PAST GALLERY EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Dorks, Losers, Lemons is a collaborative project between Isabella Dampney and Sophie Sutherland. Together they explore the absurdity of rigid structures in urban life. The show is an invitation to confront the propriety of spaces within and outside the gallery, while drawing on humour as a means of reconnecting with pleasure and play.
Whether stealing lemons over fences or divining meaning from personalised licence plates, Isabella Dampney finds herself at odds with Tāmaki Makaurau’s suburban culture of automobilia and antisociality. Isabella’s flamboyant colours and premeditated brushwork rationalise her anecdotal experiences of social discord into objects of pleasure.
Similarly, Sophie Sutherland bends norms of installation practice, playing with forms that are inspired by systems of aid. Through her action inspired work, featuring pool noodles, rugby cones and other objects of sport, Sophie confuses and questions the role of the gallery space, creating new opportunities for play.
Derived from ‘numinous’, meaning awakening spiritual awe, and ‘luminance’, meaning the amount of light emitted, or reflected from a surface; Celestial Numinance is an exhibition that explores the awe-inspiring beauty of cosmic phenomena.
Sewell’s artistry is affected by these celestial bodies. She feels their gravitational pull, in much the same way that the tides feel the pull of the moon, driving her interest in all things other-worldly. Her artistic practice becomes a vehicle of transmutation whereby the mystery of cosmic phenomena is laid bare as a tangible experience. Through photography, sculpture, scent and sound, viewers teeter on the threshold into the realm of the numinous. Having sought inspiration from a multitude of sources including astronomical studies of the Orion constellation, medicinal applications of herbs, and the ancient Japanese art of Hikaru dorodango as well as her personal history, Sewell combines the seemingly dissimilar subject matter into a unified experience that extends across time and space. The sphere, a universal symbol of eternity, wholeness and unity, is a central motif throughout Sewell’s practice. Her sculptures bridge the separation between the earthly and the other worldly, exploring connections between the tangible and intangible, the abstract and the spiritual, and the diverse realms of sensory experience.
Additional to this exhibition is the augmented reality element, Morning Star XR 2024, wherein the visitor becomes privy to an experience that isn’t so easy to access. She reveals the celestial body of Venus to us through the power of technology: the unseen becomes seen, the invisible becomes visible, and viewers are taken on a journey through the most fascinating and inexplicable parts of what is literally an other world.
Morning Star XR, 2024. Carnelian quartz, Venus, sound (source NASA), atmosphere, extended reality technology
Morning Star is a virtual sculpture that stands as a testament to Karen Sewell’s fascination with the celestial and terrestrial realms, challenging traditional artistic expressions and inviting viewers on a transcendent journey into the cosmic expanse. Representing years of exploration and experimentation, this future-facing artwork aims to provoke dialogue and reflection in an era marked by technological advancement and environmental uncertainty. Through its imposing presence and timeless symbolism, Morning Star urges viewers to renegotiate their relationship with the universe and their role as stewards of the Earth. It represents a convergence of artistic vision, technological innovation, and spiritual inquiry, aimed to inspire awe and reverence for the interconnectedness of all life forms and the eternal beauty of the cosmos. This interactive, augmented reality work situated outside which will be active even over the summer break.
About the artist
Karen Sewell is a multidisciplinary artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau whose impressive installations commonly incorporate a combination of sculpture, photography, painting, sound, scent and light. Working within the realm of the numinous, her practise explores the intersection of art and spirituality. Sewell holds a Master of Fine Arts (with Honours) in 2016 from Whitecliffe, College of Arts and Design.
Her work has featured in exhibitions in Aotearoa and internationally. She received the Waitakere Trust Art Awards’ Premier Award in 2011, was an award winner in the 2024 Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Awards, and in 2022 Luminary I Luminare was exhibited in the biennial exhibition, Personal Structures, held in Venice.
ARTIST TALK
Saturday 15 February, 1pm
We’ll be hosting an artist talk with Karen Sewell to celebrate the end of her exhibition. Click here to for more information.
Exhibition dates: Monday 3 April – Saturday 13 May
Let Us Drink the New Wine, Together! has been curated by Alys Longley and Máximo Corvalán-Pincheira in collaboration with over 100 artists from across the world.
Let Us Drink the New Wine, Together! is an exhibition of installations, artist maps, works on paper, video and mail art, that have all crossed geographical and linguistic borders throughout 2020-2023. The exhibition seeks to account for different realities and contexts through a kind of global x-ray, proposing art as a way to continue to imagine the world anew in uncertain times.
In addition to the gallery installation, a virtual realisation of this exhibition has been developed, which takes this exhibition beyond the walls of the gallery, inviting anyone with Wi-Fi to enter and experience the work through the Malcolm Smith Gallery website.
Click below to visit the virtual exhibition!
https://dotdot.social/let-us-drink-the-new-wine-together/
Located on our Wall Gallery
Metamorphōsis is a collection of paintings that explore the confusion, discomfort and uncertainty that often comes with growing up.
Her figures peel at their skin, their spines sprout wings, or they slowly emerge from unravelling cocoons, all shedding layers that reveal something entirely new has grown beneath the surface. In each of them, a metamorphosis has taken place. The unwitting characters in Ovid’s Metamorphosis experience dramatic transformations into plants, animals and other half-human creatures as a way of being given new life. In much the same way, Ruijne uses her art to visualise the invisible metamorphosis she and her friends have been undergoing.
Despite their often fantastical imagery, her expressive artworks are grounded by a sense of relatability. There is a permeable tension between the fear of and hope for change, of the discomfort in the familiar and the allure of the unfamiliar. Distress and hesitancy battle to overcome the yearning for something more that shines through the overarching turmoil. It is this feeling of pressure, of push and pull, that deeply marks the transitory period into adulthood. Metamorphōsis reminds all of us that change is inevitable, regardless of how hard we fight it.
Estelle Ruijne is an artist and poet who explores the transformative and fluid nature of the human experience. Currently a student at Howick College, she plans to pursue a Bachelor of Visual Art double majoring in Painting, Printmaking and Drawing, and Communication Design at AUT after completing her secondary studies. Estelle is committed to adapting and evolving these concepts through further exhibitions.
Metamorphōsis is her debut exhibition.
Click here to read the poetry accompaniment written by Estelle Ruijne.
Interested in learning more about the artist? Check out this special event below!
About The Wall
The Wall is dedicated to supporting East Auckland artists working towards secondary or tertiary study. This exhibition space allows emerging artists to experience the process of exhibition making without the pressure that comes with the scale of a traditional gallery space. Situated amongst the hustle and bustle of the UXBRIDGE concourse, this gallery space allows young artists more exposure than its counterpart. Artist will have the opportunity to engage with the community and gain experience talking about their practice through optional Artist Talks and other public programming. After their exhibition, emerging artists will have a clearer understanding of the unseen aspects of exhibition making while members of the public will gain awareness of local creatives in their community.
Exhibition dates: 9 February – 11 March
‘Perspectives: Te Tai Ao Notions of the Universal’ Exhibition has brought together artists of diverse backgrounds and ethnicity to explore the question of what constitutes the universal. Is this an outdated construct which serves to subjugate cultural differences or is it something within the essence of what unites us all through commonalities? Is it tangible or in the realms of intangible? How can it be expressed in a way that ignites a universal experience?
Eleven artists under the umbrella of the Flowers Art Collective have found different ways to grapple with these questions arriving and a collection of works which hold both commonalities and disparities. Abstract and figurative painting, photographic excursions and works that use internal illumination offer experiences which brings a sense of other world dimensions as well as earthly realities, food for thought and nourishing delights. Artists Marion Gordon-Flower, Taylen Heremaia, Jasmine Hope, Anne Shirley, Mary Shirley, Ruth Bioletti, Lynette Fisher, Max Grey, Penny Otto, Justin Sobion and Agnés Desombiaux-Sigley bring together their own artistic lenses, to create an exhibition of great diversity and depth.
Expressive colour, virtuosic detail and a free ranging approach to subject matter define the work of Peter Hall. Equally at home in the abstract and the representational, Hall’s paintings are a creative tour de force, surveyed here through 16 key works produced over his six decade career.
Take Five is a fleet-footed journey through Hall’s varied career, exploring his contemporary practice alongside its fascinating antecedents in the swinging sixties where he made his mark as a leading textile designer and subsequent decades as a commercial designer. Viewers are invited into a generous and eclectic artistic world where arts and craft sensibilities segue into hard-edge geometric abstraction, pop art and to the artist’s uniquely characteristic landscapes.
Dynamic and adventurous, Hall’s art takes energy and inspiration from his love of jazz. As challenging to define as the artist’s practice, jazz provides a suitable metaphor for the works in this exhibition – in their virtuosity, vibrancy and sense of play.
About the artist
British-born Peter Hall graduated from London’s Royal College of Art in 1961 before a 44-year long career as a textile designer. His freelance design work took him all over the world, travelling extensively through Europe, before eventually leading him to settle in South Africa in 1976 before a move to Howick in 1987. His work is extensively collected, both locally and internationally including in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Join us on Saturday April 5 for a talk and tour with Peter Hall.
Tipua Sculpture Tour
12 March – March 31 2023
Community Open Day: March 25
The Tipua (New Growth) Sculpture Roadshow is a regional tour of new and traditional Whakairo Sculpture created by artists for Lake House Arts exhibitions during Symposiums and Festivals in 2020 – 2022. Created by a collection of Auckland based artists, this touring exhibition shares their award-winning whakairo and mixed media sculptures to a wider audience throughout the Auckland region.
Artists:
Andy Turner
Uenuku Hawira
Brett Evans
Luis Fernando Cabrera
Paul Brunton
Natanahira Pona
When Emilia Maude Nixon arrived in Howick in 1925, she established the Tainui Garden of Memories in the spirit of Kotahitanga (unity), with the support of Ngāi Tai kaumātua, under the korowai of the Kiingitanga.
In the past thirty years, the Tainui Garden of Memories has become Ō Wairoa Marae. The vision of Kotahitanga has remained since Emilia Maude Nixon, despite violent events and confrontation, because of the resilience and leadership of Whaea Taini Drummond who has been kaitiaki since 1983.
In this exhibition, the history and purpose of Ō Wairoa Marae in the Tainui Garden of Memories is explored through kōrero, taonga and artefacts, all of which have remained onsite through this history.
The marae, garden and Emilia Maude Nixon’s collection that sit within are a unique and cherished part of the community, a living taonga that amplifies togetherness and respect for all peoples – tuku aroha.
As Kiingi Tūheitia reminded us, “The wind in our sails is kotahitanga and with that, we will reach our destination.”
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core.
Artists were invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution.
With a total prize pool of $10,000, the winning artworks are intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
This year’s entries will be judged by Benjamin Work.
Benjamin Work is an artist, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland-born and raised, with Tongan and Scottish heritage. Work’s evolution exemplifies the new trajectories of artists reared on American sub/pop culture, while also explicitly exploring the complexities of both cultural institutions and the Moana Oceania diaspora. He currently resides alongside the Tāmaki Estuary in Pakuranga where throughout his life he has experienced the changing complexities and pressures upon this unique ecosystem. He was awarded the 2019 CMBB Para Site International Art Residency in Hong Kong, a 2021 Finalist – Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards and author of Whenua Fonua ‘Enua and Motutapu books. He continues to exhibit both nationally and internationally and is represented by Bergman Gallery.
Call for Entries
Entries are CLOSED
Exhibition of Finalists
1 July to 26 August 2023
Awards Ceremony
Saturday 1 July 2023, 2:30PM
Image: Daisy Nicholas, Coastal Echo, 2022
The only contemporary art award in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core.
The Estuary Art and Ecology Awards are Aotearoa’s only annual contemporary art awards with ecology at the core. Artists are invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, explore the ecological value of this vital waterway, and encourage action against its pollution. Finalists will be exhibited in the Malcolm Smith Gallery at UXBRIDGE Arts and Culture and winning artworks will be intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
KEY DATES
Entries open 4 April 2025
Entries close 23 May 2025 – deadline extended to midnight, 25 May 2025
Finalists Announced 13 June 2025
Exhibition of Finalists 5 July – 30 August 2025
Opening function and awards ceremony Saturday 5 July 2025, 4:30PM
AWARDS
First Place: $5,000
Second Place: $2,000
Third Place: $1000
Merit Awards (2): $250 + $150 Gordon Harris Art Supplies Voucher
People’s Choice Award: $1,000
FINALISTS
Lucy Boermans, Tony Clarke, Charli de Koning, Inga Fillary, GENIUS: Geena & Nikki Simpkin-Hill, Helen Harvey, Kristin Hatland, Rose Lee, Misty Lynn, Kelly Rowe, Madi Sexton, Anna Tang, Grace Thresher, Saskia Eliane Van Dijk, Maraky Vowells, Rīhari Warnock and Roger Wyllie.
EVENTS
Video & story courtesy of Leach Breach, AUT Journalism student.
Part One Saturday 23 August, 10am
In Conversation with Estuary Artists: Lucy Boermans, Rose Lee & Saskia Eliane Van Dijk
Part Two Saturday 30 August, 11am
In Conversation with Estuary Artists: Grace Thresher, Charli de Koning
This two part artist talk series takes place over two consecutive Saturdays, each featuring a selection of the Estuary prize recipients. Joining Curator Zoë May will be a selection of the prize winning artists. Each artist will share insights into their work and practice, diving deeper into their relationship with the Estuary and the themes their works aim to address.
JUDGE – Shannon Novak
Unfortunately, our judge Hannah Buckley PhD. has had to withdraw from judging this years’ Estuary Art and Ecology Awards. Though this is disappointing news, we are grateful to have Safe Space Alliance founder, artist and curator 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗸 agree to judge in her stead.
Image courtesy of Shannon Novak.
While Novak is not an “eco-artist” in the traditional sense of working with land, natural materials, or explicit environmental activism, a significant ecological link exists in his work through a focus on social and psychological ecologies. His practice is deeply concerned with the health and sustainability of human systems, specifically the environments that impact the well-being of LGBTQI+ communities. This is best understood as the study of the interrelationships between individuals and their social environments. He investigates how these “ecosystems” can be nurtured to become safe, supportive, and life-sustaining. This manifests as socially engaged and collaborative painting, photography, installation, sculpture, and curatorial practice that often extends beyond traditional exhibition spaces. The work explores light and dark in the past, present, and future, but ultimately seeks to grow hope for a better world where queer communities can live without fear. For example, “Biological Exuberance” at Queensland Museum, 2021, celebrates the diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity, framing it as a natural and essential part of human biodiversity.
Novak founded the Safe Space Alliance, a global LGBTQI+ led nonprofit organisation that aims to help people identify, navigate, and create safe spaces for LGBTQI+ communities. Museums and galleries have joined from around the world including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City, New York, US), MCA Denver (Denver, Colorado, US), Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Massachusetts, US), Remai Modern (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), and Museum of London (London, UK). Novak also founded Velebit, a project that aims to grow safety in relationships between queer communities and emerging technologies.
Novak has developed work for national and international institutions, festivals, and public spaces, including the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (Auckland, New Zealand), Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), Ningbo Museum of Art (Ningbo, China), Stanford University (Stanford, California, US), Institute of Contemporary Art San José (San José, California, US), The McKinney Avenue Contemporary (Dallas, Texas, US), St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York, US), and Georgia Museum of Art (Athens, Georgia, US).
SPONSORS
The 19th Estuary Art and Ecology Awards are generously funded by Auckland Council’s Howick Local Board, Tāmaki Estuary Environmental Forum (TEEF), the Rice Family Partnership, and Gordon Harris Art Supplies.
Opening night: 10 March, 7:00PM – 9:00PM
Exhibition dates: 9 March – 12 May
Pat Basse
A collection of pieces that grew from the artist’s memories as a 4-year-old evacuee during WW2. Without her family, Pat experienced extreme unhappiness from which she found respite in her dreamworld. The dreams were colourful and excitingly theatrical in stark contrast to her living world. As an adult, Pat could write down her dreams and recreate them in her art.
Framed as a collection of daydreams, Reverie is a window into the mind of East Auckland artist Joseph John Watson. Following his interest in ‘strange art’, his work explores the bizarre, dreamlike and irrational.
Peering into Watson’s reality we are enveloped by vibrant fields of contrasting colour, swirling figures and morse code-like dots and dashes. In his repetition of symbols and figures, he creates his own hieroglyphic language that becomes a pillar of his artistic approach. There is a simultaneity to Watson’s style: at first glance the work is whole, the recurring symbols and figures ebbing and flowing through one another as a collective image. Then, your eye is caught by the gnarled teeth of a yelping nervous beast and suddenly his jarring style forces your focus to a singular image within the larger body of work.
Drawing inspiration from an exceptionally diverse sweep, his art is an assemblage of self-expression in the same vein as Jean-Michel Basquiat, a neo-expressionist of the late 1970s and 80s. With a style reminiscent of Pop Art artists Keith Haring and Yayoi Kusama, Watson blends the chaotic and expressive tendencies of Basquiat with the psychedelic colours of Kusama and geometric lines of Haring into an expressive abstraction of his reality.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Joseph John Watson has been avidly painting since 2022, his work has no intentional overarching theme and instead becomes symbolic representations of his reality. Currently a student at Howick College, he plans to pursue a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Auckland University of Technology after completing his secondary studies. Watson sees Reverie as only the beginning and is committed to pursing art as a formal career.
Reverie is his debut exhibition.
About The Wall
The Wall is dedicated to supporting East Auckland artists working towards secondary or tertiary study. This exhibition space allows emerging artists to experience the process of exhibition making without the pressure that comes with the scale of a traditional gallery space. Situated amongst the hustle and bustle of the UXBRIDGE concourse, this gallery space allows young artists more exposure than its counterpart. Artist will have the opportunity to engage with the community and gain experience talking about their practice through optional Artist Talks and other public programming. After their exhibition, emerging artists will have a clearer understanding of the unseen aspects of exhibition making while members of the public will gain awareness of local creatives in their community.
Opening event: 28 October, 2:00PM – 4:00PM
Exhibition dates: Saturday 28 October – December 16 2023
“I found myself caught in a nonverbal conversation with this Other, a gestural duet with which my conscious awareness had very little to do. It was as if my body in its actions was suddenly being motivated by a wisdom older than my thinking mind, as though it was held and moved by a logos, deeper than words, spoken by the Other’s body, the trees, and the stony ground on which we stood.”
David Abram, “The Spell of the Sensuous”
How can painting enhance our habitual ways of seeing our environment? How can it help us reconnect with the animal and plant life around us? How can it help us reconnect with the land that surrounds us? Dependent on the more-than-human natural world, we are, in the words of David Abram, “alive, awake and aware”.
We discover worlds within worlds. We understand nature, wild with its patterns and vicissitudes. We come to the realization that the landscape is expressive and sentient with shapes and sounds twisting, twitching, swerving, switching, rippling and swelling. It interpenetrates our minds, our senses and our humanity.
This sensual world is the place of dreams and yearning where everything is always changing and evolving. How can painting capture the power and energy of these rhythms, flows and forces – the exchange between our senses and the sensuous terrain?
About the artist
Ekaterina Dimieva is an abstract painter based in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. She completed her Master’s of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2020 and is a participant in the mothermother curatorial project.
Dimieva has been a finalist in the Estuary Art and Ecology Awards (Uxbridge Arts and Culture, 2022, 2023), a finalist in the National Contemporary Art Awards (Waikato Museum Te Whare Taonga o Waikato, 2022) and the Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards (Arts Whakatane, 2021). Her work is included in various collections nation-wide and abroad including the Wallace Arts Trust collection.
In 2024 artist Samantha Jiayin Ou-Yang visited her father and grandfather’s hometown of Jun’anzhen, Guangdong Province in southern China. During her stay, she took part in the 170-year-old festival 关帝侯王巡游 or ‘The Procession of Emperor Guan Yu’. In the wake of her experiences, she developed her exhibition 乡 Hometown: a series of images that capture the feelings of frenzy and fervour felt during the festival.
During the week-long celebration, family and community gather to place offerings for good fortune, burn paper money for wealth, pray for prosperity and share their hopes for the future. Ou-Yang’s work highlights how tradition and cultural heritage are like threads interwoven throughout the fabric of her community; when pulled it is these threads that tighten and gather to bring the individuals together regardless of the distance or time between them.
Samantha Jianyin Ou-Yang is a photographer currently in her first year of tertiary study at the University of Auckland. Heritage, memory and connection are central to her artistic approach. Ou-Yang’s work has previously been exhibited in the Malcolm Smith Gallery as part of Howick Youth Council’s East Auckland Visual Arts Showcase, 2024.
乡 Hometown is her first solo exhibition.
To view the video element of this exhibition, please click here.
About The Wall
The Wall is dedicated to supporting East Auckland artists working towards secondary or tertiary study. This exhibition space allows emerging artists to experience the process of exhibition making without the pressure that comes with the scale of a traditional gallery space. Situated amongst the hustle and bustle of the UXBRIDGE concourse, this gallery space allows young artists more exposure than its counterpart. Artist will have the opportunity to engage with the community and gain experience talking about their practice through optional Artist Talks and other public programming. After their exhibition, emerging artists will have a clearer understanding of the unseen aspects of exhibition making while members of the public will gain awareness of local creatives in their community.
Exhibition dates: Saturday 24 February – 6 April 2024
Auckland-based artist Amrit Kaur takes inspiration from the natural world, producing paintings full of intention and from a place of peace. Turning towards the detail of everyday life, she brings forth on her canvas the moments often overlooked in our busy day-to-day world.
Kaur’s artworks begin in nature, influenced by her surroundings, but resolve in the solitude of her studio – a nod to the complexities of life where we are influenced by what’s happening around us but, in the end, we return to ourselves to make sense of it all.
Not interested in capturing the details but in highlighting the subtleness her of subject, Kaur collects relics from nature, sketching and taking notes while outdoors and then embedding those onto her canvas back in her studio.
Fragments of Us builds on the artist’s practice as she explores the humanity’s adjustment to its place in the natural world, highlighting the multiple personalities embodied in each of us. Bringing together her abstract and expressionist works, Kaur hints at the coming together of all our various fragments to make one of US.
Calmly situated in a world both abstract and representational, this new body of photographs by Kristin Hatland fluently moves through the familiar and its more surreal inversions. A pair of ice skates sit at rest with their laces cast behind as if animated in full flight. A record of that flight is captured in a roughened patch of ice. Two wiry trees sit on a moody landscape evoking notions of mind and memory drawn from the artist’s Norse heritage. An oncoming wave confronts the viewer in counterpoint to a rocky snow-topped mountain inviting you on.
In each image, we witness the poetics of impermanence as one state moves towards another. Patterns etched in ice are there for but a moment. Sand shaped by the waves tells a story and then washes away to speak a new tale. Like the various shapes of water, Hatland’s images speak of the fluid quality to our capacities for memory and imagination.
Kristin Hatland is a Norwegian-born artist based in Clevedon (Auckland) working with the photographic medium. Equally at home both the digital and analogue realms, Hatland’s practice is philosophically driven and eclectic in its embrace of representational and abstract imagery. Hatland holds a Bachelor of Arts from NorthTec Tai Tokerau Wānanga. Her work has featured in exhibitions in Aotearoa including Metapherein at the Shutter Room (Whangarei, 2015) and as a finalist of the Wallace Art Awards (2012).
Located on our Wall Gallery
Threads is an exploration of metaphorical threads in time – observing memories and recognising the subsequent evocations from these moments; emotions, sounds, smells, light. Small, unfinished paintings are positioned carefully on Uxbridge’s concourse wall and connected by material threads.
Although unfinished, these paintings feel more human, more natural, more intriguing. Each canvas piques the viewer’s interest, containing different subject matter from piece to piece. Locating the work in a transitional space enhances the potential for interpretation. The viewer can imagine their own conclusions for each piece, whether it be material or emotional.
Threads is an invitation, an offering to the viewer, for connection, for recollection, for feeling.
Eve Boermans is an East Auckland-based artist and student at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. Working in a variety of disciplines including dramatic and literary arts, her artistic work is currently focused on painting and installation. Boerman’s work has been seen locally in exhibitions such as the Focus Exhibition (2022). She was a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards (2022).
AFTERNOON TEA AND ART WITH EVE BOERMANS: Wednesday 1 May, 2 – 3pm, Gallery Café
Limited spaces, BOOK NOW!
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core.
Artists are invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution.
With a total prize pool of almost $10,000, the winning artworks are intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
For more information about the Tāmaki Estuary and the work of the Tāmaki Estuary visit the Tāmaki Estuary Environmental Forum (TEEF) visit TEEF Facebook.
Exhibition of Finalists
6 July to 31 August 2024
People’s Choice
Friday 6 September 2024
Congratulations to this years’ finalists:
Hannah Arnold, Alexander Bailey, Ngahina Belton-Bodsworth, Cathy Carter, Julia Christey, Matthew Dowman, Jocelyn Friis, Marion Gordon-Flower, Helen Harvey, Geena Zelma Hill, Niki Simpkin-Hill, Rowan Holt, Atina Hu, Judith Lawson, Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, Chris Mules, Daisy Nicholas, Ainsley O’Connell, Kate Parker, Karen Sewell, Bridget Sutherland, and Sheyne Tuffery.
Congratulations to this years’ winners:
First Place – Matthew Dowman, Tūna
Second Place – Cathy Carter, Eyes Wide Open
Third Place – Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, Mitigation at the Margins
Merit Awards – Rowan Holt, I see you in the estuary
Merit Awards – Ainsley O’Connell, Life Cycle
People’s Choice Award – Kate Parker, Te Whakahoki – The Return
To read more about our winners, click here.
Main image credit: Daisy Nicholas, Reflective Tides, 2023
Opening Celebration, Tuesday 4th June at 7:30pm in the Malcolm Smith Gallery.
The Howick Photographic Society, in conjunction with the Auckland Festival of Photography, is proud to showcase a large selection of images by award winning and emerging photographers. The photos for this exhibition have been selected from all members including beginners and covers all styles. The photographs are for sale so come along and pick out something special for your wall.
Howick Photographic Society has been active in the Eastern suburbs community since it was formed in 1956 fostering the love and teaching of photography. The Society has been going now for close to 70 years and caters for all types of photographers from absolute beginners to those more experienced. A range of activities are provided including competitions, workshops, speakers, and outings. We welcome new members and have put in place teaching programs to help them along their photographic journey.
We are a friendly, social group with our more experienced members keen to help and mentor others. For more details, check out our website howickphotographicsociety.org.nz. Or you can visit us at any of our Monday meetings!
Our meetings (both physical and by Zoom) are held on the 1st, 3rd and 4th Mondays of each month, from February to November in the basement of the Howick Bridge Club, Howick Leisure Centre, 563 Pakuranga Highway, Howick.
Image Credit: Sunrise In Wanaka – Shona Kebble FPSNZ
‘Tokimeku’ (ときめく) is a Japanese word that beautifully captures the sensation of a throbbing, fluttering, and palpitating heart—a visceral response to the dance of anticipation. This concept serves as the inspiration for Coral Noel Yang latest collection of expressive abstract works. Influenced by her immersive experience at Tamagawa Hot Spring, a secluded mountain healing site in her mother’s hometown, Akita, Japan, these artworks vividly reflect the essence of her journey, where the heartbeat of nature resonates in captivating visual expressions.
The rich landscape of the hot spring and its surrounding terrain provides bountiful inspiration for visual storytelling. Elements such as the outflowing fountainhead, the luminous vapour, the neon-hued sulphuric fumaroles, the enchanted submerged forest, and the rare Sun Halo phenomena, are all intricately woven into the tapestry of Tokimeku. For Coral, Tokimeku became a compelling artistic exercise, allowing her to distil a personal abstract language from the natural elements of Tamagawa, capturing the emotions and ethos of her pilgrimage. Within each artwork, a palpable curiosity about the fluidity of water, the ascending glow of vapour, and the ethereal atmosphere of the land emerges.
As Coral delves into the memories of her travels, central themes of wonder, awakening, connection, and rebirth crystallise within this collection. A poignant narrative thread weaves through her heartfelt reunion with family after a period of Covid-induced separation, alongside tales of healing and the therapeutic energy found in Tamagawa. Coral’s purpose is to imbue her works with the vitality and sense of belonging she absorbed from this transformative journey.
