‘‘Selected Works’’, Neville Porter, Nigel Wilson, Luke Anthony and Richie Knight
(Eade Gallery, Clyde) IN Clyde’s Eade Gallery, perfectly polished wood splits apart, the textural interior painted and glowing as if a force within is spilling outward. Murray Shephard’s Out of the Forest utterly transforms macrocarpa from Owaka sale yards, juxtaposing smooth surfaces against dark, jagged imagery with dramatic effect. The craftsmanship is precise and immensely skilled in even the simplest of details.
Luke Anthony’s carved kauri Welcome Swallow perches nearby, a quizzical observer. Instead of resting among leaves and branches, the bird sits atop a wreath of barbed wire, his gentle presence a striking contrast to the sharp spikes and twists of metal.
Beneath the flicks and strokes of boughs bending in the wind, the figure in Nigel Wilson’s Arrowtown River Walk heads into the dark shadows of the unknown, about to be engulfed by the trees and whatever lies beyond. Tonally perfect, the energy in the paint application works to convey a sense of both vibrancy and contemplation, as the viewer, too, is drawn into the landscape. Nearby, in Alex River Trail, the thick dabs of paint cast autumnal gold across the cold depths of the river.
From the trees to the mountains, Neville Porter’s gorgeous photography is at its best in Musterers Window. The viewer is situated within the darkness of a weathered dwelling, gazing through the window into the crisp grey light of wintery fields. In the distance, the mountains rise into the gathering clouds, and a path into the horizon beckons, the temptation of a journey beyond that glass pane.