MARC BLAKE

MARC BLAKE

Together in a Sudden Strangeness

8 March - 2 April 2014

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown

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

Halcyon (2014) acrylic & colour pencil on board, panel: 801 x 960 x 49 mm

1

Koya-san (2014) acrylic & colour pencil on board, panel: 801 x 961 x 49 mm

2

Sovereign (2014) acrylic & colour pencil on board, panel: 1200 x 1398 x 49 mm

3

State of Origin (2013) diptych; acrylic & colour pencil on board, overall size: 1997 x 2410 x 49 mm

4

Bashi (2014) acrylic & colour pencil on board, panel: 480 x 400 x 44 mm

5

Hemispheres (2014) acrylic on board, panel: 480 x 400 x 44 mm

6

Wood Friends (2014) acrylic & colour pencil on board, panel: 480 x 400 x 44 mm

7

Night Fishing in Haeundae (2014) acrylic on board, panel: 480 x 400 x 44 mm

8

The landscapes created by Marc Blake in Together in a Sudden Strangeness are suggestions of place rather than definitive records. His delicately applied colour and subtle outlines have a dreamlike quality, and the other-world he has created already seems to be melting away.

Blake’s landscapes may be considered in light of 19th century Romanticism, suggesting as they do an ineffable beauty, the transitory nature of which evokes feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. The dappled light and falling blossoms of State of Origin reveal a single moment that has already passed, leaving the viewer yearning for something inexpressible. The soft tones that light up Blake’s forest glades and slices of life are the colours of reminiscence: the ‘golden summer’. Blake deliberately leaves his figures undefined and creates emptiness in the centre of his works, and these gestures act as invitations for the viewer to place themselves in the work and to experience for themselves the instant he has captured.

Working on his preferred medium of plywood, Blake does not hide the whorls of the grain; previously he has incorporated these lines into the topography of his landscapes, while here they float just underneath the translucent applications of colour. This visibility of the underlying medium reinforces the illusory nature of the painted scene, an illusion further enhanced by the physical indentations Blake uses as a means of transferring images. The outlines of trees, shadows and figures become part of the ply, dissolving any boundary between surface and image, and revealing the hand of the artist.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

Halcyon (2014)

4,000

2

Koya-san (2014)

4,000

3

Sovereign (2013)

6,000

4

State of Origin (2013)

5

Bashi (2014)

1,500

6

Hemispheres (2014)

1,500

7

Wood Friends (2014)

1,500

8

Night Fishing in Haeundae (2014)

1,500

12,500

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

MARC BLAKE b. 1974, lives Auckland

Future Fund (2011)

“I seek to create paintings that contemplate notions of time, space, experience and the interconnectivity of things.”(1) Found images and photographs are used by Marc Blake to create dream-like landscapes where time and place are undefined. They suggest hazy, half-remembered instances, this feeling enhanced by the luminous, transparent surface, produced by careful layering of glaze and pigment.

In a world that displays ever more connectivity but, paradoxically, ever more disconnection, Blake examines ideas of isolation within a multitude, the transitory nature of the moment, and the uncertainty of the future.

Marc Blake was born in Auckland where he lived and studied gaining a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Auckland. After time spent in Japan, Sydney and South Korea, Blake has now returned to New Zealand. A regular exhibitor since 2002, he has participated in solo and group exhibitions at private galleries and public institutions including the Kyoto Cultural Museum, BankART Yokohama, and the Auckland Art Gallery.

A multiple finalist in the Wallace Trust Awards since 2008, Blake’s entry, Future Fund, in 2011was selected to be part of the Wallace Trust exhibition that travelled to the Dowse Art Museum in Wellington. Blake has also been selected for continued addition to the Wallace Arts Trust collection in order to provide a ‘diary’ of his practice within the collection and to create a collector’s record of his oeuvre.

Blake’s works are held in the Wallace Trust Collection as well as in private collections throughout New Zealand and abroad.

1.

Marc Blake, Artist’s Statement, 2012

Marc Blake 2014 CV P a g e |1

milford

galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MARC BLAKE b. 1974, lives Auckland EDUCATION Bachelor of Arts (English Literature), University of Auckland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 2013 2012 2011 2008 2007 2006 2000

Together in a Sudden Strangeness, milford galleries Queenstown The Powers That Be, Dacre St Studios, Auckland Relativity, Milford Galleries Dunedin Analogue, Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney, Australia Status Update, Milford Galleries Dunedin Nothing Like This, Backspace, Christchurch Condensed History, Aveia Gallery, Auckland Where It All Begins, Backspace Gallery, Christchurch Watergarden, Arts Council Koganecho, Yokohama, Japan New Paintings, EON, Auckland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 2013

2012

2011

2010

2008

2007

2006 2005

L’Estrange Gallery, Christchurch Small Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Artmonth Sydney - Collaboration with traditional Japanese Tattoo artist Horimyo, Pop Tarts, Sydney, Australia Recent Acquisitions, Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland L’Estrange Gallery, Christchurch Michael Reid Gallery, Sydney, Australia Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Summer Show, Milford Galleries Dunedin Container Art, Public Installation, Christchurch Scott Livesey Galleries, Melbourne, Australia Recent Acquisitions, Wallace Arts Centre, Auckland The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin Wallace Art Awards, Auckland The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt Summer Show, Milford Galleries Dunedin Introducing Marc Blake and Tim Thatcher, Milford Galleries Dunedin Wallace Art Awards, Auckland Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne, Australia Wallace Art Awards, Auckland New Zealand Painting & Printmaking Award, Auckland Anthony Harper Award for Contemporary Art, Christchurch New Zealand Fashion Week, Auckland Off The Wall Project, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland Light and Dark, Satellite Gallery, Auckland Backspace, Wellington, New Zealand In the Midst (with Jos Wheeler) (independent), Auckland 3rd Annual Amuse Artjam, Kyoto Cultural Museum, Kyoto, Japan FIVE (with Ko Masuda), BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama, Japan

AWARDS 2013 2011

Finalist, Wallace Art Awards Finalist, Parkin Drawing Prize Finalist, Wallace Art Awards

Marc Blake 2014 CV P a g e |2

milford

galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

2010 2008

2005

Finalist, Wallace Art Awards Finalist, New Zealand Painting & Printmaking Award Finalist, Anthony Harper Award for Contemporary Art Finalist, Wallace Art Awards Two month studio residency & exhibition, BankART NYK, Yokohama, Japan Finalist, 3Rd Annual Amuse Inc. Artjam, Kyoto Cultural Museum, Kyoto, Japan

COLLECTIONS The Wallace Arts Trust (Currently eight works in collection – selected as a “diary” artist for ongoing career collection) Private collections within New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Korea, USA and the UK

State of Origin (2013)

Marc Blake 2014 CV P a g e |3

milford

galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz