Martin Hill Simon Kaan Michel Tuffery Areta Wilkinson

29 April – 22 May 2009 Preview: Wednesday 29 at 5pm All artists will be in attendance We welcome you to come too!

Four artists renowned in their particular fields; Martin Hill, Simon Kaan, Michel Tuffery and Areta Wilkinson present a diverse exhibition encompassing painting, photography and jewellery. The artists are participating in Wanaka’s bi-annual Festival of Colour and while here, they will be working on the out door Powhenua Project. It made sense that, as Gallery Thirty Three already has an established relationship with three of the artists and the fourth was an outstanding local practitioner, we should provide an opportunity for these exceptional artists to showcase their talent within a gallery setting.

Listen online! Lynn Freeman interviews the artists: Arts on Sunday

For further artist information, images & price enquiries please contact Lydia Baxendell: lydia@gallery33.co.nz

Martin Hill (London, United Kingdom)

Internationally renowned environmental artist and photographer Martin Hill has established a reputation for his fleeting site specific sculptures. Hill’s art works make self-assured statements concerning sustainability and industrial ecology. They are a metaphoric expression of the interconnected disposition of each and every living system. Working with natural materials such as sticks, stones, sand and leaves he constructs circular forms to reflect nature’s cyclical patterns. Photography plays a crucial role in Hill’s practice. Capturing the transient and ephemeral sculpture, the image functions as an enduring witness long after the original object has departed.

Martin Hill resides in Wanaka with his partner Philippa Jones who contributes an integral support role to his art practice. In this exhibition Hill has chosen works to reflect his immediate environment of Wanaka.

Martin Hill is additionally a communications designer, his design work winning numerous awards. His photographs have been published in numerous forms and in 2007 the international publication Earth to Earth with a preface by Sir Edmond Hilary provided an overview of the artists practice.

Autumn Leaf Cycle Image size: 600x400mm photograph, edition of 25	Circle of Circles Image size: 600x400mm photograph, edition of 25

Synergy Image size: 600x400mm photograph, edition of 25	Sunrise Circle Image size: 600x400mm photograph, edition of 25

Simon Kaan (Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Irakehu, Kāti Mako ki Wairewa, Guangzau, Satu Village)

Simon Kaan paints of disconnection and re-connection, creating works with conscious tension and layered meaning. Utilising his characteristic sepia tones and horizontal lines, he depicts a mythological place of land, sea and sky. The surface is divided into enigmatic bands and divisions each building toward a meditative rhythm. It could be ocean swell lines, the horizon point between sea and sky or the grained surface of a bamboo rod. Like narrative points in a journey land masses emerge from the mist, moths hover, rainbows rise and waterfalls tumble. Each motif is painted and engraved into the surface in fine tattoo like ink and ochre lines, floating within the fragmented space.

The moth, rainbow and waterfall have emerged as significant new motifs within Kaan’s recent works. A web of fine black grooves akin to wood grain or the whorls of a finger imprint form the basis of this imagery. Articulating mortality and life cycles the moth represents transformation, rejuvenation and continuation, while the waterfall and rainbow construct a point of connection between the spirit world and that of the here and now. Additionally, Kaan’s rainbow alludes to Hotere’s Black Rainbow series produced after the 1985 sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.

Simon Kaan has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand in both public and dealer galleries. He has curated numerous exhibitions and completed commissions for the likes of the Department of Conservation. In 2007 with the support of Creative NZ and the Gate Gallery Residency Kaan was able to visit Beijing for the third time. He first travelled to China in 2003 - the first member of his family to visit China since his grandfather arrived in Port Chalmers in 1896.

For larger images and price information please click on the link to the artists home page: Simon Kaan

Untitled I (2009) oil and carving on board 1250x1630mm (fr)	Untitled I (2009) oil and carving on board 1250x870mm (fr)

Untitled III (2009) oil and carving on board 855x255mm (fr)	Untitled IV (2009) oil and carving on board 910x260mm (fr)	Untitled V (2009) oil and carving on board 910x260mm (fr)

Areta Wilkinson (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Irākehu)

Leading contemporary jeweller Areta Wilkinson produces intricate works in precious metals that effortlessly traverse between the realms of body adornment and sculptural installation. With exquisite detail Wilkinson develops upon her previous series which investigated issues of colonization and identity.

Wilkinson accesses display models of the past and rejuvenates them within a contemporary setting. In doing so, she elevates or alters our perception of objects presented in space. Ceremoniously presented on plush red pillows within an imposing Queen Anne china cabinet, Wilkinson’s Waka Huia showcases her fine workmanship and radiates importance. We are privileged to be part of Wilkinson’s recent and significant touring exhibition Waka Huia:

‘Waka Huia is a treasure box of collected stories, with wider cultural resonances, symbolised by adornments that will themselves generate further narratives. One of the most important roles of jewellery is to keep narratives and also to act as talismans through their representative power, and some might argue, magic. The stories of Waka Huia are not singular pronouncements, but complex and sometimes conflicting narratives that tell us more about ourselves through their retelling and representation.’ (1)

Areta Wilkinson has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand in both public and dealer galleries contributing to two of three Jewellery Biennial curated by the Dowse Art Museum. She has participated in exhibitions in Australia, Belgium and Scotland, her work is held in permanent collections of Te Papa Tongarewa and the Dowse Art Museum in New Zealand, as well as Cambridge University and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Britain. She one of 9 New Zealand artists participating in Turbulance the 3rd Auckland Triennial in 2007. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of Te Waka Toi / Creative New Zealand and The Arts Centre of Christchurch.

A stolen moment behind a cowboy hat can change everything (2008) (He wā huna kei muri i te pōtae kaupoi ka huri ngā mea katoa) Fine silver, stg silver, 18ct y gold, hair, leather, glue. ed of 5 amulet 70 x 60 x 15mm	He Taonga Rākai (2008) (personal treasures) Stg silver, sealing wax. ed of 5 talisman 100 x 25 x 20mm	Areta’s Ahi Kā (2008) Stg silver, lignum vitae wood, epoxy resin, 9ct y gold pin brooch 60 x 60 x 30mm

Tawai, Nothofagus menziesii, Silver beech (2008) Stg silver, 9ct y gold pin. ed of 5 brooch 75 x 90 x 17mm	He kōkōmuka te rākau i tunua ai te pouākai (2008) (The koromiko hebe is the wood that roasts the moa) 22ct y gold, koromiko wood, muka, epoxy resin, ed of 1 pendant 110 x 5 dia mm	I am telling you the things of old and smoking as I talk (2008) Ceramic, stg silver, 9ct y gold pin, epoxy resin. ed of 5 brooch 43 x 43 x 12mm	Silent Conversations (2008) stg silver, 9ct y gold pin. ed of 5 brooch 120 x 110 x 15mm

Michel Tuffery (Samoan, Rarotongan, Tahitian, Palagi (Pakeha/NZ European)

Michel Tuffery M.N.Z.M has won national and international art awards, public commissions and residencies for his work ranging across many disciplines from painting and printmaking to sculpture, installation, performance and digital technologies. His work explores ideas and stereotypes of the Pacific, colonisation and the ongoing effects of globalisation, all expressed with a mingling of the serious alongside the humorous.

Michel Tuffery’s new collection of work is inspired by nostalgia surrounding his childhood memories of the postage stamp. He recalls the memories of receiving packages from Taranaki bearing a collage of stamps. This nostalgia is heightened by the onset of the digital age and how this has directed a dimensional shift in how we communicate. Tuffery translates historical iconic stamps from around New Zealand into a more contemporary media using graph stencil and plays on the composition, colour and text to trigger our own visual memories. (2)

Tuffery is represented internationally and in national collections such as Te Papa Tongarewa and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

For further images and prices on this series, please click on the link to the artists home page: Michel Tuffery

Group installation image

Aotearoa 3 cent (2009) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm	Native Aotearoa 4 Cent - Puriri Moth (2009) (pounamu green) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm	New Aotearoa 1/2 Cent - Glad Loppen Butterfly (2009) (teal) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm

Nui Aotearoa 2 Cent - Tussock Moth (2009) (pounamu) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm	Native Aotearoa 4 Cent - Puriri Moth (2009) (natural) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm	Nui Aotearoa 3 cent - Lichen Moth (2009) (orange) mixed media – acrylic  and graph stencil on plywood ed of 10, 230 x 200mm

(1) Dr Deidre Brown, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, University of Auckland, Waka Huia catalogue, 2008.

(2) Michel Tuffery, Artist Statement, 2009

Catalogue essay by Lydia Baxendell 2009