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Otago Daily Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Art seen: July 3
"20th Anniversary Exhibition", group show (Gallery De Novo) Gallery De Novo has achieved the rare feat of a 20th anniversary, and congratulations are in order on the milestone. To celebrate, a special exhibition has been opened featuring new art by regular contributors to the gallery, alongside several less well-known names. In keeping with the gallery's now regular Christmas shows, in which artists are given a specific size of circular board on which to produce their work, the pieces in this display are also, for the most part, of identical dimensions. The square canvases feature a wealth of new art covering many subjects and styles. As such, it is difficult to review the exhibition as a whole, other than to say there are many excellent pieces on show. What is possible, however, is to single out numerous pieces and artists worthy of special mention. These include Hamish Allen's stylised albatross, a warm cafe interior by Jo St Baker and a magic-realist portrait by Jasmine Middlebrook. A gentler approach is taken by Mel McKenzie's deliberately soft-focus garden and meditative works by Eliza Glyn, Simon Kaan, and Greer Clayton. Eliot Coates goes further with his radiant colourfield abstractions, and Ana Teofilo adds a welcome Pasifika piece. Other notable items include Jason Low's vibrant image of the Taieri Plain and Dean Raynbould's tribute to the late Martin Phillipps. "Never and Before", Kathryn McCool (Olga) Kathryn McCool's photographs tread a borderline between photojournalism and a highly personal journey through time and place. The works on display come from two sources: unpublished images, mainly from around the South, and photographs from around the Manawatu taken for and published in the artist's book P. North . These two sources make up the "never seen" and "seen before" of the exhibition's title. The images, precisely taken in terms of capturing the moment and in terms of their clarity, display the artist's methodical and measured approach to her subjects. The photographs are presented in stark yet warm monochrome, and reveal a psychogeography of the land, with deceptively simple images giving hints to the history and memory traces behind the faces, buildings, and trees. The scenes seem to come from outside time. There is little to tell whether the images are from 2025 or 1955, the ghosts of past and present mix together in the depictions. The works take the photoreportage style of Friedlander or Ussher and add a gentle frisson that suggests that there are stories behind the images. While the depths are not dark or gothic enough to suggest that Palmerston North is an antipodean Twin Peaks, the artist has grasped some sense of unease lurking within the ostensibly bucolic in these intriguing images. "Made in Dunedin", Chris Weaver (Brett McDowell Gallery) Chris Weaver is one of New Zealand's most recognised and accomplished potters. The West Coast-based artist has recently been artist in residence at his old alma mater, Otago Polytechnic. During his time in Dunedin, he has been busy creating his distinctive angular yet functional ceramics, many of which are on display at Brett McDowell Gallery. Weaver's small teapots and jugs have simple, practical forms, but are imbued with several trademark features for which the artist has become well-known. The irregular polygonal shapes of his creations are often emphasised by sheer cut lines and the addition of angular wooden handles. While this may make the works sound austere, this could not be further from the truth. There is a cheeky friendliness to the shapes which almost gives them the feel of perched fantails and wax-eyes, watching and ready to fly off at any moment. The glazes used are a further softening feature of the works. Many of the pieces on display are either salt-glazed, leaving that medium's distinct pattern of speckles and bare lines under a deep, rich skin. Other pieces are worked with a celadon glaze, giving them a soft translucent green shade over a strong grey base. This ancient Chinese glaze is used to good effect, giving the pieces a cool, calming quality. By James Dignan
Otago Daily Times
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Art seen: June 19
"Reflections on Time — Images Over Blueskin Bay", Angela Burns (Gallery De Novo) Readers who know Angela Burns' art may get a surprise looking at her latest exhibition at De Novo. While much of Burns' style is intact, these pieces are far more clearly representational than much of the artist's former oeuvre. The play of light, expressed in broad sweeps of colour, remains present, but distinctive landforms are also clearly depicted — islands, fences, and hillsides. Burns' strong gestural strokes are still the basis of much of the art, but the lure of the photographic has led the artist to produce more strongly grounded landscapes. Inspired by photographs of the view from Double Hill Rd above Waitati, the artist has created a series of images which move between the tangible and the intangible, with plays of light on the water framed by the hills around Blueskin Bay. At times, especially when focusing on the water and sky, such as Lavender Haze over Blueskin Bay , the images have the same free abstraction as Burns' earlier works. In other pieces, the land is clearly delineated without losing the airy impressionism of the more ethereal pieces. A major surprise is the use of acrylic on both canvas and paper; the latter pieces using deft washes of colour that give them more the feel of gouache or heavily applied watercolour. "Through the Fray" (Blue Oyster Art Project Space) "Through the Fray" brings together work by three recent graduates from Dunedin School of Art. All three explore personal, political, or cultural journeys towards coming of age. In the case of Zac Whiteside, the struggles to be seen as a "true Kiwi bloke" and "one of the team" are brought into focus by a washing line filled with rugby jerseys fashioned out of steel wool. The duality of the material — abrasive yet polishing — connects with the often brutal process by which young New Zealanders are shaped into adulthood. Jude Hanson Stevens asks questions of the tactics by which European settlers claimed land in New Zealand using the concept of "Terra Nullius" ("Uninhabited land"). The artist presents a prosaic fence constructed from items salvaged from farm land. The ubiquitous No 8 wire brings with it association of makeshift solutions, and the tōtara posts have echoes not only of farm demarcation but also of traditional pouwhenua. Isabella Lepoamo examines cross-cultural memories, turning a battered La-Z-Boy armchair and discarded beer bottles, the signs of adulthood on the decline, into a Samoan throne, decorated with siapo patterns and surrounded by lilies. There is sadness here, but also strength and pride in the memory of the artist's father and grandfather, trying to create a new home in a new land. "You Can Go Back to the Past, But No-one Will be Waiting for You There", Simon Attwooll (Hutch) Simon Attwooll presents an intriguing exhibition at the new Hutch Gallery in Moray Pl. Working from found photographs of the aftermath of a house fire, the artist creates images which honour a loving memory of the house as it was, while simultaneously using the remains from a house fire as his medium. Crushed and refined charcoal powder from a burnt-out property is used as the medium, rubbed in great clouds over images of fire sites. What emerges are smoky images that seem reminiscent of early daguerrotypes and tintypes, photographs blurred by distant memory and faded with dust. We experience the visceral feel of the destroyed properties, the detritus of what was once a home. In some cases, the work has been compartmentalised by the addition of empty matchbox drawers to the surface, making the image into an almost forensic grid. Are we supposed to be trying to find the source or cause of the conflagration? Among the sooty black, one pale work stands out, almost as a ghost of a house, presented in palest acrylic grey on white. It is as if the spirit of the house still haunts the site, waiting for a release that understanding of the fire alone can bring. By James Dignan
