MIKE CRAWFORD

MIKE CRAWFORD The Bird Collector

9 February - 6 March 2013

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown

9A Earl Street (03) 442 6896 qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

1

Tieke Pair (Kelp) (2012) cast glass, beak up: 223 x 347 x 125 mm, beak down: 240 x 305 x 122 mm

2

Waka Huia (Red) (2012) cast glass, size: 145 x 530 x 133 mm

3

Matuku Moana Pair (Black) (2013) cast glass, beak up: 397 x 300 x 118 mm, beak down: 280 x 373 x 110 mm

4

Koreke Pair (Red) (2012) cast glass, beak up: 168 x 203 x 135 mm, beak down: 138 x 205 x 133 mm

5

Waka Huia (Clear) (2012) cast glass, size: 105 x 450 x 137 mm

6

Hoiho Pair (Black) (2012) cast glass, large: 443 x 180 x 138 mm, small: 320 x 148 x 118 mm

7

Resolution Island Bowl (Buller Still Life) (2013) cast glass, size: 210 x 212 x 302 mm

8

Stephens Island Urn (Buller Still Life) (2012) cast glass, size (v x ø): 425 x 277 mm

9

Kowhaiwhai Jug (Buller Still Life) (2012) cast glass, size: 460 x 235 x 140 mm

10

Takahe Book (Buller Still Life) (2013) cast glass, size: 130 x 345 x 242 mm

Mike Crawford is the most significant emergent new voice in New Zealand glass art.

He has pioneered a formal language which is uniquely his own: his works are symbolic, abstracted forms with an ever-present figurative impulse.

He uses allusion, implication and key attributes of birds as narrative devices to underpin the primacy of form and the significant role of a drawn or incised line. These establish and constitute the substance of his individual style and the unmistakeable artistic character of his work.

The Bird Collector explicitly references Walter Buller’s complex and conflicted status as an author of one of the great ornithological books of New Zealand and as a bird collector who was directly involved in the extinction of some of our native birds. Crawford has also used “the nuances of J.G. Keuleman’s engravings”(1) in the development of his forms.

In works such as Tieke Pair (Kelp) (2012) and Koreke Pair (Red) Crawford explores the male and female form, abstracting the neck and beak and the expanding shape to suggest both wings and body, while at the same time it is also and essentially a vessel with handles.

Crawford’s masterful use of implication is especially evident in the tall and slender Matuku Moana (2013) where the increased scale has allowed him to play with the cantilever weighting and to introduce sensations of “imbalance in this long-necked, long-legged bird”.

Crawford’s works are very elegant and have a fully-realised stature. In the new form Hoiho (2012) we see “how the oily blackness of the acid etched glass” resonates “with the feathers of the bird.”(1) The fluid, rising line articulates and positions the body of the bird and the creased lip establishes its disposition.

Crawford is a maker of objects that reference history and place, too. The Stephens Island Urn (2012) carries the memory of place and event. It “depicts the well-known story of the Lighthouse Keeper’s cat – purported to have caused the extinction of the Stephens Island Wren.” (1) The Wren was also first described by Buller. Crawford’s use of this circumstance is poignantly allegorical, yet both restrained and incisive, being wonderfully delivered in the round tableaux.

The Kowhaiwhai Jug (2012) reflects Crawford’s Maori/European ancestry and continues his exploration of objects as containers (such as in the Waka Huia works). “This work alludes to the trade and collection of traditional Maori objects and the further appropriation of Maori motifs, patterns that were produced overseas around the turn of last century.” (1) His adaptation of a traditional carving relief pattern on a water jug further adds new dialogues into his work.

1. Artist Notes, 21 January 2013

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

Tieke Pair (Kelp) (2012)

3,250

2

Waka Huia (Red) (2012)

3,000

3

Matuku Moana Pair (Black) (2013)

3,800

4

Koreke Pair (Red) (2012)

2,500

5

Waka Huia (Clear) (2012)

2,750

6

Hoiho Pair (Black) (2012)

3,800

7

Resolution Island Bowl (Buller Still Life - Olive Green) (2013) 3,000

8

Stephens Island Urn (Buller Still Life - Olive Green) (2012)

5,000

9

Kowhaiwhai Jug (Buller Still Life - Olive Green) (2012)

4,250

10

Takahe Book (Buller Still Life - Olive Green) (2013)

2,500

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

MIKE CRAWFORD b. 1979, lives Napier

Koreke (NZ Quail) (2012)

"Mike Crawford is... the creator of elegant, often intricately carved, cast glass hue (gourds), bones and teeth. Working on a small scale, thereby increasing the sense that these are pieces to be treasured, Crawford reworks traditional Maori art forms and artefacts, conveying subtle commentaries on multicultural New Zealand." (1) "The recognition of Dutch still life paintings, in themselves often created as memento mori, lends another layer to this reading. Memento mori or vanitas paintings, intended as reminders of the fleeting nature of youth, of life, and of the passage of time, have prevailed in European art for centuries. While Crawford’s groupings do not display the more blatant motifs, the solemnity of their colouration and the forms’ evocation of historic ways of life contribute to a similar effect." (2) Michael Crawford has a Bachelor of Design majoring in Sculpture from UNITEC School of Design in Auckland. In 2006 he was a finalist in the Ranamok Australian and New Zealand glass prize. His work features in the public collections of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, The Dowse Art Museum and Waikato Museum as well as private collections in Zealand, Australia and North America. In 2010 Crawford’s 'Moa Bowl' was selected for the prestigious applied arts and design exhibition 'Talente' in Munich, Germany.

1. Joanna Trezise, Pango: Mike Crawford, 2008 2. Ibid

Mike Crawford 2013 CV P a g e |1

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MIKE CRAWFORD b. 1979, lives Napier EDUCATION 2002

Graduated from Bachelor of Design Degree (Sculpture Major) Unitec School of Design, Auckland

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2010 2008 2007 2005

The Bird Collector, milford galleries queenstown Bird Lore, Masterworks, Auckland Art on Life, New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington Mantel, Masterworks, Auckland Pango, Masterworks, Auckland Hue, Masterworks, Auckland Mihi, Masterworks, Auckland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012

2011

2010

2009

2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2003 2002

The Review, milford galleries queenstown The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown Chosen, milford galleries queenstown Summer Show, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Familiar Ben Pierce, Mike Crawford, Black Barn Gallery, Hawkes Bay Nga Pou Whenua, Waikato Museum, Hamilton Traverse, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown Talente, Munich, Germany Wallace Art Award, Touring Exhibition, The Dowse Art Museum The Earl Street Journal, milford galleries queenstown Glass 09, milford galleries queenstown Glass : Ann Robinson, Layla Walter, Mike Crawford, Black Barn Gallery, Hawkes Bay Intimate, Masterworks, Auckland Ranamok Contemporary Glass Travelling Exhibition, Australia The Gift Exchange, New Dowse Gallery, Lower Hutt NZSAG Members Show NZ Glass, Masterworks, Auckland Absolut Invitational Exhibition NZ Glass, Masterworks, Auckland NZ Glass, Masterworks, Auckland

AWARDS 2012 2011 2010 2008 2007

Creative New Zealand New Work Funding Selected New Zealand Artist, New Glass Review, Corning Museum of Glass Selected Artist Wallace Art Award, Auckland Selected New Zealand artist, Talente 2010, Munich, Germany Creative New Zealand, New Work Funding Finalist in Ranamok Prize for Contemporary Glass

COLLECTIONS The Dowse Art Museum Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Waikato Museum University of Waikato Represented in private collections in New Zealand, Australia and America

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2008

Trezise, Joanna, Pango: Mike Crawford, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, 2008

Mike Crawford 2013 CV P a g e |2

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz