Our People - Our Land

Our People - Our Land

Our People - Our Land This is the third exhibition in the series showcasing the New Zealand landscape and the people who inhabit it. Some 85 million years ago this country broke away from the Gondwana supercontinent, and the primeval forces it was subjected to are apparent in the rugged Central Otago landforms in Bruce Hunt’s Geomorphology, Mt Kyeburn.

Through the relentless effects of erosion and human activity, the land has since been worn smooth, as in Brent Wong’s Hills & Dam, Lake Under Clouds.

Jim Wheeler’s bronze, Pohutukawa – Matariki, acknowledges both the Maori New Year and the coastal evergreen whose crimson blooms qualify it as New Zealand’s native Christmas tree. Prior to humans, this was a land of birds, and Nigel Brown makes a plea for the conservation of the Kokako. Aroha Gossage records the ghostly remnants, at Pakiri in eastern Northland, of the vast cabbage tree and kahikatea swamps that once characterised lowland New Zealand. Extensive bushland has made way for paddocks; Ray Ching portrays our once ubiquitous sheep, whose population peaked at just over 70 million in 1982, and Peter McIntyre’s Blue Cliffs is a tribute to the iconic rural woolshed.

The land is still in transition, as witnessed by the spread of human settlement in Zarahn Southon’s Eden, in West Auckland.

Nuie-born artist John Pule addresses Pacific history and mythologies, and the impact of colonisation. And outside the gallery stands the sculpture Fa’afafine, by Fatu Feu’u, which acknowledges those people in his native Samoa who identify as belonging to a third gender.

Recreation is the theme of the aptly-named Fun & Games by the late Christchurch artist Llew Summers, known for his monumental sculptures of the human form. More serious, not least from the birds’ point of view, is Ken Kendall’s bronze, 1st of May, marking the start of the duck-shooting season. Moving from representation to gestural is Max Gimblett’s quatrefoil, Mustard Seed, while Ann Robinson’s 2016 crystal glass bowl, Watcher: Treasures of the Earth, with its coloured discs referring to nine elements from the earth – among them uranium, chromium and copper - brings a sense of serenity and timelessness to this collection.

To view the extended catalogue visit our websites.

Fatu Feu’u Fa’afafine Macrocarpa, 4 metres high

Text by

Richard Wolfe

Illustrated cover: Brent Wong (New Zealand b.1945) Hills and Dam, Lake Under Clouds Acrylic on board, 60 x 77 cm, signed

Aroha Gossage (New Zealand b.1987) Tíī Kõuka (Cabbage Tree) Oil on board, 70 x 120 cm, signed

Nigel Brown (New Zealand b.1949) Kokako Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, signed & dated 2015

Llew Summers (New Zealand 1947 – 2019) Fun & Games Bronze, 33 x 39 cm, signed, ed.7/7

Zarahn Southon (New Zealand b.1975) Eden Oil on canvas, 41 x 30cm,signed

Jim Wheeler Pohutukawa – Matariki Bronze, 75 x 57 x 45 cm, series of 5

Ray Ching (New Zealand b.1939) The Eagle & the White-winged Chough Oils on board, 51 x 61 cm, signed

Max Gimblett (New Zealand b.1935) Mustard Seed Metallic pigment & acrylic polymer, 112 x 112 cm Signed & dated 1987

Ann Robinson (New Zealand b.1944) Watcher: Treasures of the Earth Crystal glass, 23.4 x 35.7 cm

Peter McIntyre (New Zealand 1910 – 1995) Blue Cliffs Oil on board, 37 x 53 cm, signed

Ken Kendall (New Zealand 1928 – 2012) 1st of May Bronze, 30 x 19 cm, signed

John Pule (New Zealand b.1962) Untitled (Basel, 2005) Oil, pen & ink on canvas, 120 x 100 cm, signed

Bruce Hunt (New Zealand b.1964) Geomorphology, Mt Kyeburn Acrylic on canvas, 106 x 182 cm, signed & dated 2018

ARTIS Gallery

Jonathan Grant Galleries

280 Parnell Road Auckland New Zealand Telephone +64 9 303 1090 Email artis@artisgallery.co.nz

280 Parnell Road Auckland New Zealand Telephone +64 9 308 9125 Email jg@jgg.co.nz

www.artisgallery.co.nz

www.jonathangrantgalleries.com