MICHAEL HIGHT

MICHAEL HIGHT New Works

22 Nov - 17 Dec 2014

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

Haldon Station (2013) oil on linen, stretcher: 1050 x 2350 x 35 mm

1

Nevis Bluff (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 763 x 1220 x 34 mm

2

Towards Erewhon (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1674 x 32 mm

3

Lake Aviemore (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 710 x 1825 x 32 mm

4

Mt Hutt Station (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 1065 x 1522 x 34 mm

5

Ngauruhoe (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 1015 x 1522 x 32 mm

6

Fighting Hill: Rakaia Gorge (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1675 x 32 mm

7

Chard Road (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 762 x 1218 x 34 mm

8

Macraes Road (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 762 x 1523 x 32 mm

9

Hector Mountains (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1522 x 34 mm

10

Ruahine (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 557 x 760 x 35 mm

11

Gore Bay (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 557 x 760 x 35 mm

12

Michael Hight has achieved with his beehive series of paintings something that is profoundly momentous – he has deeply informed and changed the way New Zealanders look at their landscape. He has revealed that beehives are everywhere and in that process shown us how to read the associated landscape in its details, while building powerful visual metaphors of contrast, industry, the on-going seasons and how we then use (and misuse) our environments.

Mt Hutt Station (2014) is a compositionally ambitious, brilliantly delivered painting composed of repeated sharp lines and geometric elements. We are shown parts of atrest rusting buckets and the extended arms of machinery, stacked suspension springs, portions of seemingly abandoned equipment or unused vehicles. The buckets dominate almost three-quarters of the foreground, with the shed angling back and narrowing away. Weeds and grass heads appear in massed profusion, rendered with remarkable, individual attention. Our eyes then become drawn to the beehive stacks – some clearly seen, others somewhat obscured – that divide the painting horizontally. There is another horizontal element of weeds just behind the hives and then much further back again a dense line of trees. Is that a native remnant or a plantation, awaiting harvest for the farmer’s superannuation? Above, in the barren alpine background, Mt Hutt skifield slowly declares itself.

Haldon Station (2013) is a tour de force. Hight’s mastery of light and dark, his understanding of the fluctuations between these as they occur out in the landscape, animate this wonderful work in both subtle and very dramatic ways. The beehives are slightly forward of the eucalypts, sitting out so as to be kissed by side light in stark and exhilarating contrast to the contained, protective spaces under the trees. Behind this, our eyes cross a farm paddock to a soft tube-like formation of fecund willow trees that travel from edge to edge. These further the key role of contrast with that of the barren, screeshingle, snow-smattered alps sitting back behind.

Ngauruhoe (2014) and Fighting Hill: Rakaia Gorge (2014), although significantly different works, both structurally and geographically, are united in the fundamental role performed by snow. We see landscapes transformed, witness the stunning, revelatory clarity of all that.

In Towards Erewhon (2014) and Lake Aviemore (2014) the shadows present lead the eye about. Distance, absence and the inexorable progress of time become subjects.

Chard Road (2014) and Nevis Bluff (2014) are geographically linked. The beehives locate the environment but it is the schist rock landscape protruding into the sky which becomes the dominant narrative.

Hight’s virtuoso, authoritative accuracy is likewise revealed again in Macraes Road (2014) where a small suite of hives is tucked into the Maniototo rock face.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Haldon Station (2013)

37,500

2

Nevis Bluff (2014)

15,000

3

Towards Erewhon (2014)

21,000

4

Lake Aviemore (2014)

21,000

5

Mt Hutt Station (2014)

26,000

6

Ngauruhoe (2014)

26,000

7

Fighting Hill: Rakaia Gorge (2014)

21,000

8

Chard Road (2014)

15,000

9

Macraes Road (2014)

17,500

10

Hector Mountains (2014)

17,500

11

Ruahine (2014)

7,500

12

Gore Bay (2014)

7,500

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

MICHAEL HIGHT b. 1961, lives Auckland

Lake Wakatipu (2010)

Michael Hight is a painter, sculptor and assembler, working with paint, canvas, tin, wood and found objects. He is most well-known for his observations of the ubiquitous beehive and their individual locales.

These works contain all the particularities of location – geography, vegetation, weather. More than that they convey the idiosyncratic qualities of ownership and use and allude to a wider consideration of “place”.

His works “gain their intensity from attention to the minutest detail.” The beehives stand in contrast to the surrounds, providing the “elegiac lyricism” of juxtaposition. "His virtuoso skills of representation of the highest order and achieves heights of mood” and the undeniable specifics of place “that go beyond just representation.” (1) “Generally, Hight’s beehive paintings have run parallel to other work – his interest in rivers as a starting point for abstraction, in repeating patterns and his preoccupation with found objects and four main materials: ash-charcoal, canvas, wood and resin…. Most of his work has a landscape motivation as a driving force and in the past he has used found materials from a particular place fused into an abstract representation of that place. The abstract works fulfil all his needs as a painter and the representational works are simply about being more frank with respect to source, or inspiration of the abstract pieces.”

(2) “The idea of transformation is embodied in what happens inside a beehive and as far as I am concerned, transformation is the key element in 20th Century art. Artists like Duchamp and Warhol have taken something that is not art and turned it into art, so in a way, these are pictures of art as well as rural spots…”(3) Born in Stratford, New Zealand, in 1961, Hight completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato in 1982. Between 1984-87 Hight travelled and spent time living and painting in London.

