccupying our attention long after leaving the gallery. An Imprecise Organisation of Forms runs until April 26.
Pickaxes and Shovels (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu)
Taking its name from the tools of trade of colonialism, Pickaxes and Shovels features works from public collections that include the Christchurch Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum and Te Papa Tongarewa. It is a selection that captures and confronts the realities and imaginings of the experiences of Pa¯ keka¯ and Ka¯ i Tahu tangata whenua. Highlights include the reverent James Preston’s Camp in the Orari Gorge Area, 1880, exposing the foolishness of pig hunters unaware that the subject of their interest is helping itself to their food back at camp. In addition, travelling artist Nicholas Chevalier’s Crossing the Teremakau River gets close to the heart of a utopian colonial vision with its golden light cutting through the West Coast bush like the helpful hand of God, seemingly guiding surveyors and explorers on their journey of discovery. Pickaxes and Shovels runs until August 5.
Grace Crothall, Tyne Gordon, Rebecca Harris and Kim Lowe, Quartet (City Art Depot)
In his catalogue essay for Quartet, curator Andrew Paul Wood introduces his selection of artists by cutting to the chase: ‘‘It is work I like by artists I like,’’ and Quartet is an exhibition that there is much to like about.
The scale and beauty of Kim Lowe’s paintings is unanticipated; Tyne Gordon’s imagery is obliquely picturesque in the best possible way; Rebecca Harris’ paintings are refined symbolist fantasia landscapes – or are they dreamscapes?; and with titles like Bananacabochon, Grace Crothall’s collage works announce that they are ready to seriously party. Quartet is on until April 9.
Jane Barry, The Gathering Dark, Liam Dangerfield, A Bit Like (Scenes I’ve Seen Before) and Julie Ross, Studio Tableau (Chambers Gallery)
Chambers Gallery features three solo exhibitions in April. Barry’s evocative monoprints set up a visual conversation between day and light, light and darkness, while Dangerfield’s paintings of unknown, (yet familiar) city streets and corners are similarly an impressive painterly experience. Ross exhibits surreal, anthropomorphic sculptural creatures, drawn from her memories of growing up on the family farm in South Canterbury.
The Gathering Dark, A Bit Like (Scenes I’ve Seen Before) and Studio Tableau are open until April 14.
Graham Ambrose, The Colours of Space (Form Gallery)
Ceramicist and furniture maker, Graham Ambrose once more acknowledges (in the best traditions of Robert Delaunay’s circular abstract painting from the early 20th century), his commitment to the principles of modernism and abstraction.
Minimalist geometric shapes and an economy of form and colour dominate The Colours of Space in ceramic dishes and vessels that act as singular sculptural objects, confirming Ambrose’s role as a kind of aesthetic monk for contemporary studio pottery. The Colours of Space is open from Until April 24.
Sunlight – Ihi Ko¯ maru (Canterbury Museum)
A ‘‘hands-on’’ exhibition like no other. Sunlight – Ihi Ko¯ maru is being toured by Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History in Palmerston North, enlightening all of us (children and adults), about the science of the sun’s energy, its relationship to the planets in our solar system and so much more.
Yet, it does so through a guiding principle of education centred upon science meets fairground attraction – and it works perfectly. Made up of 16 different interactive activities, Sunlight – Ihi Ko¯ maru is highly recommended. Sunlight – Ihi Ko¯ maru runs until July 22.