Coral’s practice involves the application of the soak-stain method on raw canvases—a technique seamlessly blended with her upbringing in the Asian Water-Ink tradition. Breaking constraints by using water and fluid paint, she engages in a delicate dance between intuitive material play and meticulous left-brain design. Enthralled by the challenge of harnessing the unpredictable beauty of fluidity, Coral patiently crafts subtle, luminous, and transparent layers that echo the passage of time and delicate human emotions. Her works come alive with raw water marks, organic shapes, and whimsical brushstrokes, where geometrical elements occasionally serve as a nod to nature, intertwined with emotional elements that add dimensions to her paintings.
Tokimeku unfurls across four subsets: The Submerged Forest, the Sun Halo, the Golden Sulphuric Treasure, and the Colours of Dreams, each presenting its unique narratives, colour palettes, and abstract exploration. This exhibition extends an invitation to the audience to immerse themselves in the intricate layers of emotion—joyful reunions, stories of resilience, and the revitalising embrace of nature, with the hope of evoking a profound sense of wonder and elevation in the viewers.
About the artist:
Coral Noel Yang, an Auckland-based contemporary painter, specializes in abstract and floral art using acrylic, blending Soak-Stain techniques with Asian water-ink traditions. Her vibrant and layered works exude luminous hues and expressive marks, drawing inspiration from Aotearoa’s landscapes and florals, her 15 years of global filmmaking experience, and her Chinese-Japanese heritage. Enthralled by the unpredictable beauty of fluidity, she navigates between intuitive material play and meticulous design, crafting layers adorned with water marks, organic shapes, and whimsical brushstrokes. Her paintings capture nature’s essence intertwined with human emotions, evoking a profound sense of wonder and belonging, resonating both locally and internationally. Since 2021, Coral has held solo exhibitions in Auckland, notably including Unfurling (2023) and Tokimeku (2024). Additionally, she is invited to showcase her work at both The Auckland Art Show 2024 and Art in the Park 2024. In 2023, she received the John Wells award at the Emerging Artist Awards of Upstail Gallery and was a finalist at Craigs Aspiring Art Prize in 2024.
Instagram link: @coralnoelyangart
Coral Noel Yang, Stardust Rhapsody
The exhibition opening celebration featured a powerful contemporary dance, specially choreographed and performed by Yiling Elaine Chen, filmed and edited by Kelly Chen, that captured the sensation of Tokimeku shown in the video below.
Located on our Wall Gallery
Open to view Saturday 22nd June until Saturday 21st September.
Roma Andersons’ Anamnesis is a triptych of digital images derived from Polaroid photographs taken in the Waiatarua Wetlands during Tāmaki Makaurau’s first lockdown in 2020. Formerly a tributary valley of the Tāmaki River, the Waiatarua Wetlands were sealed off with the eruption of Maungarei (Mount Wellington) approximately 9,000 years ago. Eventual rainfall caused ponding amongst the deposits of silt and ash, subsequently forming Lake Waiatarua and its wetlands.
The Waiatarua Drainage Board was founded in 1908, and Lake Waiatarua began to be drained, with the “reclaimed” land used by colonial settlers to plant maise and orchards. Around 670,000 hectares of freshwater wetlands were drained by English settlers for aesthetic or agricultural reasons. Today, only around 100,000 hectares remain, an 85% decline in Aotearoa’s freshwater wetlands since European settlement began. This has, in turn, drastically impacted the habitat of 20% of our indigenous birdlife and the habitat of many of our most ancient life forms. In 1987, restorative planting began for stormwater management and to provide a habitat for native birdlife. The area is now Aotearoa’s largest urban wetland restoration project.
The liquidity and entropy of the images represents the liminality of the site, a place that is both polluted and cleansed – now a habitat for multiple native species such as Kanuka, Kauri, short and long-finned eels, Pukeko, Tūi and Piwakawaka. More personally, the disorientating pace and dissolving images represent the loss of time and space I experienced during lockdown – as hours bled into days and weeks. In line with déjà vu, the Anamnesis triptych speaks to the sensation of losing the ground beneath you, when the reliable and familiar becomes fluid and unpredictable.
About the artist:
Roma Lauren Anderson is an Auckland-based artist, photographer, moving image, and new media artist. Anderson grew up along the Tāmaki River and has been exploring its history and the ecological vulnerability of its waterways and mangroves since 2016.
Drawing inspiration from the histories of spirit photography and the notion of vibratory modernism, Anderson reconceives the photographic encounter as an exchange of agency and energy between the artist, camera, and environment. Recently, Anderson has employed digital processes to generate new imagery from the data of scanned Polaroids, testing the boundaries of what constitutes photography.
In 2024, Anderson participated in the group exhibition Eight Thousand Layers of Moment at the Gus Fisher Gallery. She is currently completing her PhD at Te Waka Tūhura, Elam School of Fine Arts.
In partnership with Arts Out East, UXBRIDGE Arts & Culture, and Te Tuhi, the Howick Youth Council’s Youth Visual Art Showcase is back for the fifth year with over 70 submissions.
Showcasing the best of our young visual Artists, between the age of 18 – 24 living in East Auckland.
Whether it be painting, sculpture, animation, photography, or mixed media, the showcase has artists in all fields.
In partnership with Arts Out East, UXBRIDGE Arts & Culture, and Te Tuhi, the Howick Youth Council’s Youth Visual Art Showcase is back this year.
Showcasing the best of our young visual artists, between the ages of 14 – 24 living in East Auckland.
Whether it be painting, sculpture, animation, photography, or mixed media, the showcase has artists in all fields.
Opening night: 20 May, 5:00PM – 7:00PM
Exhibition dates: Saturday 20 May – Saturday 17 June
Expansive yet minuscule, spontaneous yet during; Trees are living beings that play a role not just in the ecosystem, but also in the minds of many artists.
This exhibition explores the interpretation of this vital element of nature from the ancient Roman frescoes to the Chinese literati paintings, and sparks further inquiries to how art could better represent trees that may enable us to reconcile with our environment.
PHOTO OP. x Malcolm Smith Gallery presents LONG COVID, an exhibition of solo and collaborative work by Matt Henry and Emil McAvoy. LONG COVID developed out of a period of intense and sustained conversation between the artists which began during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
Focusing on their shared interest in abstraction, the exhibition features McAvoy’s recent COVID paintings and Henry’s ongoing work with real estate signage. Both artists explore the motifs of geometric abstraction as a form of mimicry, co-opting their compositions from visual communications.
At the nexus of applied art and painting, LONG COVID explores notions of contagion between forms of art and design, mining the political and poetic potential of geometric abstraction in post-COVID Aotearoa.
Image Caption: Emil McAvoy, Community Transmission, 2020-2023. Acrylic on canvas 1000 x 1000mm
Image courtesy of the artist
Emil McAvoy Bio
Emil McAvoy is an artist, curator, lecturer and art writer. His primary role is Collections Curator for the Vice Chancellor’s Office at Auckland University of Technology, where he also lectures in Photographic Practices and Communication Design. McAvoy has an MFA (First Class Honours) from the Elam School of Fine Arts, and has also lectured at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Victoria University of Wellington and Massey University across a range of disciplines.
McAvoy’s art practice is underpinned by an interest in the shifting cultural roles of artists – the artist as medium, critic, activist, citizen and public intellectual. His work spans a range of media including photography, painting, video and text. He has realised projects with City Gallery Wellington, The Dowse Art Museum, Aotearoa Art Fair, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space, Ilam Gallery at the University of Canterbury, and Old Government House at the University of Auckland. He has published widely as an essayist, critic and arts journalist for all the major print and online platforms in Aotearoa. He is the founder of independent curatorial platform PHOTO OP. and publishing imprint PUFF PIECE.
Matt Henry Bio
Matt Henry has an MFA from RMIT in Naarm Melbourne, and is based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He has exhibited a number of solo projects with Starkwhite, and undertaken several solo installation-based projects with public galleries including the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts. His work is held in public and private collections including the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, and Elevation Capital Art Collection.
Henry’s practice deals with the legacies of modernism and the allegorical potentials of painting. Primarily interested in the language of reductive abstraction, Henry’s ongoing investigation explores the interconnected histories of art and design and the problematics of viewing or considering painting in isolation. Drawing on the notion of commodification, Henry considers the history of cross-pollination between art and design to position painting within a broader field of signification where the hegemonic place of painting and values of art and commerce are blurred.
Matt Henry & Emil McAvoy Collaborations
While maintaining solo art practices, Matt Henry and Emil McAvoy have been collaborating on selected projects since 2015, connecting complementary approaches to painting, and a shared interest in the legacies of geometric abstraction. McAvoy has published writing on Henry’s practice for the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, they have appeared in artist talks together, and also supported the development of each other’s solo practices through ongoing conversation.
In 2022, McAvoy invited Henry to stage the inaugural exhibition for PHOTO OP., a nomadic independent curatorial platform. The resulting exhibition, Double Grammar Zone, represented a pivot for Henry into medium format photography and an extension of his painting practice. In 2023, the pair collaborated on Political Landscape, a PHOTO OP. Edition co-opting the new National Party graphic identity which had been deployed across Aotearoa in the lead up to the general election. LONG COVID is their first two-person show.
Hero Image Caption: Matt Henry 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘠𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘒𝘦𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴, 2025. Acrylic on linen 900 x 600 mm’
Image courtesy of the artist.
TURNING is an interactive exhibition of kinetic, photographic and sculptural work created in collaboration with interdisciplinary artist, Lucinda Boermans, and technician, Alan Eaton. It is a creative response to Peter Sloterdijk’s Atmospheric Philosophy. Spheres of Being, a trilogy written and conceived over a period of 6 years (between 1998 and 2004). Sloterdijk’s historically informed theory details “a shift in how humans understand the world, and an ontology of space which is concerned with the particular ‘spheres’ they inhabit.”
TURNING explores space as spheres of influence; it is about poetics of space expressed through movement and sound. It invites us to consider attention and our relational position in the world. Equally, it is about acts of relational aesthetics (of “being in spheres”) realised through process-based enquiry, collaborative exchange and interaction “in-the-making”. As Boermans notes, TURNING took shape over nine months, through the unfolding of tales, recounted conversations, note-taking and emails sent in exchange.
In addition to this exhibition, two complementary workshops will be held for children. More information can be found here.
The Howick Photographic Society, in conjunction with the Auckland Festival of Photography and the Howick 175th Anniversary, is proud to showcase a large selection of images by award winning and emerging photographers.
The exhibition opens on May 30th with the public warmly welcomed to view the wide range of styles and subjects on display. This wonderful exhibition will run at the Uxbridge Centre in Howick from the opening until the 18th June. The photographs on display are all available for purchase in almost any size that you require, should you wish to have one or more of these works gracing your home or business.
The Howick Photographic Society was established in 1956 and today has a strong following of members from the very experienced through to members just starting out on their photographic journey. Experienced members regularly hold tuition forums for those wishing to improve and warmly welcome anyone with an interest in this art form with workshops, outings and competitions available for everyone. The club has a strong history of successes in local, national and international competitions.
Physical meetings, in pre and post Covid times, are held at the clubrooms below the Bridge Club at the Howick Recreation Centre Complex. At the moment, all meetings are conducted on Zoom and new members have expressed their enthusiasm for the progress that they have made whilst having only experienced this form of contact.
For further information, please contact [email protected]
The only contemporary art award in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core.
Artists have been invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki estuary – to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway, and to encourage action against its pollution.
With a total prize pool of $10,000, this year the award ceremony will again celebrate the winning artworks chosen by our judge. Returning as judge is Francis McWhannell, who will select artworks for the 16th Estuary Art and Ecology Award based on their innovative and intelligent response to ecology and the Tāmaki Estuary. He has also selected a number of other entries for display outside the main gallery. These entries will also be open for the Rice Family Partnership’s People’s Choice Award.
Exhibition
Saturday 2 July – 27 August 2022
Finalists
Wesley John Fourie – First Prize
Perry Projects – Second Prize
Rozana Lee – Third Prize
Ramon Robertson – Merit
Alby Yap – Merit
Amanda Watson
Celeste Sterling
Agnès Desombiaux Sigley
Daisy Nicholas
Milvia Romici
Mā Te Huruhuru Artists
Jill McArthur
Richard Osborne
Gillian Green
Ekaterina Dimieva
Suzette van Dorsser
Gail Barratt
Maggy J
Phillippa Bentley
Ainsley O’Connell
The Kelliher Art Competition, and the Trust to administer it, were established by Henry Kelliher: the founder, managing director, and subsequent chairman of Dominion Breweries. To enter, artists were required “to paint the visible aspects of New Zealand’s landscape and coastal scenes in a realistic and traditional way”. Later, prizes for portraiture and figure studies were added. The Trust’s collection largely comprises prize-winning paintings from the competition, held from 1956 to 1977, although for the last three competitions, in 1974, 1976 and 1977, the name was changed to the Kelliher Art Award for which five equal Awards were given, whether a landscape, portrait or figure study. In addition to purchases made from approximately 2007 to 2012 to update the collection a little, from 2015 the Trust has commissioned paintings by emerging landscape painters as a way of honouring Sir Henry’s original objective: to encourage the painting of New Zealand landscape.
This year’s selection does not have a particular theme. Rather, it attempts to represent the diversity of the collection. In part this is because in 2021 the focus of the Trust has been the development of a major touring exhibition, comprised of approximately a third of the collection from December 2021 through to early 2023.
The Kelliher Art Trust is delighted that Uxbridge Arts and Culture, Howick, will be presenting this collection from 24 January until 12 March.
Christopher Johnstone
Curator, Kelliher Art Trust
By Wesley John Fourie
Spanning textile, painting, ceramics, drawing, and printmaking, I Dream A Rain Forest is a show about place.
Natural places, such as Waipoua Kauri Forest, seen in Tane Mahuta, and Safe Haven (Kahurangi National Park), or through botanical sampling, like Kowhai Park. Places inscribed with memories, such as Woodhaugh Gardens (I cant stop thinking about our first kiss), and Forest Floor (where we lay together in love), drawing out these places as they are remembered in time through stitch.
This show also presents places we go to in our mind, specifically the artists mind, in states of deep insomnia. In these works, the insomnia portraits, we see a series of imagined landscapes, the artist’s internal “green space”, in both drawing and painting.
Though diverse in its media, the works in this exhibition are bound together by their repetitive mark making processes, and all seek to elevate our arboreal environment, real or imagined.
We Climbed This Mountain With Our Feet and Hands (Rangitoto), a community built artwork (created with thanks to Te Tuhi Contemporary Trust, Arts Out East, and Howick Local Board), is another example of the artist’s interest in place, as a 1/1 scale model of Rangitoto, rendered in arm knitting (260m).
The pieces in this exhibition, like the headspace they were created under, are largely intimate works.
They carry across their surfaces stories, the memory of light hitting a fern in a rain forest, the setting of a first kiss, a sampling of every plant along a pathway, an imagined clearing in a bush, stories rooted in place, and memory of place.
For Artweek Auckland, there will be an arm knitting workshop running in conjunction with the exhibition.
Workshop: Arm Knitting (free workshop)
Saturday 13 November, 10:00AM – 12:00PM
The Howick Youth Council’s East Auckland Visual Arts Showcase is running for its fourth year to showcase the best of visual art produced by young people living in Howick, Pakuranga, Botany, and Ormiston. This exhibition will be free to view over two weeks from 10th June to 26th June and was opened to submissions from youth aged between 12 and 24 who live in the area covered by the Howick Local Board. This year the art category is open with participants free to create artworks over subject matters that inspire them or to experiment with different medians.
East Auckland Embroiderers Guild (EAEG) is an incorporated society and a member of the Association of New Zealand Embroiders Guild (ANZEG). It was formed in 2004 and has a current membership of 60 meeting twice each month – one day meeting and one evening meeting. ANZEG’s overall aim is to encourage embroidery in all its forms, innovation in design, and excellence in stitching. The members of EAEG fulfil this aim, being involved in a wide range of embroidery techniques ranging from very old traditional forms of stitching from around the world through to modern creations and multi-media projects. Workshops are often held at meetings to teach new skills, utilising both guild members and outside tutors. In addition to this, members can attend regional and national workshops run by both excellent local and international tutors – some with training such as the Royal School of Needlework.
Members are encouraged to try a diversity of embroidery techniques and to also create their own designs which then get transformed into a unique finished item. The resulting projects cover a vast range including stitched art for hanging, ornaments, cushions and table mats etc. These works of art are of an extremely high quality, with some members receiving recognition awards at regional and national exhibitions.
EAEG has run an exhibition open to the public every two years since its inception and has been pleased to be able to share this age-old craft, keeping these traditional skills alive and continues to inspire new and younger members in their embroidery.
Awards Ceremony
Saturday 3 July, 2:30PM 2021
Exhibition
Saturday 3 July – 28 August 2021
The only contemporary art award in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core.
Artists have been invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki estuary – to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway, and to encourage action against its pollution.
UXBRIDGE is pleased to welcome the Tāmaki Estuary Environmental Forum as partner and sponsor for this year’s event. The prize pool is now $10,000. Our judge, Francis McWhannell, has selected 23 artworks for the 15th Estuary Art and Ecology Award based on their innovative and intelligent response to ecology and the Tāmaki Estuary. He has also selected a number of other entries for display outside the main gallery. These entries will also be open for the Rice Family Partnership’s People’s Award.
2021 Finalists
- Mā Te Huruhuru Artists (First Prize)
- Katie Theunissen (Second Prize)
- Divyaa Kumar (Third Prize)
- Jenny Tomlin (Merit)
- Franca Bertani (Merit)
- Alby Yap (People’s Choice Award – sponsored by Wally Rice Family Partnership)
- Kiri Abraham
- Ina Arraoui
- Gail Barratt
- Emily Brown
- Guinevere Cherrill
- Julie Christey
- Karen Danes
- Matt Dowman
- Emma Fromont
- Dani Henke
- Amanda Hewlett
- Jen Huebert
- Kim Logue
- Minke Lupa
- TSU
- Marion Wassenaar
- Isabella Young
Concourse Exhibition
- Anna Gibbs
- Deborah Hide-Bayne
- Maria Lambert
- Janet Mazenier
- Marie-Louise Myburgh
- Penny Otto
- Celeste Sterling
- Celia Walker
- Amanda Watson
- Alvin Xiong
- Nuanzhi Zheng
Signature Image: Confluence – 2020 Estuary Art Awards (Merit)
Cathy Tuato’o Ross, Bindy Caesar, Penny Fitt, Heather Hunt, Richard Hunter, Julia Newland
We have selected this image for the 2021 Estuary Art Awards as it is the result of a creative collaboration and is a conscious response to the dilemma of the Tāmaki Estuary’s past, present, and future. It involved conversation, negotiation, learning, and incorporates knowledge of place with knowledge of colonial history and the effects of human activity on the land, the water, and the climate. Restoring, preserving, and respecting the ecology of Tāmaki Estuary is an ongoing project that will require conversations, listening, negotiation, and collaborative action across the different perspectives of all those affected – a confluence.
