Major Exhibitions 2007

Likeness and Character

27 October 2007 - 20 April 2008

Auckland Art Gallery

Notes from www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz
Portraits customarily communicate two attributes about people - they depict what a person looks like or exposes who they are. This collection-based exhibition reveals how New Zealand artists observe individuals and transform them into the subject of their work. For these artists, figurative representation is a means in which portraiture can express both human likeness and personal character.
In New Zealand, portraiture is sometimes overlooked although it is one of our more substantial art traditions. During the 19^th and early 20^th centuries some of our most important portraits were made of Maori people. During the first half of the 20^th century, the public's interest in the practice of portraiture made it a stylish choice for artists. After World War II sculptural portraits became a noticeable presence in our society, as did the practice of artistic photography.
An interest in portraiture has always been widespread throughout New Zealand. The breadth of this visual tradition has always been expansive. While it might record public figures and celebrities it has focussed more on the exploration of human nature. A key reason for collecting such figurative images is their ability to enlighten us about New Zealand's artists and the people who have fascinated them.
Ron Brownson
Senior Curator New Zealand and Pacific Art
Chartwell Works in the exhibition include:
Tom Kreisler
Self Portrait as Jug
enamel jug, 2000

Peter Peryer
The Baby
inkjet print, 2003

Yvonne Todd
Limpet
lightjet print on archival photographic paper, 2005

Francis Upritchard
Untitled 1
fibreglass, resin, fake hair and dental teeth, 2002-2003

Making Worlds

3 November 2007 - 21 January 2008

Auckland Art Gallery

www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz

An exhibition for families, which looks at how artists invent worlds through the transformation of the ordinary into the fantastical.

Works from the Chartwell Collection in the exhibition:

Eugene Carchesio

Works from the Museum of Silence (Dept. of 100 poems)

detail

1988-1994, matchboxes, paper and cardboard

W D Hammond ( Bill)

W D (Bill) Hammond

Channel Zero

1988, acrylic and varnish on canvas

Ronnie van Hout

Ronnie Van Hout

detail from "I'm Not Here" Installation

1999, fibreglass, camera and monitor

Ronnie Van Hout

Taranaki

1992, framed colour photograph

Tony de Lautour

Tony de Lautour

Plus

2004, acrylic on paper

Robert Ellis

Rakaumangamanga ( 21 Oketopa 1984)

1984, oil on canvas

Paul Cullen

Science (pool complex)

1994 -1995, metal, wood, and plaster

Jim Speers

The Cup

2000, vinyl, acrylic and flourescent light

Bill Hammond

Jingle Jangle Morning

20 July - 22 October 2007

Christchurch Art Gallery

www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz

An exhibition spanning two decades of Hammond's work. It is a touring exhibition.

Works from the Chartwell Collection in the exhibition:

Passover

1989, acrylic and varnish on aluminium

Bill Hammond
Rest Area Limbo Ledge

2002, acrylic on board

Bill Hammond
Whistlers Mothers

2000, pencil, ink, acrylic

Julian Dashper

To the Unknown New Zealander

Christchurch Art Gallery

10 August to 14 October 2007

Exhibition Poster PDF file click here.

Works from the Chartwell Collection in the exhibition:

The Big Bang Theory

The Hoteres

1992, enamel on drumhead, drumkit

and

The Drivers, The Colin McCahons, The Woollastons, The Anguses

1992, enamel on drumheads, drumkits

The Drivers

1992, unique silver gelatin print

and

The Hoteres, The Colin McCahons, The Woollastons, The Anguses

1992, unique silver gelatin prints

Love Chief

Auckland Art Gallery, April 2007

Press Release April 2007

Love Chief, a new exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery, plays with the idea of personality in art. Drawing on seminal Pop Art works from the gallery’s collection, curator Natasha Conland explores the comic tension between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.“Thirty years after artists like Andy Warhol blurred those lines, the art world continues to expand on some of the lessons of the Pop Art era,” she says.

Renowned international artists including Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein and William Wegman (USA), Martin Creed (UK), Mikala Dwyer and Louise Weaver (Australia) are featured.

The title of this free exhibition is taken from a painting by the celebrated LA-based artist Ed Ruscha, who represented the United States at the last Venice Biennale. Love Chief, acquired as a result of Ruscha’s 1989 exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery, remains one of the prized assets of the gallery’s contemporary collection. Ruscha uses his advertising agency experience and love of mass media culture to make fine art. He brings the banal to centre stage, transfusing it with poetic melancholy. In the film L.A. Stories, Steve Martin's character has an urban epiphany when an illuminated highway sign speaks to him about his destiny. The irony and euphoria of his story are at one with the spirit of Love Chief.

Conland says the exhibition plays with the idea of the personality of art. “This illusive character may not be represented literally, but by the work’s intrigue and allure,” she says. “This exhibition asks how we can translate art in our own terms, in the same way we ascertain people’s personalities through our own tools of perception.”

“Ultimately, you the viewer determine the character of this exhibition, in the same way you might gravitate towards a stranger you would like to get to know.”

www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz

Works from the Chartwell Collection in Love Chief include:

Martin Creed

Work no. 312 a lamp going on and off

2003

electrical component

Rosalie Gascoigne

Foreign Affairs

1994

sawn wood on craftwood

Rosalie Gascoigne

Web

1994
sawn wood on craftwood

Rosalie Gascoigne
Piece Work

1994

sawn wood on craftwood

Kathy Temin

Kathy Temin, Dream Home, 1996

Dream Home

1996

wood, enamel, fur, plastic

Shared Home

1996

wood, enamel

Budget Home

1996

wood, enamel, acrylic

Home

1996

wood, enamel, fur

Ideal Home

1996

wood, enamel

Louise Weaver

Yellow

1997

angora

Louise Weaver

New Romantic ( Golden Hare)

2000

hand crocheted rayon thread over high density foam, gold coloured plastic

The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art / APT

QAG and GOMA, Brisbane, Australia

Until July 2007

www.asiapacifictriennial.com

Works from the Chartwell Collection in the APT include:

Michael Parekowhai

Kiss the Baby Goodbye

1994

powder coated steel

Summer Daze

Auckland Art Gallery

2 December - 11 February 2007

Summer Daze takes on the cosmos, the great outdoors and the joy of recreation. The exhibition reconsiders global and local experience, away from deadlines, the wired-world of PlayStation, Xbox games and reality television. Life-styles, new attitudes and a timeless fascination for ways to create art are referenced through a range of experiential art works.

More at home in a paddock or parked at the crest of a hill, a stalwart of New Zealand farming culture - a red Massey Harris Pony tractor - celebrates rural life. Flying bugs, a crushed iron stump-like sculpture, a larger-than-life bull, the sound of barking farm dogs and nervous sheep, provide an open doorway to 'life down on the farm'.

We wait all year for summer. Swimming rituals, going on holiday, family entertainment and play, all connect to how well we know the environment and each other. Holiday activities add to a sense of wonder of our unique place, a fascination for nature, and our enchantment with summer's culture.

Works from the Chartwell Collection included in the exhibition:

Davida Allen, Anna Josephine And Self, 1985, oil on canvas