FUTURES have an exhibition of new works by Tim Bučković, entitled; as, via, sets of gathering, the exhibition is on now and runs until 25 June.

The exhibition consits of mesmeric oil on linen paintings populated with dissolving figures engaged in bizarre rituals within a landscape that oscillates between flatness and depth. In these works, time, and painting’s history fold into the pictorial plane itself.

Tim’s practice pushes historical painting values through a sieve and reconstitutes those disparate parts into a pixel-like language that is distinctly its own. Informed by modernist and avant-garde practices; and the semiotic qualities of Yugoslavian and Eastern European monuments, graphics and animation, his dynamic compositions consist of unspecified rituals, fractured space, and architectonic planes. These works are laced with tension in a time/space, which is simultaneously neo-utopian, ominous, sci-fi and mystical – qualities found in alternative histories.

Tiny licks of paint are arranged in a loose and grid-like pattern, renewing pointillism in an oblique yet assured manner. The technique of creating a painting using the same sized brush has been said to be an unconscionable faux pas, but here the effect could easily be read as a kind of clever patterning or even a tapestry. The artist manages yet another trick with panache by building an impasto akin to brail creating a sculptural-like surface.

These works reward close study, but have a beacon-like presence from afar – a macro/micro magic trick. Tim’s ability to scramble space leaves the eye intoxicated and the viewer struggling to decipher the contents of these works embedded with both movement and stasis.

Tim Bučković (b. 1989) currently lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. He has studied painting at Monash University and the Victorian College of the Arts, and in the master class of Professor Katherina Grosse at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Working in painting and drawing, Tim Bučković examines the relationship images have to content associated with histories of art, creating forms which build on differing potencies of structures, modernism(s), and methods. His paintings are dialectical; they hold a plethora of opposites that rhyme with psychological potency – both abstract and figurative, specific yet universal, cubist and quasi digital.

FUTURES is a new commercial project space in Naarm/Melbourne. The space –  which arose amidst pandemic – was conceived by Steven Stewart and Zara Sigglekow, with the express purpose of exposing important work of contemporary artists in the city. The gallery occupies a sinuous but workable 55 m2 exhibition in uptown Collingwood. FUTURES will debut at the Aotearoa Art Fair later this year, with a presentation of Bučković’s works. FUTURES will join five other young galleries and artist-run initiatives, upstairs at The Cloud, in He Iti.

Images: (above) Tim Bučković, sight, 2022. Oil on linen, 91.5 x 183 cm. (Left) sequence, 2022. Oil on linen, 38.5 x 41 cm. (Right) evasions, 2022. Oil on linen, 150 x 190 cm. Images all courtesy of the artist and FUTURES.

FYI –  Turumeke Harrington

Turumeke Harrington (Ngāi Tahu) has a background in Industrial Design, Shoemaking and Fine Arts; she is a mother and partner; a painter and sculptor; a jewellery maker; a designer; and an observer of life. Harrington’s multifaceted practice is both prolific, and entirely her own.

Harrington’s interest in whakapapa, space, colour and material sees her creating large sculptural installations at the intersection of art and design. Her clarity of form and function is supplemented by a poetic pragmatism and a commitment to making that is at once playful and provocative. Her sympathetic approach to materials combines with a bold colour palette to create engaging works that speak to the artist’s own personal relationships, cultural anxieties, and everyday musings.

Page Galleries (Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington) had a solo exhibition of her work titled, (Tīkaro) Slowly Dawning, at the gallery in May this year. Celebrating the ephemeral and transformational properties of light, paint, and water; this exhibition once again illustrates Harrington’s remarkable ability to work across all manner of mediums and materials to create joyful and engaging work full of narrative and aesthetic harmony and deftly deliberate discord.  Read about the exhibition below. 

Harrington also has an online store, where you can explore (and buy) a range of products made and designed by the artist. Click here to shop.

Page Galleries will be presenting works by Turumeke Harrington at the 2022 Art Fair in November, alongside paintings by  Max Gimblett and Reuben Paterson.

Image above: Installation view, Tīkaro (Slowly Dawning) photography by Cheska Brown.
Image right: Turumeke Harrington, photographed by Kate Glasson.
Images left: Turumeke Harrington, Tīkarohia Kia Whiti Mai Te KokoMea (Gouge Away), 2022. Splitting (Dawn, Headaches), 2022. Whakamārohirohi [Trapping Dawn and Dusk] V, 2022. Whakamārohirohi [Trapping Dawn and Dusk] III, 2022. Ārai (Rekareka), 2022. Photography by Cheska Brown. All images courtesy of the artist and Page Galleries.

Light, paint and water coalesce in Turumeke Harrington’s solo exhibition (Tīkaro) Slowly Dawning.

Harrington presents a suite of jelly-coloured light works featuring cut-out motifs of tuna (eel), hare, tī kōuka (cabbage tree), and whetū (star). The frosted acrylic lights appear almost as zoetropes or early animation wheels, lending the creatures a sense of implied movement; the slick iridescent body of a tuna slithering along a rocky river bottom, the strong hind legs of a hare bounding across a grassy field.

Tīkaro – to pick, scoop, tear or gouge out – alludes most literally to the technical process of creating these works, but also speaks to Harrington’s propensity to keep prodding and poking at objects, forms, and materials, endlessly playing with, and playing out concepts until a new idea dawns, swiftly followed by another, and another. So pervasive is Harrington’s tongue-in-cheek style, it’s difficult not to speculate about additional layers of meaning or interpretation, forever wary there is some gag we’ve overlooked. The artist admits that there is a vaguely patriarchal reading to these works, that in her own early kōrero around the lights and motifs she was thinking a lot about the cultural constructions of masculinity.

 Whakamārohirohi [trapping dawn and dusk] plays with the idea of whakamārohirohi – to stiffen, become strong or harden up – and the stereotype of the ‘Southern Man’ as a figure defined by his strength and stoicism in the service of colonial forces. This series of unique works builds on an earlier series Whakamārohirohi [with hands like dinner plates], reimagining them at sunrise and sunset. Each the size of a dinner plate, the lights speak to histories of mahika kai with a troubled and complicated understanding of both masculinity and ingenuity: envisioning a future where our thorny and interconnected histories can be pushed up against each other and made into something new.

The whetū motif references the pūrākau (story, myth) of Tāwhirimātea gouging out his eyes in rage at the separation of his parents Papatūānuku and Rakinui, throwing them into the sky to become the stars known as Matariki (​​‘Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea’ / ‘The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea’). Several titles allude to the phrase ‘ki tua o te ārai’ or “beyond the veil”, referring euphemistically to death, but here employed by Harrington in relation to dawn and dusk; those transitional and most ethereal times of day when it seems we might be able to reach through into other realms, picking and gouging holes through the imperceptible veil.

Alongside the twelve coloured lights are a series of corresponding watercolours depicting tī kōuka, their warm hues pulled from the shifting palette of the sky. In contrast to the highly polished industrially manufactured lights, these delicate works on paper reveal something charmingly intimate about the repetitive and meditative act of making, with the artist’s hand, and her delight in the process immediately evident.

 (Tīkaro) Slowly Dawning celebrates the ephemeral and transformational properties of light, paint, and water; once again illustrating Harrington’s remarkable ability to work across all manner of mediums and materials to create joyful and engaging work full of narrative and aesthetic harmony and deftly deliberate discord.

Debuting at the 2022 Art Fair is  The Central Art Gallery , which opened in the Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora in Ōtautahi Christchurch, five years ago.

We are looking forward to welcoming The Central Art Gallery to the Aotearoa Art Fair in November, with an exhibition of works by Lonnie Hutchinson and Simon Edwards.

Simon Edwards’ works, (whether collages, landscapes, charcoal drawings or earlier paintings of cloud formations) all extend beyond the representational, regionalist and realist genres and instead become studies of the sublime and the mythological – places which we seem to know so well, yet can’t quite identify or lay claim to. They are at once familiar yet mystical, somewhat like the New Zealand landscape itself.

“The work places itself somewhere between a modernistic reliance of the essential qualities (of the materials and the methods of painting) and an awareness of the traditional forms of the landscape…the work becomes a result of what is happening on the surface at the time and building on chance effects that present themselves, contributing to a sense of space distance and movement.” ²

Situated within the Christchurch heritage site, The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora , The Central Art Gallery extends a long-established relationship between creative communities and this space. The Central occupies the Old Library Building, formerly part of Canterbury College’s School of Art (now Ilam School of Fine Arts) where artists such as Rita Angus, Dame Ngaio Marsh and Jacqueline Fahey attended university.

Lonnie Hutchinson (Ngāi Tahu, Samoan) is an artist whose didactic practice has explored themes of whakapapa, ancestral knowledge, and the ways in which they inform contemporary issues. In this way Hutchinson’s work informs the present moment without being bound by limitations of linear time interpretation. The artist has commented on her practice saying;

“Intrinsic to each series within my art practice, I honour tribal whakapapa or genealogy. In doing so, I move more freely between the genealogy of past, present and future to produce works that are linked to memories of recent and ancient past, that are tangible and intangible…I make works that talk about those spaces in-between, those spiritual spaces.” ¹

Images: Installation view, Celebrating 5 Years. Lonnie Hutchinson, After Hibiscus Cave: Markings from the Ancestors, 2022. Powder-coated aluminium. Dimensions variable.Simon Edwards, Kekerengu Dreamtime #7, 2022. Oil on ACM panel, 660 x 740mm. Images courtesy of the artists and The Central Art Gallery.

Over 80 photographs by Arts Foundation Icon, Ans Westra – who will have a solo presentation with {Suite} at the 2022 Aotearoa Art Fair in November – are showing now in an exhibition at Te Awahou / Foxton.  Titled Ans Westra Photographs: after Handboek, the exhibition refers back to the Handboek: Ans Westra Photographs project, a large-scale survey exhibition and publication of Westra’s photographs, curated by Luit Bieringa, which toured Aotearoa and The Netherlands from 2004-2007.

Ans Westra immigrated to New Zealand in 1957, and has spent her photographic career – which spans over 60 years –  largely documenting social and cultural practices in Aotearoa New Zealand. Well known for her particular interest in the socio-political lives of Māori families as well as individual portraits, throughout the second half of the 20^th century, Westra’s photographic practice has been both, at times controversial, and widely considered as one of New Zealand’s most influential.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Collection website describes Westra’s practice:

Westra has used a medium-format, waist-level viewfinder camera for most of her life. She feels that it allows her to be more unobtrusive: ‘You don’t put it up to your eyes, so you don’t obscure your own vision. People are not nearly so aware of a little box at waist level, so you don’t interrupt your own interaction with the scene, and I interact as little as possible…. people seem to forget about me really.’¹

Westra’s photographs sit within a humanist tradition of photography. They are empathetic, warm, and affirm human values. She often captures telling moments of gesture and interaction – a glance, touch or stance:  ‘In my photography I’m looking for communication between people and the right moment. Catching the right moment in full swing. One that sums up an emotion.’²

1. John Saker, City interview: Ans Westra, Wellington City Magazine, April 1986, p 21.
2. Athol McCredie, The New Photography: New Zealand’s first-generation contemporary photographers, Wellington, Te Papa Press, 2019, p. 172.

Ans Westra Photographs: after Handboek is showing now until Sunday 19 June at Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom, in Te Awahou / Foxton – for more info click here.

Selected works by Ans Westra can be viewed throughout the year at {Suite} in either Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland or Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington

 

Images: Ans Westra, Ruatoria, 1963 (from ‘Washday at the Pa’) Archival pigment inks on Hahnemuhle paper, 380 x 380 mm. Edition of 25. Ans Westra
Springbok Protest, Wellington, 1981, Archival pigment inks on Hahnemuhle paper, 380 x 380 mm. Edition of 25. Ans Westra Ohinemutu, c. 1963 [two tamariki], Archival pigment inks on Ilford Galerie gold fiber silk, 380 x 380 mm. Edition of 25. All images courtesy of the artist and {Suite}.

Images: Simon Lewis-Wards, Giant Knucklebones. Cast Concrete. 1500 x 1000 x 500mm each (approximately 300kg each). Images courtesy of the artist and Black Door Gallery.

The 2022 Art Fair will again be featuring an outdoor sculpture space overlooking the harbour.  One of the more interactive sculptures will be Simon Lewis-Wards‘ Giant Knucklebones which visitors will be welcome to sit or climb on.

Presented by Black Door Gallery Simon Lewis-Wards’ work is synonymous with childhood nostalgia. They conjure that experience of growing up in Aotearoa in the second half of the 20th century, a time of sweets and games, playing with the neighbourhood kids outside in the long summer evenings and spending all your hard-earned pocket money at the corner dairy.  The artist has developed a body of work that seeks to inspire a sense of childlike excitement, oscillating between nostalgia and pop-culture, and often playing with scale to enhance the viewing experience.

Giant Knucklebones explores the childhood game knucklebones, an iconic children’s activities in New Zealand. The name knucklebones is derived from the Ancient Greek version of the game, but there are different variants of the game from various cultures using objects such as stones, seashells and seeds. Many are also familiar with the American version- Jacks. Wards’ Knucklebones are modelled on sheep knucklebones, are up-sized to 1.5m wide and made in cast concrete. When placed in an outdoor setting they look as if they have been tossed mid-game.

Simon Lewis Wards’ aesthetic is about having fun and bringing humour into the art world. Inspired by international Pop Artists and American artist’s such as Jeff Koons, Simon Lewis-Wards aims to explore popular culture and elevate everyday objects to a new level.

Simon Lewis Wards was recently appointed as one of three judges for the 2022 IHC Art Awards.

Kāryn Taylor’s light-based sculptural works are not only very beautiful, but as described by Zara Stanhope (Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery), Taylor’s exhibitions.

“…speculatively explore the connections between art and the ideas that structure our reality, asking large questions. […] As a practice, her work is dedicated to finding ways to explore some of the greatest abstract ideas through methods that create perceptual and haptic experiences …”

 Kāryn Taylor will present new works at the Art Fair in November, with Sanderson Contemporary, but in the meantime, Its All Relative, a solo exhibition of her work is opening this week (Tuesday 12 April) at Sanderson Contemporary in Newmarket, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

The exhibition continues until Sunday 8 May.

To read more about Kāryn Taylor and for a link to the full essay by Zara Stanhope, click here.

Images: Kāryn Taylor, Yellow Cube, Coherent Object, Primary Object, Red Maze, Shape of a Room, and Hanging Circle. All images are courtesy of the artist and Sanderson Contemporary.

Ten emerging arts writers have been selected to join art historian, writer and curator Christina Barton for a writers workshop. This seven-day intensive has been conceived to run alongside the 2022 Aotearoa Art Fair (14-20 Nov) and selected participants will gain insights into the practice of writing from an experienced author who will introduce them to professionals involved in the writing process including writers, editors, designers, and publishers.

The aim of the workshop is to produce a publication that responds to the Fair that will be circulated to visitors and participants as soon as possible after it closes. Participants will learn a range of approaches to art writing then find their own ‘take’ on the works, projects and satellite events taking place during the Fair. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to literally ‘workshop’ the process of writing, from finding their subject, through formulating a response, editing drafts, then bringing their work together with others to produce a coherent finished product. This will be designed and published in hard-copy and online formats.

This workshop has been generously supported by Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington and Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa. Special thanks to Aotearoa Art Fair for graciously hosting the workshop.

Immerse yourself in art with a Premier Art Pass. There are many ways to see the Fair but the only way to enjoy it all – and more – is with a Premier Art Pass.

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With a Premier Art Pass your Art Fair experience extends beyond the walls of the Fair. You will be invited to a programme of exclusive VIP events taking place in and around Auckland during Art Fair week. Your Premier Art Pass includes invitations to visit artist’s studios, hear from artists and curators, and attend other invitation-only events.

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