I’m thrilled to invite you to attend the opening of “All in between (then and now)”. This exhibition will present a selection of works from the past four years with a number of new and previously unexhibited artworks. This will be my last exhibition in New Zealand for the foreseeable future, as I’m relocating to The Netherlands to further my art practice.
The opening is from 6pm on Friday the 26th of March at J.J. Morgan & Co (3 Cruickshank St, Kilbirnie), and the show will also be open to view on Saturday the 27th. I hope to see you there! Please feel free to forward this invitation and/or bring whoever you like to the show.
Written by Aaron Frater (TLC Tutor)
The fourth biannual ShapeShifter show held at the Civic Gardens and The NewDowse in Lower Hutt is a sculpture exhibition that runs during the New Zealand International Arts Festival. It has grown over the past 10 years to be a major visual arts event, one of the country’s premier outdoor sculpture exhibitions and an important charitable event for the Hutt Valley.
The show, which runs from Friday 26 February to Sunday 21 March 2010, features sculptures from over 60 artists including top New Zealand sculptors Para Matchitt, Don Driver, Graham Bennett, Tanya Ashken, Peter Nicholls, as well as exciting emerging artists. The sculptures are chosen by the ShapeShifter artistic director and director of The NewDowse art museum, Cam McCracken are in a wide variety of mediums and a range of scale.
After many years of putting in applications for this show, I was lucky enough to be selected for the 2010 event. So I guess I am one of the emerging sculptors. The body of work I have been creating, alongside a number of other series of works, are based around the idea of symbols and signs, using a specific material to realise them. The nature of the barrier mesh material is integral to the works. The mesh is luridly bright, bold, takes up space in a virtual kind of way, and yet is more holes than substance. This form / no-form dichotomy is a hallmark of, and something I love about this industrial product used as an art material. The space in the mesh is an integral or even dominant part of the work.
The safety mesh is a grid, a manufactured woven pattern that is designed to warn the viewer away from dangers, yet it grabs attention and draws one in with its intense colour. A business suit is similar, a barrier. It keeps the corporate warrior safe. It can keep people out, make a statement of rank and demarcate socio economic and cultural boundaries. Are the identities these costumes confer upon human’s solid or primarily empty space? Are they just made up of socio cultural historical norms? Is a suit perhaps like barrier mesh? More hole than mass – like the space between protons and electrons in atoms? Physical matter in this view is more empty space than mass.
The layers of meaning in material, construction, and subject matter leave them open to interpretation. They are signs, or symbols – they are not naturalistic. The construction of these works is akin to upholstery or tailoring, referencing form and function as such practical crafts as these do. I am neither a tailor nor a costumer. I am a sculptor versed in many forms of three dimensional arts making seeking a way to express some of what it is to be human in the 21st century.
The opportunity to show these works in a public space as ShapeShifter allows is a great way for me to put these ideas out for many to engage with. A public show with the level of publicity of this one means many people will see them, interact with them and comment on them. This can be quite hard, opening up ones work to all comers, but its part of the art game. I find too that the growth in my work tends to come after people have seen it and given me feedback. I digest and filter it, and it informs aspects of my work. I still have to stay true to my ideas, but art is a visual communication and it is as much a dialogue as a monologue.
26 February – 21 March 2010
Open 10am-5pm daily and Thursdays 10am-8pm
NEWDOWSE LINK
An exhibition of paintings by TLC tutor, Anne-Marie Jean and also Karen Giles opened at Tamarillo Gallery in Wellington on Thursday night. Anne-Marie and Karen have worked together for many years, sharing studios and doing tramping and drawing trips into the New Zealand and Australian bush. The show was inspired by a trip they did to Stewart Island in December 2009, spending a week at Mason Bay in the Doc hut there, drawing and painting each day on the beach and sand dunes.
Other news is that TLC Tutors Anne-Marie Jean and Jane Blackmore have just opened Blackmore Jean Gallery and Studio at Shelley Bay in Wellington. The Galley/Studio will be open Tuesday to Saturday each week and it is just down the road from the Chocolate Fish Cafe. So get down there and check it out!
Paramount Gallery, 25 Courtney Place, Wellington.
My works for this solo exhibition explore the theme of grids and lines using a range of art methods and media –oils, pastels and acrylic paints on a variety of surfaces.
I am fascinated with the way our lives are viewed through frames of our own and others making – looking through objects such as windows and doors. As artists we are often advised to ‘frame the view’, as it is just not possible to paint the whole universe. We have to do it human sized chunks. Life goes on whether we are in front, behind, under or above these frames or grids. It is this idea of life going on whether we look out or look in that I am conveying in this group of abstract artworks, as well as the grids and lines themselves.
The idea of life being looked at through grids and lines was a large part of my career in the NZ Public Service where as a land administrator we used a wonderful way of imposing some order into the ‘chaos’ of land by working with maps – both topographical and showing tenure and title.
