DARRYN GEORGE

ANDRẾ HEMER

SEUNG YUL OH

20 July - 9 August

With the many styles and interpretations collected together under the rubric ‘abstract’, the label functions more as an umbrella term rather than a strict designation or movement, such is the plurality of contemporary art. Darryn George, André Hemer and Seung Yul Oh were selected as much for their different approaches, styles and processes as for any complementary threads or similarity, of which there are, nonetheless several. A pop art sensibility, characterised broadly by bright, bubbly colour and a lightness of touch, is discernible despite the black background of Oh’s work, and has been present in some of George’s earlier work, whilst both George and Hemer employ the use of digital software to experiment and sample, pushing their painting practice to the outermost limits. The results are exceptional and all three artists have garnered considerable critical attention and acclaim for their work.

Darryn George (Ngapuhi / Pakeha) is a mid-career artist based in Christchurch where he is currently the Head of Department, Art, at Christ’s College. His work appears to spring from his dual heritage and the influences of two different ideologies; Christian and Maoritanga, the latter relationship coming later in life. This dual identity and the search for entry points has been explored in several bodies of work using stylised symbols such as gates, doors and stairways, and continues in the two works included in this exhibition, Pukapuka 2 and Pukapuka 4. Pukapuka translates as books, learning or knowledge which is an essential aspect and function of any discovering or connecting process.
Stylistically George’s oeuvre can be described as geometric or hard edged abstraction where the emphasis is naturally focussed on line, shape, symmetry, pattern and colour relationships.
George has a BFA from Canterbury and an MFA from RMIT, Melbourne, and his work is present in key private, public and corporate art collections including the Chartwell Collection, The Wallace Trust Collection and the Christchurch City Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu collection.

André Hemer is a young Christchurch-based artist with an MFA from the University of Canterbury, where he currently lectures in printmaking. He has received numerous grants and awards, and has work in major collections and corporations such as Fletcher Trust.
Hemer’s practice is at once intellectual and irreverent, serious and rambunctiously playful, powered by digital technologies and painstaking handcrafted. His work references and parodies mark making, gesture and production throughout the period of modernist painting (incorporating the drip and splatter of abstract expressionism, the willful balancing of hard edged abstraction) and the motifs or ‘brandability’ of current art stars such as Damian Hirst (pills) and Jeff Koons (elephants). Dovetailing nicely alongside are references and ‘attitude’ drawn from the world of fashion and mass media, inspiring a good dose of humour and the catchy titles.
Taken from Hemer’s most recent body of work, these three canvases almost explode off their stretchers such is the vim and vigour of the convoluted doodles, scribbles and spirals sprung as tightly as a coiled jack in the box and all rendered in a day-glo highlighter palette that would have Goths reaching for their shades.

Seung Yul Oh is an Auckland-based artist whose work in a variety of media, from painting to sculpture and film has succeeded in grabbing the attention of some major galleries and collectors. Although a young artist he has exhibited with some of New Zealand’s most respected artists – Peter Robinson amongst others, and is in a number of collections including the prestigious Chartwell Collection.
Oh is concerned with the relationship between paint and the equally squelchy inner workings of the human body and with making visible that which is usually unseen such as intestines, guts and the flow of fluids. The mixed media paintings he creates using ink, acrylic and enamel on canvas are far from the grotesque images conjured by such a description however. Blobby forms, wrinkly worm shapes, spectacular splatter and various matter are rendered in an ‘acidic’ palette of green, aqua, baby blue and fluro orange against a backdrop of black that leads the eye around the canvas, coming occasionally into contact with humanoid or Michelin man-like forms. Oh’s complex visual language is captivating, the physicality of his work viscerally appealing, and his use of colour innovative and highly assured.

Darryn George
Pukapuka 2, 2007
oil on canvas, 1020 x 1520mm
$9,500

Darryn George
Pukapuka 4, 2007
oil on canvas, 1020 x 1520mm
$9,500

André Hemer
Um, er, and yeah, 2007
acrylic on canvas, 900 x 900mm
POA

André Hemer
Paint ball (Rip my canvas off, and love me thoroughly), 2007
acrylic on canvas, 900 x 900mm
POA

André Hemer
Paint ball (not enough paint), 2007
acrylic on canvas, 400 x 400mm
POA

Seung Yul Oh
Spring Puddle, 2007
ink,acrylic and enamel on canvas, 910 x 910mm
$4,000 

Seung Yul Oh
BBong DDong, 2007
ink,acrylic and enamel on canvas, 910 x 910mm
$4,000