Crème: an exhibition of new art by New Zealand’s senior and esteemed practitioners AT GALLERY THIRTY THREE

Don Binney

Paul Dibble

Don Driver

Ian Scott

Sylvia Siddell

Michael Smither

Grahame Sydney

Glenda Randerson

16 January - 9 February 2009

Preview: Friday 16th January at 5pm

We welcome you to attend.

Crème follows Gallery Thirty Three’s annual tradition of drawing together superlative new works by some of New Zealand’s senior and esteemed practitioners. An amalgam of styles, mediums, techniques and themes, this exhibition showcases works by Don Binney, Paul Dibble, Don Driver, Ian Scott, Sylvia Siddell, Michael Smither, Grahame Sydney & Glenda Randerson. The artists included have over the decades created substantial bodies of work and as such are inextricably linked with the growth of New Zealand’s rich art historical tapestry. In their own way, each has made a significant contribution to contemporary New Zealand art and as such they are widely acknowledged as the crème de la crème. In New Zealand's public gallery context, these artist's works are often treated like 'the good china', brought out on display for special occasions and then carefully wrapped back in the cupboard. All are still practicing and as such it is a rare occasion to view new works by so many artists of stature in the one location; the underlying emphasis that unites this exhibition is the opportunity to celebrate their ongoing achievements.

For further images and information on artists please visit their individual artist pages (these can be entered directly via the hyperlinks provided).

Don Binney's paintings and drawings of birds and landforms have become a distinctive and iconic pictorial language unique to the artist. The flattened simplification of forms, hightened colour, hard edged deliniation and rhythmic curves of Binney’s paintings are unmistakeable. Within Whangaparaoa Passage, Eastward, for instance, the artist uses an unusual diamond shaped composition depicting two Gannets gliding effortlessly across the sea toward Tiritiri Matangi Island. There is a subtle strength in Binney's oilstick and acrylic works, the thick outlined landforms create a dominant band across vast stretches of sky and sea. The stylised lapping waves, contours of landforms and melow pallette in several of his Manukau Bar drawings are delicately difused by the use of colour pencil on thick textured paper.

In March 2008 Binney made the boat trip across the Manukau Harbour bar for the first time. His Crossing the Bar series document this journey. Binney has long been interested in maritime themes and was particularly drawn to the Manukau Bar as the historical site of many a treacherous ship wreck. Binney passed over the site of the worst shipwreck in New Zealand history, the sinking of the HMS Orpheus in 1863, occured over this stretch of water, taking the life of 189 British soldiers on route to the Waikato land wars.

Manukau Bar: Approach (2008)

Colour pencil on arches 300gsm, image size 150x250mm

Manukau Bar: Crossing (2008)

Colour pencil on arches 300gsm, image size 260x380mm

Manukau Bar: Destination (2008)

Colour pencil on arches 300gsm, image size 148x210mm

Paul Dibble has an established reputation as one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary figurative sculptors. His cast bronze works range in size from small marquettes to substantial sculptures spanning over 5.5 metres in height. Dibble draws on a range of subject matter including objects taken from both New Zealand’s present and past, the human form and the Pacific. With adept skill Dibble shapes, pares and fragments his sculptures to create a fluid, weightless appearance. He provides a partial narrative; a suggestive curve, a band of negative space or an outstretched limb evoking a particular notion, mood or memory. Career high points for the artist include a key survey exhibition at the Manawatu Gallery in 2001 and in 2004 being awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit. In 2006 his commission of The New Zealand Hyde Park Corner Memorial in London was unveiled and in 2007 Dibble was presented with an Honorary Doctorate from Massey University, Palmerston North.

Dibble's Paradise series, explores the engaging narratives that underpin New Zealand's cultural heritage. The fish of Maui is playfully utilised as a central motif by the artist to articulate the myths and legends constructed about our own little slice of paradise. Each fish head is engraved with Maui's name, it thrusts to the surface peices of land portraying picturesque or idealised imagery of New Zealand. Dibble places a colonial church and lone cabbage tree atop their little claimed island, emblems of New Zealand's time honoured rural townships. His abandoned boat, with an oar carelessley leaning within the hull, represents the leisurely and idylic nature of summer pursuits. (1) The fine detail, contrasting architectural structures and fluid lines of the fish, as well as the golden patina of Dibble's bronze, add to the subtle yet dramatic beauty of his sculptures.

Assemblage art situates itself between the realms of sculpture and collage. The origin of assemblage art is often traced back to Picasso’s cubist Guitar work of 1912 which was constructed from sheet metal and wire.

Don Driver is New Zealand’s master of assemblage art who has challenged and stimulated audiences for much of the latter half of last century. His three dimensional compositions, made from various found and discarded objects are magically transformed into lyrical and aesthetically pleasing art works. Driver’s assemblages characteristically explore new ways to represent an object. He rearranges and fragments the pictorial space into a harmonic rhythm of shape and colour.

