Don Binney, Alannah Brown, Don Driver, Wayne Seyb, Michael Smither, Michael Wilton

11 January - 1 February 2008

The land we inhabit is central to the way in which we distinguish ourselves from other nations. From the time early visitors first encountered New Zealand nearly two centuries ago art has been intrinsically connected with the representation of New Zealand’s land and culture. It is not just the land that is significant to New Zealand artist’s, but the notion of the land itself. Of This Land gives audiences the opportunity to journey through New Zealand from an artist’s perspective. In this exhibition Don Binney, Alannah Brown, Don Driver, Wayne Seyb and Michael Smither harvest verdant terrain and omnipotent mountains, gather memories and recollect places that are at once familiar and distinctive interpretations of this land.

Don Binney’s paintings insist on a New Zealand identity based firmly on the land we inhabit, and were seized by the burgeoning environmental movement in the 1970’s as a statement of co-dependency and the ultimate and continuing need for preservation. In recent years Binney has returned to explore these themes and subject matter. The characteristic rhythmic curves and sharp delineation of form is present Binney’s recent colour pencil drawings. By identifying locations such as Motukorea (Browns Island) or Rakiura (Stewart Island) by their Maori names, Binney draws attention to the indigenous histories of his landscape subjects.

Mill Creek, Rakiura V (2007) Colour pencil on arches paper $3,600	Motukorea from the South East (2007) Colour pencil on arches 185gsm paper SOLD

Alannah Brown’s paintings evoke nostalgia for the rural good life of New Zealand’s back blocks. Born in Central Otago, Brown recalls the sounds, and smells of the old woolshed. A place to store oily machinery, the walls adorned with graffiti from the recently departed shearing gang. People are present only through there possessions; they come alive through vehicles, agricultural equipment or a name scrawled on a wall. Each memory is rendered in hyperrealist detail giving a sense of immediacy to the paintings.

Big Red (2006), oil on rimu $950	17.5 Gallons (2006), oil on rimu $950	Seedliner (2006), oil on rimu $950

Don Driver produces compelling art/sculpture, which encompass a collection of found materials including wood, metal and paint. Through careful compositional components, Driver owns the ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. He juxtaposes objects that by themselves would seem mundane to create thought provoking, yet playful assemblages. Alpine provides a three dimensional perspective on the landscape, the artist commenting on the industrial nature of our land, our environment. Angular layers of thin line wood in a cool mint green hue sweep across the central structure; contrasting against the Karki green layers beneath; a mountain range reduced to lines and points. The composition is also an aerial view looking down on blocks of forestry, housing and reserves. The stenciled text alpine across the centre is reminiscent of sawmill labeling. Adding to this, Driver has reclaimed the frame-work which has the words ‘Taranaki Saw Mill’ stamped into the surface.

Alpine (2003/04), mixed media

 $6,000

Wayne Seyb paints in broad calligraphic brushstrokes possessing elements akin to abstract expressionism. His landscapes are a synthesis of a place rather than a specific location. Painted in muted ochre, green & blue tones, viscous oil paint moves across the canvas in gestural arcs. The works are both a response to the landscape as well as being reflective of the artist’s emotive state. Keenly aware of the tradition of New Zealand painting from van der Velden onwards, Seyb’s appetite for painting is voracious, his oils generously applied almost sculptural, felt as much as seen. Seyb's Lake Wanaka came to the artist after visiting Wanaka a year ago. The imagery of the lake drench in night light remained in the artist's mind until some ten months later when he began painting the work. 'I like the way idea of the Milky Way above the landscape - it shows two different kinds of worlds,' states the Seyb. Canterbury,Otago is the result of Seyb's recent travels between the two locations. The painting begins with a depiction of the hills in profile from the artist's studio and the landscape journey ends with his house in Karitane.

Canterbury, Otago (2007), Oil on canvas $5,000	Lake Wanaka (2007), Oil on canvas $4,500

Wayne Seyb, Michael Smither, conservationist, musician, painter, sculptor and printmaker is recognized for his hard-edged style often encompassing an environmental and personal content. With colourful musicality, Smither's recent screen-prints abstract and simplify the local landscape surrounding his Otama Studio. 'Backbeach' depicts the islands off Port Taranaki, while in 'Phantoms Peak', Mt Taranaki is reduced to a curvaceous blue delineation. 

Phantoms Peak (West) 25/80 (2006), framed screenprint $1,600	Backbeach 46/60 (2007), framed screenprint $2,100

Michael Wilton’s Plantation Series achieve a textural mastery. Utilising oil paint and resin as a medium, the artist builds his paintings into three-dimensional compositions achieving an unusual sense of depth illusion and mystery. Tree trunks rise toward an unseen sky in rhythmic sepia tones. The Plantation Series examines the metaphoric relationship between the ‘Bar Code’ and ‘Forestry Plantations’. The trees echo humankind’s urge to control our environment, where the natural arrangement of trees growing in the wild is replaced with lines and classifications – creating a sense of order. ‘The ultimate registration of this is the bar code, the subliminal effect being the plantation’, observes Wilton.

Plantation Series I (2007), Oil on resin on hardboard $4,000	Plantation Series Ii (2007), Oil on resin on hardboard $4,000

Catalogue Essay by Lydia Baxendell 2008