Latest news with #MilfordGalleries
Otago Daily Times
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Art seen: July 24
"Ecology", group show (Milford Galleries, Queenstown) Opening on Saturday at Queenstown's Milford Galleries, "Ecology" weaves a narrative of the world we inhabit, with all its interconnected facets. With her abstract, geometric landscapes, Laurelee Walmsley creates order from the chaos of an ever-changing environment. There's a fascinating journey between the crisp precision of her diagonal angles and colour theory, and the way in which the viewers' imaginations then take over, with squares, rectangles, and solid blocks of colour mentally expanding and rounding to form misty mountain tops, wintry plains, and summer skies. In an effective juxtaposition, Neil Frazer's landscapes are more figurative in style, but emotion-driven in the application, with energetic strokes of paint splashing into crashing waves, swirling into clouds, and smoothing out into calm skies and seas. Glass artist Galia Amsel's gorgeous pieces also reflect a seamless blend between the natural elements, with dynamic curves suggesting the movements of clouds and flourishing plant life; while Hannah Kidd's spectacular steel and corrugated iron sculptures highlight the beauty and vulnerability of the land and wildlife, as birds perch on rocks and seaweed-draped branches. Each sculpture is comprised of myriad pieces, with Kidd's striking visible joins in the metal — a pertinent reminder that in our delicate ecosystems, too, every individual element is vital to the whole. Tying together the physical and the intangible, Ed Cruikshank's sculptural installations use intricate patterns of LED lights, glowing like a mysterious code — as if they're alight with secrets, untold stories, and unfolding connections, waiting for us to look deeper, explore, and find our own path. "Plantology", Michael McHugh (Milford Galleries, Queenstown) Also opening at Queenstown's Milford Galleries on Saturday is Michael McHugh's new solo show "Plantology". With an almost luminescent sense of light and texture, McHugh's paintings reveal new levels of detail at every glance, with an incredible variation of pattern, depth and tone, even within a single canvas. His work plunges the viewer into new worlds, where vivid plant life seems to burst out from the picture plane, twining around those who venture close and drawing them in. With a mix of the familiar and the fantastical, the imagery somehow feels all the more alien for those occasional glimpses of a recognisable botanical form or biological pattern — it's as if you've woken up in a jungle on a different planet or are trapped within a dream, with that slightly eerie feeling of possible danger, but a fascinated urge to explore further. Each piece can be simultaneously reminiscent of phosphorescent aquatic life, a vivid, otherworldly forest, insects, fruit, a star-drenched galaxy, or textiles and maximalist design. The colour palette shifts — at times dramatically, and in other works quite subtly — from the bold to the more desaturated, but the consistent factor is a sense of teeming life. The works feel like living, breathing scenes, with a certain tense feeling of imminent action, as if you might blink and the blooms and creatures within will have shifted, the vines twining further around a branch, the organisms moving with a passing current of air or water. "Lost & Found", Jay Hutchinson, Devyn Ormsby, Mark Rayner and Stephen Martyn Welch (Gallery Thirty Three, Wānaka) Faces and hands continually press against the windows of Wanaka's Gallery Thirty Three, drawn by the distinctive ceramic creatures of Mark Rayner. From the curious, wide-eyed stares of the long-nosed Schmoos to a smoking snail and glittering devils, Rayner's colourful sculptures fill the gallery, opening up a visual storybook, the whimsical and quirky mingling with the comedic and the grotesque. On the nearby walls, Stephen Martyn Welch's masterfully executed oil portraits capture not only the physical likenesses of the subjects, but a palpable sense of emotion and character; while multidisciplinary artist Jay Hutchinson demonstrates that — if we're truly looking — art and beauty can be found in even the most mundane surroundings. After collecting discarded food wrappers and pavement rubbish, Hutchinson photographs and studies them with the care and interest of a palaeontologist uncovering a fossil, before recreating them as striking textile art. Using cotton drill to simulate crinkled paper bags, crumpled milkshake cups and empty matchboxes, he embroiders labels and slogans, with incredible attention to detail and a level of intricacy in the thousands of tiny stitches that elevates each piece to an artistic treasure. Devyn Ormsby's stunning cast-glass fruit sculptures, reminiscent of the popular glass fruit of the 1960s, are glorious under the light, seeming to both absorb and reflect a glowing sheen. The sculptural works move seamlessly into the selection of her abstract paintings, reflecting on the balance, rhythms and routines of daily life and the emotional importance and individual interpretations of "home". By Laura Elliott
Otago Daily Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Epic films' special guest
A promotional image for Vincent Ward's Rain of the Children. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Whakatipu residents get a unique opportunity next week to see two iconic films by internationally-acclaimed Kiwi film-maker Vincent Ward — and then engage with him in Q&A sessions. Auckland-based Ward's Rain of the Children screens next Tuesday at Queenstown's Te Atamira at 6.30pm, then Vigil screens at Arrowtown's Dorothy Browns on Wednesday at 5.45pm. He's being brought to Queenstown by Milford Galleries, which next Saturday hosts the launch of his unique photography exhibition, 'Palimpsest', featuring photos of human bodies he's painted. Ward calls Rain of the Children, released in 2008, "sort of my favourite, because it's got such a personal connection to the people in it". It came 30 years after a documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone, about his experience living in the remote Urewera Ranges with an elderly Maori woman, Puhi, who was caring for her adult schizophrenic son, Niki. Rain of the Children sees Ward return to the area to explore who Puhi — played by Rena Owen — was. She'd been chosen, aged 12, by Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana — played by Temuera Morrison — to marry his son. At 14, with their baby, she escaped from the 1916 police raid on Rua's community, in which he was arrested. She subsequently had another 13 children — when Ward stayed with her, Niki was her last remaining. Radio New Zealand called the movie "one of the most moving films to come out of NZ cinema". Meanwhile, Vigil, released in 1984, was the first film by a New Zealand director to be officially selected 'in competition' at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a standing ovation. It follows 11-year-old Toss, who navigates grief, isolation and change in a remote, primeval valley — it's said to be partly autobiographical as Ward grew up on a farm in the Wairarapa. He says it's "about an imaginative way of seeing the world — these kids that are a little bit isolated live in their own heads and come up with almost an alternative reality to try and understand what's going on". To celebrate Vigil's 40th anniversary last year, former child actor Fiona Kay, who played the central role — "and was compared by the Los Angeles Times to one of the great silent film stars" — was brought over for a screening at Wellington's Embassy Theatre, and the producer appeared for another. "And then Queenstown gets me," Ward quips.