Curated by Nicki and Grant Richards, the Quay Art Gallery exhibition will showcase an incredible collection of work by our Quay artists from all over New Zealand.
“As long term Howick residents, we are so pleased to bring our Quay Art Gallery to the local community through Uxbridge Arts and Culture. A community collaboration showcasing both local Auckland artists and art from all over New Zealand – from Christchurch to the far north.
The exhibition will focus on paintings, ceramics and glass art from some of our countries top artists.
We look forward to seeing you there.”
– Nicki and Grant Richards
Tony started teaching at UXBRIDGE in 1998, and after holding a solo exhibition in 2000 he then became the centre’s “Artist in Residence” in 2001.
The residency consisted of a number of classes that Tony taught, as well as open studio time where the public could watch and ask questions whilst Tony painted. This residency was renewed every 6 months for 3 years before starting his own business, after new management decided not to renew his contract.
Starting with 50 students, numbers quickly grew to 120 and Tony was teaching 7 days a week. What has developed through the years of student and teacher interaction, is a unique painting method that anyone can learn.
Now after 17 years he returns to where he began.
“We have been at UXBRIDGE for 2 years and it’s working out really nicely, there is a vibrant art community at the centre and the UXBRIDGE team are great to work with. We have reduced the number of students I teach per class, and I tutor only 2 days a week on Thursdays and Fridays. This have given me more time to work on my own painting”.
The Howick Youth Council’s East Auckland Visual Arts Showcase will once again showcase the best of visual art produced by young people living in Howick, Pakuranga, Botany, and Ormiston. This exhibition will be free to view and was open to submissions from youth aged between 12 and 24 who live in the area covered by the Howick Local Board. 2020 will be the third year in which the showcase has been run — but for the first time, the showcase will also include two main categories: Themed Art and Open Art — with a theme of ‘Modern and Traditional Connection’
Lockdown Heroes
An appreciation for essential workers through creativity and art!
With the sudden outbreak of Covid-19, we became much more aware of the vital role our essential workers play. What would we do without them?
Age Range
Ages between 5 and 18 are welcome to apply
This exhibition brings together text and image (poetry and landscape watercolour painting).
Siobhan’s autobiographical poems and landscapes form a visceral and compelling engagement with the textures and stories of the Howick/Maraetai coastline, with particular focus upon her own experience of local Māori and Jewish cultural contexts. Her work is also very much informed by her own disability. Her paintings draw upon the fluctuating differences in sight she experiences and seizures – much the same as did Van Gogh and artists with similar disabilities.
Siobhan’s paintings and drawings have been published in several art journals including Esthetica and The Same. Siobhan was also runner up for the 2020 Adam NZ playwriting award. Her poetry, fiction and memoir has been published in a number of literary journals including New Zealand Poetry and World Literature Today. Last but not least, she is currently editing a poetic illustrated novel about disability and Maori experiences of the New Zealand Wars for publication with Lasavia Press, Auckland.
Artist: Siobhan Rosenthal
9 July to 19 August 2018
Opening Saturday 7 July, 2.30PM
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core. Artists are invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution. With a total prize pool of $8,300 the winning artworks will be intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
Judge: Paul Brobbel
Congratulations to the winners of the Estuary Art and Ecology Prize 2018
Marion Wassenaar (First Prize), Wei Lun Ha (Second Prize), Mish O’Neill (Merit), Michelle Farrell (Merit)
People’s Choice Award Winners were Jim Wheeler and Rozana Lee
With support from Gordon Harris, Rice Family Partnership and
4 June to 30 June 2018
Opening Saturday 2 June, 2.30PM
Developing from their exhibition in Ōtepoti in 2017, The Insider uses public space, street and gallery, as a site for response to inequality, allowing for a propaganda-like campaign to act as the catalyst for conversation and directly questions the hierarchies that govern culture and critical thinking.
Presented as part of
Exhibition Publication
5 March to 14 April 2018
Opening Saturday 3 March, 2.30PM
A drainlayer, a fabricator, a builder, a Scout, a potter – unlikely partnerships, initiated through Scott Eady’s personal connections to local residents will develop to create a space for exploration and consideration, bringing an understanding of the local and connection to the immediate.
Exhibition Publication
“From Here to Africa is a collection of captivating portraits of the Maasai people from Tanzania. I found myself deeply inspired upon meeting the Maasai tribe and realised the opportunity to document their unique culture which is being eroded by Western influence and modern technology. On a personal level, this reminds me of the true value of photography: preserving memories in order to relive special stories and pass them on to others. Through this series of carefully composed photographs, the Maasai people can share their rich culture with the world.
The collection is presented in a film-noir monochrome, capturing these portraits in a classically timeless style; lending a unifying appearance that emulates analogue lithographic techniques. I wanted viewers to focus on the humanity aspect of each portrait: expressions and body language, shapes and forms. I eliminated distracting colours to ensure that viewers focus on the people within the photos, and make emotional connections with these individuals.
I aim to depict the Maasai culture in an authentic and honest way, using a clear narrative style which shows people the significance of their culture, as well as their individual personalities. My goal is to provoke your imagination regarding the traditions of the Maasai people and the stories behind their portraits. In sharing this portfolio, I encourage viewers to show tolerance: to accept all people and to recognise the value of cultural diversity. We would all experience an enhanced sense of community if we took the time to appreciate interactions which allow us to discover the world beyond our familiar boundaries.”
Opening: Friday, 28 February 7:30PM with keynote speaker: Sir Bob Harvey. RSVP: www.HereToAfrica.com
Artist Talk: Saturday, 7 March 11:00AM
Portraiture Photography Workshop: Saturday, 7 March 12:00PM – 3:00PM WORKSHOP DETAIL & BOOKINGS
Sponsors:
Coming soon: Uxbridge Art Sale
MALCOLM SMITH GALLERY
24 March to 12 May 2019
Garden of Memories, curated by Giles Peterson, brings together heirloom and contemporary Pacific quilts from Peterson’s collection and uses these precious objects as the starting point for exploring contemporary craft and object-making by extending this traditional form into creative interpretations and new works by artists from across Asia and the Pacific.
Six quilts from Aotearoa and the Pacific are at the centre of the exhibition and the complementing publication. Peterson’s personal connection to each quilt is explored through narratives, along with the idea of quilts as domestic objects, transmitters of knowledge, status items, items for comfort and survival and works of art.
Garden of Memories features work by Shona Pitt, Sheena Taivairanga, Lisa Reihana, Vea Mafile’o, Reina Sutton, Lina Pavaha Marsh, and Ken Khun.
A publication to accompany the exhibition will be available, created in collaboration with Rim Books. This publication is funded by Creative New Zealand and supported by Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design and Resene.
Pre-order your copy of the publication HERE
MALCOLM SMITH GALLERY
Exploring Shapes
Wednesday 17 April | 12PM to 1PM
Delivered by Ken Khun in conversation with Giles Peterson. Ken will describe how he created the repeating design seen in the Garden of Memories wallpaper. Following this, participants can create their own using simple techniques.
Interactive Story Telling
Saturday 4 May | 12PM to 1.30PM
Join Turou Takitua as they take you on a storytelling journey across the Moana to the Cook Islands. Enjoy ancient tales passed down through time, like the intricate stitches of Tivaevae uncovered from a ‘glory box’…. The afternoon will include interactive storytelling, drumming and dance.
All events are free to attend, materials are provided and open to all. There is no need to register, just come along!
With support from
The decision to drift is an exhibition of three painters – Amy Blinkhorne, Kristy Gorman, and Emma Smith. These artists explore notions of stillness in varied ways – forms flit, linger, are held and haunt the surfaces. The works slow the viewer in a quiet state of recalibration, of floating observance, residual uneasiness and slow terror.
Amy Blinkhorne’s practice explores the notions of liminality, an in-between space that challenges two or more multiple constructs. Influenced by the experience of distorted sound, as a result of wearing hearing aids, strange spatial interactions take place within the painting’s body and surface. Spaces that are empty or unclear are bound in-between the states of knowing. In these spaces lie the discomfort of uncertainty and unfamiliarity, of no idea and agenda, no gender, no polarities. Until this liminal space becomes the truth, there will always be an, “other”.
In the work of Kristy Gorman forms that are at once familiar and ambiguous are spliced and reconstructed to tease out issues of surface and depth, figure and ground, stability and fragility. Edited observations and tricks of the light are recalled as floating planes hover and shift quietly within the frame and beyond it.
Broadly speaking Emma Smith’s work negotiates the post industrial militarization of culture, a heightened state of urgency/ emergency, the looming certainty of the accident, the potential in temporary wasteland spaces, notions of displacement, reparation and debt, institutional restructures and failures in the (predominantly) painted form. In the series A Brief History of Fire, we see luminous sickly billowing clouds of indeterminate scale on a back drop of impossibly sunny colours.
Image by Kristy Gormin
From the distant afar, years and years ago, through mountains and seas, upon this Aotearoa, a wonderland, did we come, and took root hence.
In Spring, trailing the songs of birds, we can wander around our fragrance filled gardens of blooming flowers, pick a rose fresh with dew then, so to hold on to those blissful moments.
In Summer, under the setting sun, we can take a stroll through the inviting beaches, bathing with the waving ripples and blessings of Santa in shorts, wistfully wishing another flourishing year.
While in Autumn, the golden light seeps through the land, shrouding Kiwis singing the harvesting songs, a moment how we can forget our cameras.
In Winter under the moonlight, while the city is still under a misty veil tinted with neon lights, we can climb up the neighbouring hills, to take a glimpse, or to have a little chat with the starry sky, and to reach out for that kiwi bird up, up in the Milky Way.
New Zealand…. this is our home, our heaven on Earth.
23 April to 25 May 2018
Opening Saturday 21 April, 2.30PM
Curators Tour: Thursday 17 May, 11.30AM
Curated by Alice Tyler and Zoe Hoeberigs
Making the invisible visible, this exhibition brings together works by artists who reflect on things unnoticed and the obscured forces that play within the overlooked.
Featuring Wanda Gillespie, Matilda Woods, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Rozana Lee, Pamela Wolfe, Georgie Hill.
Image: Wanda Gillespie, Seeker 2 (Kai) 2016, woodcarving (Ash), fur, fabric
Exhibition Publication
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core. Artists were invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution.
With a total prize pool of $8,300, the winning artworks are intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
Exhibition of Finalists
13 July to 1 September 2019
Awards Ceremony
Saturday 13 July 2019, 2:30PM
Judge’s Tour of the Exhibition
Saturday 20 July, 2:30PM
Congratulations to our 2019 Finalists
Roma Anderson, Hannah Rose Arnold, Julia Christey, Bev Goodwin, Toni Hartill, Thomas Hinton, John Johnston, Thomas Lawley, Minke Lupa, Janet Mazenier, Barnaby McBryde, Neal Palmer, Lucy Pierpoint, Summer Shimizu, Mo Stewart, Katie Theunissen, Raewyn Turner/Brian Harris, Celia Walker, Briana Woolliams
Congratulations to our 2019 Award Winners
First Place – Mo Stewart
Second Place – Roma Anderson
Merit – Toni Hartill
Merit – Briana Woolliams
Image: Mish O’Neill, Mānawa, 2018
Merit Award EAA12
22 January to 24 February 2018
Gallery Session with the artist: Friday 16 February, 11.30AM
New works from New Zealand and India reinterpreting modernism for a new time
Natalie Guy recently completed a three month residency in Varanasi, India and the results of this residency form her new exhibition, Then and Then Again.
Working with manufacturers she met in the city, Guy weaves some of the wonder of Varanasi into her distinctive sculpture practice.
Utilising a contrasting palette of hard material (iron formed into shapes by a local Varanasi blacksmith) and soft fibres (traditional muslin dyed and embroidered with designs inspired by Gordon Walters prints), this exhibition regenerates and brings together New Zealand modernism and Indian handcraft.
The residency Guy completed is based at Kriti Gallery and is supported by Asia New Zealand Foundation.
Exhibition Publication
Supported by:
This exhibition continues the ongoing series by Billy Apple entitled ‘Institutional Critiques’. Started in the 1970s, these investigations critique the ways that exhibition spaces function and subvert these spaces through painting specific architectural features red. Highlighting oddities or irregularities in gallery design, Apple brings attention to the spaces in which art sits and in doing so, the gallery becomes the artwork itself.
Apple has critiqued galleries throughout New Zealand including Te Uru Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, The Suter Gallery, Adam Art Gallery, and the Physics Room. This exhibition coincides with a critique of the Refinery Artspace in Nelson.
Image: Kate van der Drift, Diptych First Quarter Moon to Full Moon, May, 2020
1st Place EAA14
Judge’s Tour 18th July, 2020
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core. Artists were invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution.
Our judge this year, Monique Jansen, is an Auckland based artist and Head of Visual Arts at the Auckland University of Technology. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, and her work is held in many public and private collections. She was the winner of the inaugural Aotearoa/New Zealand National Parkin Drawing Prize in 2013. Monique is a committed environmentalist and organic gardener; working on transforming her home and community into a model of resilience, sustainable living, and active citizenship.
Thank you to all who have entered!
Below are the 25 finalists for this year’s Estuary Art and Ecology Prize:
- Kiri Abraham
- Amber Adams
- Rick Allender
- Cristina Beth
- Lee Brogan
- Anthony Clarke
- Sarah Davis
- Alan Fletcher
- Wesley John Fourie
- Bobbie Gray
- Anna Hayes
- Janna Isbey
- Maggy Johnston
- Janet Mazenier
- Barnaby McBryde
- Neal Palmer
- Pass the Blue Collaborative
- Ramon Robertson
- Studio Reset
- Summer Shimizu
- Jenny Tomlin
- Wayne Trow
- Suzette van Dorsser
- Kate van der Drift
- Clovis Viscoe
Winners
- First Place: Kate van der Drift
- Second Place: Wesley John Fourie
- Merit: Alan Fletcher
- Merit: Pass the Blue Collaborative
Exhibition of Finalists
4 July to 30 August 2020
Judge’s Tour
Saturday 18 July 2020, 2:30PM
Malcolm Smith Gallery
1 June to 30 June 2019
To a child, time is like a circle, it has no beginning, no end and consists solely of the present. For an adult, time is like an arrow. It has clear direction and it cannot be wasted. This exhibition is a celebration of children and the inner child. It is an expression of how fascinating and magical the world can be if only we looked at it with younger eyes. It is an invitation to adults to be more curious, brave, inquisitive, and imaginative.
Curated by Mandy Huang
11 December 2017 to 13 January 2018
Opening Saturday 9 December, 2.30PM
Exhibition Talk: Sunday 10 December, 2.30PM
Public Programme: Paint a Plate Workshop, 13 January 2018
The Bloggs – a title that refers to the British colloquialism ‘Joe Bloggs’ to denote the typical everyday man – considers what it is that makes us human. Nicola Jackson has created her version of an anatomy museum, filling vitrines and cabinets with a range of curious objects and adorning the walls with paintings of inquisitive characters.
In The Bloggs Jackson has paired key anatomical elements with qualities that go beyond the physical but ultimately aid in classifying us as human.
Supported by:
URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART FROM HERE AND ABROAD
27 August to 30 September 2018
Opening Saturday 25 August, 2.30PM
Malcolm Smith Gallery is partnering with Aotearoa Urban Arts Trust (AUAT) to bring Hong Kong based Cath Love to Auckland this August. Cath Love will join local artists Oscar Low and Elliot Francis Stewart in EAST, an exhibition that looks to build connections between Urban Contemporary artists within Asia Pacific and Aotearoa.
Exhibition Publication
With support from
3 December to 27 January 2019
Opening Saturday 1 December, 2.30PM
Chroma, a new exhibition by Wendy Hannah, explores colour, pigment and materials, creating an immersive environment reflecting the different facets of her practice.
Wendy Hannah has been painting for fifteen years. She began her practice with community art courses before attending Elam School of Fine Arts. Through her Bachelor studies she developed a keen interest in the alchemy of paint, experimenting with chemical reactions and the science of artmaking.
This exhibition brings Hannah’s interest of pigment investigation into a new dimension, incorporating think, thin, sticky and vicious pigments with unexpected sculptural supports.
She has been working with Colin Gooch Technical Director and Mike Clowes Technical Manager of Resene Paints with a tool box of pigments and additives to create an ambitious homage to colour and form.
Tori Beeche, Ekaterina Dimieva, Janet Mazenier
“A true Drawing is not a copy of something. It is a constructive deconstruction of something and much more real than the initial thing.”
This quote from the French philosopher Alain Badiou emphasises the endless scope of artistic making, unmaking, and remaking – a common thread in the painting practices of Tori Beeche, Ekaterina Dimieva, and Janet Mazenier. These artists look at our complex present through the prism of nostalgia, yearning, and the ultimate pursuit of trying to connect to the ‘now’ and make sense of it. Tori’s paintings reference the recent past, reflecting on societal and cultural constructs via the concept of restorative nostalgia. Ekaterina’s paintings could be viewed as metaphysical puzzles. They question the real and the imaginary, asking questions such as “How can abstract painting visualise emotional forces and intensities?”. Janet’s paintings construct worlds within worlds. Her meticulous depictions of micro-ecosystems connect human identity to our respect and understanding of Nature.
6 November to 2 December 2017
Opening Saturday 4 November, 2.30PM
Artist Talk: Saturday 18 November, 2.30PM
Early Polynesian navigators gave names to the places they encountered as a reminder of the spiritual threshold between creation and reality. This was because they regarded the ideas of geographic and spiritual origin as mutually similar.
In Whenua Fonua ‘Enua Auckland-based artist Benjamin Work explores the significance of name and place and the importance of these indicators that connect us to our past and highlight the characteristics of our present.
Work hopes to draw the viewer into a conversation about the way in which history is written onto a landscape, as people remember and retell stories of what has taken place and imagine what could be.
Exhibition Publication
Tori Ferguson, Ayesha Green, Zainab Hikmet and Anh Tran
18 September to 28 October 2017
Opening: Saturday 16 September, 2.30PM
Although they come from, and live now, in various parts of the world, the four artists featured in Here and Now have all – at one point – called this land home. These artists are linked by the way in which the traces of the journeys to where they find themselves now are imbued in the artworks they create. Here and Now shows both the ripples of global influences and the continual threads of reflection they have to Aotearoa.
Image: Zainab Hikmet, Half Moon Bay – Auckland glass, 2015,
glass made from raw Half Moon Bay (Auckland) beach sand; 100mm x 100mm x 100mm
Exhibition Publication
24 July to 9 September 2017
Opening: Saturday 22 July, 2.30PM
If one is not limited by an idea and instead paints to further their understanding of visual principles, then each painting is infinitely more meaningful. Drawing is the heavy reserve that says nothing, but through experience can reveal everything.
This solo exhibition by Auckland artist Reece King explores the universal principles of nature through experimentations in form and perception. While encounters in nature are the beginning point, once started, the painting ultimately finds itself and creates its own meaning for viewers to contemplate.
12 June to 15 July 2017
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core. With a total prize pool of $8,300 the winning artworks will be intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
Judged by Ane Tonga
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Awards:
First Place: Kohl Tyler-Dunshea
Second Place: Wendy Hannah
Merit Award: Bev Goodwin and Jeff Thomson
Merit Award: Roma Anderson
People’s Choice Award: Arielle Walker
Image: Kohl Tyler-Dunshea, Offerings (2017). First Place, 2017
2017 finalists:
Arielle Walker, Bev Goodwin and Jeff Thomson, Caroline Powley, Celeste Sterling, Cora-Allan Wickliffe, Dawn Johnstone, Hanna Shim, Hayley Nieuwoudt, Janna Isbey, Jennie De Groot, Jessica Kate Tweed, Jessica Pearless, Katy Metcalf, Kohl Tyler-Dunshea, Lee Brogan, Lucy Pierpoint, Michael Prosee, Mo Stewart, Reece King, Rick Allender, Roma Anderson, Rozana Lee, Sophie Foster, Suzette van Dorsser and Wendy Hannah
Thank you for support from Howick Local Board, Turanga Creek Wines and Rice Family Partnership
As part of Auckland Festival of Photography
1 May to 3 June 2017
Bright Light, Soft Launch brings together emerging and established artists exploring representations of the figure through image making.
The artists featured take a poetic and nuanced approach to portrait photography, teasing out characters and personas and presenting their subjects in a kaleidoscope of ways. Some intend to blur and muddle typical perceptions; others mix stereotypes and narratives with nostalgia and tradition. All present a different way of contemplating how the figure can be captured through a lens.
Jenna Baydee, Kevin Capon, Liyen Chong, Di ffrench, Russ Flatt, Solomon Mortimer, Stephanie O’Connor, Mish O’Neill, Richard Orjis, Patrick Pound, Yvonne Todd, Tia Ranginui, Ashlin Rawson
Image: Russ Flatt, When I Say Jump (2015). Courtesy of the Wallace Arts Trust.
Seven Non-Figurative Auckland Painters
6 March to 22 April 2017
Exhibition Talk / Saturday 11 March / 2.00PM
Johl Dwyer, Nicola Holden, Sara Hughes, Hugo Koha Lindsay, Emma McIntyre, Diane Scott, Glen Snow
Curated by Julian McKinnon
Painting’s resilience as an art form can be attributed to many factors. There is its ease of transportation, its relatively low production costs, and its universal recognition as ‘art’. There is also its enduring value as a commodity, its ability to store culture, and to serve as a vehicle for aesthetic value. Perhaps more than any of these factors – those singled out by academics and theoreticians – is the continued fascination it holds for those that work with it. Its histories are rich and varied, running in parallel to the development of human civilisation. Its techniques are manifold, its possibilities endless. Yet it is the intoxicating sensory experience of delving into the studio, the world of pigments, brushes, and tools, which holds the greatest appeal to those enamoured with the discipline.
Image: Johl Dwyer, Vita, 2017, cedar, resin, and enamel. Courtesy the artist and Tim Melville Gallery. Photo: Kallan MacLeod
23 January – 25 February 2017
Exhibition Opening Saturday 21 January, 2:30PM
Kushana Bush, Jon Carapiet, Quishile Charan, Lok Chitrakar, Tessa Laird, Lorene Taurerewa, Sam Thomas and Shurti Yatri
With the radical break of abstract art in the 20th Century, how do contemporary artists embrace the idea of storytelling? How do they employ narrative to explore history and identity, among other trenchant themes? For these artists, storytelling does not always require plots, characters or settings; rather, narrative potential lies in everyday objects and materials, and their embedded cultural associations. In projects created through extensive research, the artists in A Turn of the Wheel uncover layers of meaning, turning to individual experience as a means of sharing stories, both real and fictional.
7 November 2016 – 14 January 2017
Exhibition Opening
Saturday 5 November, 2:30PM
Isobel Thom is an artist best known for her experimental geometries in painting and ceramics. More recently, the artist has been attempting ‘the complete artwork’, the design and construction of her own studio. From the kitchen sink to the rocket stove, tile cladding to teapots, Isobel Thom has been creating objects to live with.
Curated by Balamohan Shingade
Curator’s Tour—free
Thursday 24 November, 6:30PM
12 September – 22 October 2016
Artists: Matthew Cowan, Xin Cheng with Chris Berthelsen, Philippa Emery, Bernardo Oyarzún, Brydee Rood, Harpreet Singh and Sam Thomas.
Curated by Balamohan Shingade
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to go sharper. – W.B. Yeats
Sacred Economies draws our attention to how experiences of the sacred manifest through social transactions. It is interested in how ritualistic social movements give life to events that can transform or transcend our ordinary ways of thinking about and participating in the world. How do transactions of forms like poetry or folklore, which hold little monetary value, create an economy of ‘sacred’ moments? How do networks of ritualized action hold the potential to create moments which are more than the sum of their parts? What resemblance do the creative arts hold to the industries of spiritual and religious experiences? For these artists, sacredness and everyday magic is about transitioning to a more connected way of being in this world through gift economies, ritual exchange and the restoration of the commons.
Image: Matthew Cowan, The Dance of the Tractor & the Chocoł, 2008.
Exhibition of Finalists 29 July – 27 August 2016
Judged by Jon Bywater
Finalists: Cristina Beth, Anthony Clark, Karen Danes, Cushla Donaldson, Sonja Drake, Dorothy Giam, Neala Glass, Katy Gundesen, Anna Hayes, Niki Simpkin Hill, Thomas Lawley, Shaun Lee, Wendy Leung, Josh Lotz-Keegan, Steve Lovett, Zenica Mann, Dreama McFadyen with Marc and Psalm McFadyen, Emma McLellan, Marie-Louise Myburgh, Penny Otto, Jasper Owen, Emily Parr, Kristin Peren, Isabella Rasch, Jodie Salmond, Donna Turtle Sarten with Bernie Harfleet, A.D. Schierning, Huda Shakarchi, Katie Theunissen, Sam Thomas, Clovis Viscoe, Rainer Westeon with Claudia Dunes, and Alvin Xiong.
The only contemporary art prize in Aotearoa New Zealand with ecology at its core. Artists are invited to research and respond to the Tāmaki Estuary, to underscore the ecological value of this vital waterway and encourage action against its pollution. With a total prize pool of $8,300 the winning artworks will be intelligent and innovative responses to ecology in the field of contemporary art.
1st Place: Emily Parr
2nd Place: Cushla Donaldson
Merit Awards: Katie Theunissen & Katy Gundesen
People’s Choice Award: Sonja Drake
Image: Katie Theunissen, The Littoral Zone, 2016.
13 June – 16 July 2016
Artists: Katrina Beekhuis, Claudia Dunes, Richard Frater, Samer Hatam, John Ward Knox, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Shannon Novak, Jeena Shin, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Julia Teale
Curated by Balamohan Shingade
Malcolm Smith Gallery is named after the late local architect, community stalwart and founding member of UXBRIDGE in 1981. Architects envisage compelling futures and enjoy a particularly social role. It may even be said that theirs is an intrinsically social art form. Malcolm Smith envisaged a centre for his hometown that would be a beacon for the art and ideas of their day. From the beginning, and even until his passing in 2010, Smith made a priority of good architecture, and was involved in recommending building developments for UXBRIDGE. Once any alteration or improvement was accepted, Smith was always to be found contributing to its execution, from erecting the first crèche fence to the interior painting of the theatre. The UXBRIDGE complex, as it stood before the commencement of the redevelopment last year, reflected Smith’s involvement in every room of every building.
With a nod to its namesake, Soft Architecture brings together various artists whose works comprise of architectural references. The focus, here, is not on architects or buildings; instead, the exhibition brings together artists whose use of, and for architecture, is rather subtle. Some artists bring us to a discreet awareness of the spatio-temporal properties inherent in a site, whereas others explore the social missions of our built environments.Soft Architecture is concerned with those artworks which are deceptive in their restraint, but where apparent simplicity or lightness of touch belies the works’ rigour. The term ‘soft’ is expansive in its meaning. It describes material qualities, defines strategies of persuasion, and evokes character traits. Through the exhibition Soft Architecture, Malcolm Smith Gallery can be understood as a soft space, because its approach is to yield readily to touch; a smooth or pliable space that is responsive to wider contexts.
Image: Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Subtle Field 1, 2014.
8 October to 25 November 2018
In Living History, Wellington artist Richard Stratton presents a series of new work that continues his interest in bringing together ceramic decoration and production techniques, art histories and social narratives.
This exhibition explores how Stratton’s well known, intricate teapots and figurative representations have evolved into enigmatic, sculptural forms.
Developed and toured by
:
MALCOLM SMITH GALLERY
4 February to 17 March 2019
Opening Saturday 2 February, 2.30PM
This exhibition by Areez Katki displays 29 new works by the artist, developed over the past eight months while he was living and working in India. The exhibition focuses on Katki’s personal heritage, specifically in relation to Zoroastrianism and the Parsi community to which his family belongs. Through his needlework based craft practice, Katki explores third-wave diaspora and the survival of Zoroastrianism, alongside his own revelations and responses to this now-powerful minority in Mumbai.
Areez has been very generous and allowed his Journal extracts to be available to interested visitors through the link below.