Contact details:
0274255334, 04 3893825 or ctrewby@clear.net.nz
Paul Forrest
The Godwits – New oil paintings by Paul Forrest
Michael Fowler Centre Foyer
111 Wakefield St. Wellington
26 Feb – 21 Mar 2010
In association with Fringe 2010
On show will be 35 new Oil paintings by Wellington artist Paul Forrest. Paul will be painting at the venue everyday of the exhibition 10am until late providing the opportunity for students to meet and engage with an artist at work. This is a free event.
Paul has 24 years experience of being a full time self representing artist.
His knowledge of art materials is very broad and is well grounded in the reality of the business side of surviving in the art world.
With his relaxed and engaging manner he wishes to impart this knowledge to artists of all ages.
His website www.paulforrest.co.nz has up to date images of the paintings that will be in this exhibition.
TLC staff member Carrie Burke can usually be found running about organising many of the great events we have here at TLC. From the end of term exhibitions to the upcoming Festival of Art and Creativity she is an organisational dynamo at the centre of much chaos.
Finding a way to recharge her batteries and stay fresh at work has led her back to the process of creating. Her and ex-TLC staff member Catherine Nicolson found that working full time, even in a place as creative as TLC, often left them with little time to make their own artwork. After talking with each other about how to find their way back to their creative hearts they both started spending time in the jewellery and sculpture areas at TLC and taking some time to do the things they love.
Carrie says “Finding that balance and giving yourself some time to do what you love is really important. You can get really tied up with work and daily life and getting involved with a creative process is actually tremendously rewarding and relaxing.”
Both Carrie and Catherine work with paint, sculpture and jewellery, often crossing over and blending the mediums. Both love bold colours and found similarities and connections between each other’s styles. These connections within their work led to the idea of having an exhibition together. Carrie and Catherine made a booking at Thistle Hall in Wellington in the middle of last year, giving themselves a goal to work towards.
Carrie says that she has learned an incredible amount helping others exhibit, which means it has been a smooth process putting together her own. The only obstacle they’ve really faced was Catherine’s move to Australia late last year. The connection between their work and the drive to keep creating has helped overcome this difficulty. It’s been a lot of work, but getting creativity balanced with life has made it all worth it.
With their shared passion for colour and shape, this collection has something for everyone – from Carrie’s delicate jewellery to Catherine’s vibrant textured paintings, complimented by sculptures from each artist. So come and join Carrie and Catherine and celebrate an amazing, bright and eye-catching collection of works.
Jewellery – Sculpture – Paintings: A Collection of Works by Carrie Burke and Catherine Nicolson.
Grand Opening
Tuesday 23 February 2010, 6pm – 9pm
Wednesday 24 Feb to Saturday 27 Feb
10am – 6pm (8:30pm on Friday)
Thistle Hall Community Gallery
cnr Karo Drive & Cuba Street, Mt Cook
Wellington, New Zealand
Maintainance man Paul Bunyan & shop store man Nathan McLachlan have an exhibition on now!!!
A meeting between Pauls stitch work and Nathan’s political paintings, the show promises much. Be there to see it.
The show runs: Monday 15 Feb, 6-9pm (opening); Tuesday 16 Feb to Saturday 20 Feb, 10am-6pm; Sunday 21 Feb, 10am-4pm, at Thistle Hall in Wellington.
TLC Student Martha Tonizzo has graduated from her Diploma Honours year and has had a 6 month break before she started her advanced Diploma. During this break she has been working hard on a solo exhibition called Wai~Roa and it is an idiosyncratic take on the area where she lives; TUAI, Wairoa and Hawkes Bay.
Her exhibition opens on March the 5th, 5-7pm
It is open until 2nd June, 2010
Wairoa Museum
142 Marine Parade, Wairoa.
Greetings!
You are warmly invited to join us at the opening of two new exhibitions: Jacqueline Aust: Abstract and Maree Horner: Critical Penetralia, at Solander on Wednesday 3 February from 5.30 – 7pm.
Jacqueline Aust’s ‘Abstract’, a series of new prints embracing the capabilities of solar plate printmaking, explores patterns of composition from the unintentional marks, shapes and textures of human habitation observed in Florence.
Maree Horner’s new series of photopolymer etchings, ‘Critical Penetralia’, juxtaposes architectural portals with stationary white donkeys, continuing the theme of her previous work where female and male elements jostle to form symbolic images on the surface of the print.
The artists will present a floor talk, starting at 5pm prior to the opening function on Wednesday 3 February. All welcome.
The exhibition runs 3 February – 27 February, 2010.
Please note the photopolymer workshop with Jacqueline Aust is now full, however there are still places available in the March 6 & 7 relief printmaking workshop with Anthony Davies and the Simple Book repair workshop on Sunday 18 April with Vincent Drane; please see our website for further details.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Kind regards
Kyla, Paulette and Vincent
Solander: works on paper
218c Willis St, Wellington, 6011
www.solandergallery.co.nz | info@solandergallery.co.nz | ph: 04 920 0913
The Learning Connexion
Phone +64 4 568 0320 or
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Fax +64 4 567 9864
www.tlc.ac.nz
info@tlc.ac.nz
PO Box 9811
Wellington 6141
Taita Campus
182 Eastern Hutt Road
Taita, Lower Hutt 5019
New Zealand
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