Otago Daily Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Art seen: May 1
"Easter Exhibition", group show (Gallery Thirty Three, Wanaka) Gallery Thirty Three's "Easter Exhibition" is a gem, featuring intricate sculpture, quirky still life, and profoundly impactful landscapes, showcasing the new works of six artists in multiple media. In Peter Miller's oil paintings, vintage toys are depicted against cloudy, neutral backgrounds, as if emerging from the depths of our memories. With their flaked paint and the solemn composition, they could feel like the silent, abandoned relics of a long-ago childhood; but instead, the toys seem to be captured in action, forever at play, the tractor leaving the fields after a long day, the race car heading for victory. Miller perfectly captures the power of imagination that's hopefully never lost. Caroline Bellamy's gorgeous landscapes are stylised and just slightly abstracted, with sharply sketched-out planes and lines. With bold, dynamic brushstrokes and dramatic use of shadow, her rolling mountains seem to shatter into geometric fragments from one angle, then piece smoothly together from another. Stephen Howard skilfully blends out edges and texture in his Fiordland Rain Cloud paintings to create an intense sense of atmosphere. The clouds are closing in, the light is focused and resilient; you can imagine the clean, renewing smell of rain in the air and the first touch of mist. Fiordland Rain Cloud #3 has a minimal palette and a hazy simplicity of form, but it resonates with emotional power—the light in the dark, the moment of realisation during the storm. "Treasures", Group Show (Milford Galleries, Queenstown) Celebrating the opening of their new gallery site in Queenstown's Gorge Rd, Milford Galleries has curated a visual journey through some of the peaks, highlights, and seminal moments in New Zealand's art history. "Treasures" is a showcase of culturally significant and beautiful works, spanning decades of artistic innovation and exploration, from the expressive sense of place and connection in the 1970s modernism of Toss Woollaston to the striking imagery and immersive narratives of Lisa Reihana. Alongside his iconic beehive paintings, Michael Hight's Paterson Inlet and the recent Arrow Junction blend still life, landscape, and elements of the Wunderkammer, the cabinets of curiosity, creating the impression of stepping into the "storeroom" of our minds, with objects, locations, and emotions being inextricably entwined in our memories. Among the paintings, it's also a treat to see Gretchen Albrecht's 1978 Illumination (3) again, a work of abstraction that always reminded me of an open book and quill, the knowledge and imagination within the pages surging upwards like fire. The expansive, airy space of the new gallery is perfectly suited for sculptural displays—and sculpture is arguably the star of the show here, with Neil Dawson's expert manipulation of architectural angles, light and shadow in Vanishing Point 6 and Reflections — Clouds , the pared-back avian imagery and sleek lines of Mike Crawford's cast glass, and Paul Dibble's majestic bronze bird forms in The Lost Garden and the unexpectedly tense-feeling Flock . "Purely Pastel 2025", PANZ (Pastel Artists of New Zealand) (Central Stories Museum and Gallery, Alexandra) The Pastel Artists of New Zealand are holding their national exhibition at Alexandra's Central Stories, and it was a privilege to see the works of "Purely Pastel 2025". From sun-drenched hills to blue-tinged icy plains and chaotic, dangerous seas, the landscapes are evocative and atmospheric, in some cases almost vibrating with the harnessed power of the elements. The still life works are intricately detailed and playful in their choice of subject, and the portraits — of both people and animals — so lifelike and life-filled that a personality seems to reach out through the canvas. The sheer range of subjects, technique, and application is striking, and viewers could spend hours examining every inch of each canvas for surprising and clever details. In works like Jackie Krzyzewski's Grapes on the Vine , the almost translucent bloom on the grapes is touched by the light, with both a richness of colour and delicacy of detail; like the glittering icy sheen of Olga Parr's Silver Blue , the parched, deserted land in Michael Freeman's Petrified , and the thoughtful regard and suppressed humour of Anne Berry's portrait Red Nails , it's a piece where people will look closely to see exactly how many different tones and layers created the illusion of realism. Some works are photorealistic and others more stylised and impressionistic; all are impactful and often extremely emotive. Visitors can vote for the piece to which they're most drawn, but this isn't a show of one or two standouts—every work is worth seeing, and I suspect there'll be a wide range of favourites.
