TUI HOBSON’S POP-UP EXHIBITION

Local Grey Lynn artist Tui Hobson returns with a pop-up exhibition at 80 Mackelvie Street, Ponsonby, in the shop space recently occupied by The Poi Room. The exhibition runs from 1 August - 20 August, 11am to 7pm daily. All works will be for sale.

The exhibition will feature new works including swamp kauri bench seats inspired by the vaka or early canoes that travelled from Rarotonga to Aotearoa. Themes of migration are also evident in her Pacific oars and abstract forms inspired by the islands of Polynesia.

Tui Hobson has worked as a sculptor and carver for the last 30 years. Her work reflects her Cook Island and European heritage.

Art has always featured strongly in Tui’s life. Her Pakeha father was a sculptor and cabinet maker and her Rarotongan mother was a weaver and fabric designer. The inspiration from her Rarotongan heritage is clearly reflected in Tui’s work. Tui has huge admiration for her grandmother who was a designer and sewer of tīvaevae.

Tui’s carvings range from small works to large outdoor sculptures made from recycled native timber, hard wood, stone, bronze and cast glass.

This exhibition is a chance for Tui to showcase her indoor pieces as it has been her large-scale public works for which she is most well known – works such as: www.tuihobson.com

Talking Pole, ‘Pacific Memories’, in Tokoroa.

‘Kava Chair’, Kells Park Albany.

‘Reclining Form’, which sits near the Akoranga bus station on Auckland’s North Shore.

· ‘Vaka to the Stars’, Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum Taiwan.

· Carved poles for a fale at Mangere Bridge Primary school.

· Most recently, she travelled to Northern France where she designed and carved four seats for New Zealand’s Rangimarie commemorative garden at Le Quesnoy. The Xanthe White designed garden celebrates the heroism of New Zealand soldiers In World War One.

Following the Mackelvie Street pop-up exhibition, Tui will exhibit a collection of carved totems from 7 until 11 September at the 2023 Home Show at the ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane. These are larger outdoor works and are made from recycled timber.

1st Aug – 20th Aug

Pop Up Gallery, 80 Mackelvie St, Ponsonby, Auckland 11am – 7pm daily

Opening Wednesday 2nd Aug, 5 – 7pm tuihobson.com

250 GALLERY IS A POP-UP GALLERY FEATURING THE WORKS OF TINA FRANTZEN

Tina has successfully exhibited at Railway Street Gallery for several years and continues to do so as a member of the gallery’s collective.

Her works are in several private art collections including that of the Arts House Trust. 250 Gallery represents the opportunity to show a retrospective of all of her works.

Her works are varied and include paintings, photography, abstract works and books of her paintings and photography.

The exhibition this month, titled 'The Ley Lines of Home Revisited', show Tina’s photographs catching fleeting moments of light and place. She records these varying ephemeral moments on her phone camera and in the poems that form in her mind as she walks the beaches and the maunga – the ley lines of her home in Devonport.

Tina Frantzen’s photographs show a whole new side to her talent. Light and shade have always been a feature in her work, and in her black and white photographs these aspects play a crucial role. Light reflects off water, sun shines through trees, figures are silhouetted, resulting in dynamic and arresting compositions.

Frantzen uses a phone camera, enabling her to catch fleeting moments that strike her on her regular walks. A dog leaps, a tot toddles along a hilltop, someone stands in exactly the right spot to balance a composition.

This is a show that no art lover should miss – Warwick Brown, November 2020.

In wanting to make her gallery a community friendly space, Tina has offered it as a venue for Auckland Playback Theatre group which performs monthly on a Friday night at 7pm. Check the notice in the window or the facebook page (Auckland Playback Theatre), gold coin koha.

Tina has also been conducting fun art sessions on the second Wednesday of every month.

For more details about these, please contact Tina: tinafrantzen@gmail.com