gallery thirty three, wanaka, new zealand

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Previous Exhibitions

Metamorphosis

THREAD: Kate Fitz..

Incalmo: Katie Br..

What's Hot - New..

CERAMICS NOW!

A BEAUTIFUL PLACE

John Crawford - W..

CARS & TRUCKS & T..

With love - xoxox

The Stock Room

CHOP CHOP!

ALCHEMY: Kate Alt..

MIRANDA PARKES / ..

HEAD ON: Bing Daw..

HARVESTER OF EYES

Vegetable Sheep T..

THE REALMS BETWEEN

Martin Hill, Simo..

RUN RABBIT RUN

GLIDING LIGHT

Dick Frizzell & M..

CREME II

SUMMER HEAT

WITH AN OBJECT IN..

HYMNS TO LIGHT

ACROSS THE DIVIDE

NGAI TAHU 6

OTAGO OTAGO

RHYTHMICO - Crist..

FEATS OF CLAY

CREME

CONVERGENCE

FOREMAN, MILLER &..

OF THIS LAND

Christmas show

Ebb & Flow

Fields and Lines

FRESH - A group e..

Construction

Make Way: New Scu..

ABSTRACT³

OPEN SLATE

OVERLAP

TAHI RUA E TOLU

Kiwi Treasures

The Good Life: A ..

Wayne Seyb

Fired Earth: inno..

freshpaint

OPEN SLATE

MARYROSE CROOK

JAMES ORAM

ZINA SWANSON

29 June - 19 July, 2007

Open Slate, which comprises work by Maryrose Crook, James Oram and Zina Swanson gently tugs at a certain darkness and melancholic side of the psyche which has been a constant force throughout much New Zealand art across many genres. The paintings and drawings in this exhibition resist falling into an overwhelming ‘pit of despair’ by working with a visual language informed by the surreal laced with a touch of gothic sensibility. This allows a greater space for free interpretation and a degree of playfulness.

The surfaces of Maryrose Crook’s seven luminous oil canvases alternate between an inky blackness and flashes of brilliance as bright as the jewels depicted in some of them. Jewellery, insects pulling jewels, moths and other insects are oftentimes positioned next to motifs which reoccur in her work such as the pink and white terraces encased within a stylized comet, the kokako (bird) and Sophia Hinerangi who was a famous guide at the pink and white terraces. Such reoccurring motifs act as markers of meaning, coded signifiers which interact to tell a story, much in the same way that the lyrics of a song build to convey meaning or narrative.Central to this body of work is the theme of departure and blessings for this intended departure which can be discerned in such iconography as the all-seeing eye, sailing ships, disembodied hands and feet and aforementioned motifs such as the pink and white terraces which no longer exist and the kokako which has recently been declared extinct. Crook has exhibited throughout New Zealand and was the recipient of the prestigious Wallace Art Award in 2006. She is also a musician and has gained international recognition as a vital and founding member of the band, The Renderers.

Christchurch-based artist James Oram graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Canterbury University in 2003 and has exhibited in a number of galleries in Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington. Drawing constitutes an important part of his practice both as an independent discipline and as part of his sculpture/installation practice. Included in Open Slate are a number of drawings (ink on paper), two of which are framed with the remainder installed to form a loosely structured grid. The subject of his work is an individual, a male figure who is for the most part alone, struggling against forces beyond his control. One drawing depicts a small solitary figure in black holding a rope behind his back that is connected to a triangular shaped mountain made up of many smaller peaks with a storm cloud issuing forth lightening bolts at its summit, whilst another has two elongated arms reaching out from inside a cave as if clawing in vain hope for there to be something else out there.

Recent work by Christchurch-based artist Zina Swanson has included a lifeless tree with an elaborate feeding system consisting of glass tubing attached and a walk-in wooden strutted structure with rows of native stinging nettle which she nurtured each day by feeding and watering. With the natural world, in particular its flora, as her key subject there is the sense in both her installations, and her incredibly intricate drawings executed in tea and water colour, of a desire to reinvigorate the decaying and the dead. Her approach appears to exist somewhere between that of a botanist-healer, as perceived through an artist’s eyes.One drawing exhibited in Open Slate depicts a dead tree atop a minutely constructed shroud-like structure composed of dead root branches and functions both as an independent drawing and as a maquette for a potential installation piece.Swanson graduated from Canterbury University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) in 2003, has exhibited widely within New Zealand, and won the CoCA award in 2004.