Two wall hangings, Wash Away Residue and Green Island display Driver's unequivocall skill in arranging symphonic compositions of shape, colour and texture. Deceptively simple, Driver subtly snakes a peice of green cord across the composition or layers materials folding down a corner of red to create one of his imphamous pocket works. Always dynamic, Driver's wall hangings are a sophisticated narrative of containment and liberation.

Ian Scott painted his first Lattice series in 1976, and prior to this, had practiced in a representational and figurative manner, his anti-establishment approach saw him depicting self-assured landscapes and barely clad nubile woman that sought to challenge the viewers perception of current art practices.

Part of the modernist movement in New Zealand art during the 1970's, Scott was a leading force behind abstraction, seeking a painterly language that did not rely on figurative or literal meaning. Scott's Lattice series are perhaps his most significant and enduring and contribution to the development of New Zealand art. Over the following decades, Scott has expanded on the Lattice form as a means of painterly expression. The hard edged geometric abstraction of Ian Scott's Lattice series focuses on the intense interface between colour, line and form within a grid formation. Like an assault of licorice allsorts, flat bands of hightened colour, interwoven with black and white, play optical illusions, the eye is forced to stop and start as it tries to read the length or width of each strip. Of his technique the artist reveals, 'I lay down the bands with masking tape, shifting the width intuitively until it feels right.' He explains 'I paint the colours directly, I never over paint or alter them if something is wrong with the colour or paint thickness or proportion I destroy the work and start again.' (2)

Through a lively treatment of paint, long-established artist Sylvia Siddell achieves an extraorinary animation of everyday or domestic objects. Couches, stoves, fish, fruit and vacuum cleaners have in previous series been provided with a sense of verve and elevated status rarely bestowed upon such humble subject-matter. Siddell's Dawn and Summer Breeze are a continuation of her exploration into domestic scenes which allude to the personal and often private drama's of life. More serene and introspective than some of her previous paintings, they focus on the strength and fragility of the singular Grecian vase. The eye vainly attempts to see beyond the folds of gossamer curtain to look for life beyond the sill. Siddell's rich, warm yet gentle hues and simple composition speak of vulnerability, vigor and beauty, an expression of the human condition.

Renowned figurative and landscape painter Michael Smither owns a keen sense of observation. Known for his hard edged style often encompassing an environmental and personal content, Smither's subject-matter over the years has included scenes of the coast and mountains, his family and domestic surroundings.

Spending a great deal of his life in the Taranaki area, Smither paints what is famliar. The boulders, rock pools and coastline as well as Mt Taranaki have become recognisable features of the artist's ouvre. With an interest in marine biology, Smither began his first rock pool painting in 1964 and the strength of this subject-matter has remained throughout his long career. Smither manages to instill meaning and value to objects, sharing his unique vantage point with the viewer. Lava Flow Cave & Rock Pool achieves a tangible sense of swimming through a foreign undersea world, the purple and blue nodular walls provide a real sense of depth while the central pale blue pool or cavernous gap provoke the viewers imagination.

Celebrated painter, photographer and printmaker Grahame Sydney is for the greater part, known for his powerful depictions of the Central Otago landscape. In 2003 Sydney was awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, (ONZM) for services to painting. For almost 30 years Sydney's paintings have been inspirational with their ability to evoke a sense of wonder and kinship. His works are highly sought after as well as being held in the collections of New Zealand's major galleries, including Te Papa's national collection.

Like his approach to all mediums, Sydney's etchings are highly executed with a keen attention to detail. There is a moody, faintly sinister silence to the works which sets one ill at ease. 'Night Station', Sydney explains, 'is based on a petrol station in the Cook Islands. This night image shows the wonderful, rich dark tones that only stone lithography can produce. It's a two colour drawing and seeks to convey an eeriness and unease, sometimes felt when you're alone at night.' The artist goes on to describe Fog at Kane's Pond as 'a four colour, subtle, rather minimal work. The winter fog blanketing the pond near my home. This is an atmospheric, quiet work, unlike previous Sydney lithos - a new exploration of what lithography can be.' (3)

Working as a realist painter since 1975, Glenda Randerson continues to explore formal qualities of oil painting techniques and the narrative of the object. Like Frizzell, Randerson venerates routine objects from our daily life; ‘Still life can be used as a vehicle to stimulate memory and an emotional response. I am interested in the timelessness of the everyday object, using simple forms which have endured through the centuries: the bowl, the jug, plates, linen cloth, a wooden table. The act of painting removes them from the mundane into another sphere: an object, ordinary and valueless becomes something curious and precious.’ (2)

Randerson’s painting occupies the ground between traditional and contemporary representational art. Like Smither, Randerson pushes the boundaries, heightening the realism of the scene by simplifying forms and treating all parts of the painting with equal weighting. Randerson works with century old and laborious techniques of glazing with transparent oil on a traditional gesso ground. There is a further echo in the high labour intensiveness of earlier times and the associations of this with women, and women’s daily labour routines, symbolised in still lifes depicting household items such as linen, enamel cups and bowls.

(2) Ian Scott, 'Ian Scott Talks About His Lattice Series', Art New Zealand, No 13, 1979, p.34.