Group Show: Yvonne Abercrombie, Georgia Arnold, Rea Burton, Rhea Maheshwari, Aleksandra Petrovic, Danae Ripley
Installation view of Conditioner, 2020.
'Conditioner is a view of contemporary practice by six emergent female artists, working in painting, drawing and installation. These artists explore what is intrinsically personal, pertinent concerns or notions of oneself. Their paintings are dualistic, with a view inward to oneself and out to the world beyond. Such relationships are realised in studio practice – the act of painting is essentially solitary while formed by experience and the social sphere.'
Untitled, 2019. Aluminium open sand cast.
'The paintings in Conditioner act as a provocation, eliciting further enquiry from the viewer. These works may show possibilities of imagination during the instability of our current time. Or, they can also allude to our present-day condition as critique. Common in the exhibition is the figure in the medium of painting. The figurative motif is an identifier encompassing broader concerns. It is also a harkening to the art-historical, specifically the long history of painting.
This group show leads on from Jacqueline Fahey’s exhibition Suburbanites (curated by The New Zealand Portrait Gallery Te Pūkenga Whakaata), the immediate prior exhibition at the Wallace Arts Centre. A thread is drawn attributing Fahey’s influence. The call of the painted figure in her work elicits an intimate response by these artists.'
Curated by Nicholas Butler and Michael Prosee, with co-curator Reece King.
Installation view of Conditioner, 2020. [Left to right: Backbend, 2019. Draft, 2020. Happy Birthday for Yesterday, 2019.]
Inverse Oasis, 2020. House paint, pastel, oil pastel, coloured paper, sandpaper on wood.
Large Mind Wandering Vessel, 2019. Stoneware.
Temple Moat, 2019. Stoneware.
Left to right: Untitled, 2019. Escape to the Early Morning, 2018. Studio Creatures, 2018.
Mini Mind Wandering Vessel, 2019. Stand/Sit Scene, 2019. Stoneware.