Returning to live in Auckland, he has regularly exhibited since 1984 and has been a full time artist since 2001. He has received several QEII grants and his work is held in many New Zealand collections including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, The Chartwell Collection and The James Wallace Trust.

1. TJ McNamara, 'Sense of Beauty in Decay', August 21, 2010, Weekend Herald 2. Adrienne Rewi, ‘Phantom beekeeper still buzzing over boxes’, Sunday Star Times, 7 November 1999.

3. Michael Hight in Rewi, ibid.

Michael Hight 2014 – CV & Bio P a g e |1

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MICHAEL HIGHT b. 1961, lives in Auckland EDUCATION 1980 - 82

University of Waikato (B.Soc.Sc)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010

2009 2008 2007 2006

2005 2004

2003 2002 2001 2000 1999

1998

1997 1996

1995

1992 1991 1990

New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Crossing the Line, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Recent Work, milford galleries queenstown Forty-nine Rivers, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Dreams of Children, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Recent Work, Milford Galleries Dunedin Reliquary, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Wakatipu, milford galleries queenstown From Waimarino to Red Jacks, John Leech Gallery, Auckland The Road to Erewhon, Milford Galleries Dunedin Paintings, Judith Anderson Gallery, Napier Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Notes from the Waikato, Janne Land, Wellington Recent Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Manuherikia, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Recent Work, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Taieri, Milford Galleries Dunedin Recent Works, milford galleries queenstown Manuherikia, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Manawatu, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Wandering Eye, Milford Galleries Dunedin Recent Abstract Works, milford galleries queenstown Land of Milk and Honey, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Duologue, Milford Galleries Dunedin Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Recent Work, Milford Galleries Dunedin Recent Work, Judith Anderson Gallery, Hawkes Bay Jonathon Jensen Gallery, Christchurch Recent Work, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Recent Work, Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Recent Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Maungakaramea, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gazetteer, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Current Abstraction, Milford Galleries Dunedin City Gallery Wellington, Wellington Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Four Strong Winds, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Four Strong Winds, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington In Trust, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth Seven Rivers, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Heartland Trinkets, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

Michael Hight 2014 – CV & Bio P a g e |2

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1989 1988

1987 1986

Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Jonathan Jensen Gallery, Christchurch 3/3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Falcon Gallery, London The Foyer Gallery, Hampstead, London

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012

2011 2010 2009 2008

2007 2006 2005

2004 2001 1999 1998 1997

1996 1995 1993 1992 1991

The Review, milford galleries queenstown Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Hight / Frazer / Hunt, milford galleries queenstown New Year, New Works, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Parallel, Milford Galleries Dunedin Gems, milford galleries queenstown Small Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Frieze, Gow Langford Gallery, Auckland Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown Masterworks, milford galleries queenstown Drawings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Taranaki Gate, Percy Thompson Gallery, Stratford Te Turinga: Turning Point, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington Location South, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Southern Landscape, Milford Galleries Dunedin Landscape Show, Lopdell House, Waitakere The North Western Line, Corban Estate Art Centre, Auckland Recent Landscapes, Milford Galleries Dunedin Wild Season, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington Crossed Out, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Recent Acquisitions: Chartwell Collection Auckland Art Gallery City Gallery Wellington, Wellington The Northern Line, Corban Estate Art Centre Abstraction & Still Life, Milford Galleries Dunedin Is as Landscape as Metaphor, Milford Galleries Dunedin Found Objects, Outreach, Auckland Gift of The Artist, Artspace, Auckland Pacific Traces, 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Big Pictures Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Outcrop, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth

AWARDS 2000 1999 1997 1989 1989 1988

Finalist Visa and Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation Visa & Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation, Auckland Finalist Visa Gold Award, Auckland City Gallery & City Gallery, Wellington QE11 Art Council Creative Projects Scheme QE11 Arts Council Grant QE11 Arts Council Direct Support Grant

COLLECTIONS ABN AMRO Collection Pukeiti Collection, New Plymouth Fletcher Trust Collection Colenso, Wellington Chartwell Collection Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Sky City Grand Hotel Collection Coopers & Lybrand Collection Michael Hight 2014 – CV & Bio P a g e |3

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

James Wallace Trust Private Collections in Germany, UK, Australia and U.S.A

SELECTED ARTICLES 2004 2004 2002 1999 1996 1995/96 1995 1994

Knox, Elizabeth, Wandering Eye, catalogue, Milford Gallery (attached) O’Brien, Gregory, Land of Milk and Honey, catalogue, John Leech Gallery Green, Paula, Omarama, Place of Light, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery (attached) Caughey, Elizabeth & John Gow, Contemporary New Zealand Art 2, David Bateman Ltd, Auckland, p 66 (attached) Green, Paula, Four Strong Winds, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (attached) Green, Paula, Walking in the World, Michael Hight’s Trust in Place, Art New Zealand No.77, Summer, p77-79 (attached) Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings by 100 New Zealand Artists, Godwit Publishing, Auckland, p36 Mannion, Robert, ‘Painting a Bright Future’, The Dominion, Saturday October 22

Speargrass Flat Road (2013)

Michael Hight 2014 – CV & Bio P a g e |4

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz