Don Binney, Don Driver, Dick Frizzell, Glenda Randerson, Philip Trusttum, Michel Tuffery, Michael Smither

4-25 APRIL 2008

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, Don Driver, Dick Frizzell, Glenda Randerson, Michael Smither, Philip Trusttum and Michel Tuffery. 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. It is a rare occasion to view new works by so many artists of stature in one location; the underlying emphasis that unites this exhibition is the opportunity to celebrate their ongoing achievements.

For price enquiries please contact Lydia Baxendell: lydia@gallery33.co.nz

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

Don Binney

The flattened simplification of forms, hightened colour, hard edged deliniation and rhythmic curves of Don Binney’s paintings are unmistakeable. Binney’s work has many characteristics of the regionalist style, despite this he prefers the label ‘figurative painter’. While many artists during the 1970s digressed toward fashionable styles such as abstraction, Binney admirably pursued a singular realist vision. An interest in ornithology, environmental concerns, a love of nature and New Zealand identity/history have shaped his subject matter often consisting of emblematic bird motifs suspended above sweeping coastal landscapes.

Binney’s works often identify his locations and subject matter by their Maori or scientific names. Toreapango, Te Komoki for instance depicts an Oyster Catcher wings downturned in solemn flight over Jackie’s Peak in the Waitakere Ranges, Muriwai Takapu captures a Gannet taking pleasure in the wind currents above it’s colony on the rocky Muriwai shoreline. While in Franze Jo Petroica Binney portrays a plump Tomtit in oilstick on slate choosing to use the species name Petroica rather than the Maori Miromiro or Pakeha Tomtit. Titles for Binney are a method of drawing attention to issues such as colonization indigenous histories and cultural ownership.

Muriwai Takapu I (2008), acrylic & oilstick laminate on Arches, Framed size 396x440mm	Toreapango, Te Komoki (2008), acrylic & oilstick laminate on Arches, Framed size 482x460mm

Whatipu Ninepin Revisited (2007), acrylic & oilstick laminate on Arches, Framed size 665x555mm SOLD	Franz Jo Petroica (2008), oilstick on slate, Framed size 304x265mm SOLD

Don Driver

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.

Driver has long held a fascination with aviation and flight and the three works exhibited in Crème have been inspired by this subject matter. Chromatic II is a playful work comprised from aircraft wing struts, spray painted by the artist in high gloss blue and red. In Cornered Planes, a tarpaulin wall hanging painted and layered with materials such as wood and tin, two fighter aircraft chase each other across the composition. Within camouflage swirls of green, blue and red the abstracted shapes of aeroplanes emerge from the third tondo work Trapped Planes.

Chromatic II (2000), painted steel (wingstruts), 700mm x 750mm SOLD	Cornered Planes (1994), hanging, mixed media (wood, tin, acrylic, tarpaulin), 1520mm x 1140mm SOLD	Trapped Planes (1995), tondo, mixed media (wood, vinyl, acrylic), 545mm diameter

Dick Frizzell

‘In Dick Frizzell’s first solo exhibition of 1978 his paintings’ deadpan humour was fringed with a barely suppressed exuberance and delight. The paintings collided the pragmatics of an ad-mans’ need for a compelling motif with the visceral pleasures of expressive modernist painting. Like the best of his work between then and now, these images of gaudy fish tin labels and comic strip characters…conveyed the freshness and magic of a first encounter.’ (1)

Before committing to a career as a full time artist Frizzell was employed in the commercial design and advertising industry. This background has often fuelled a degree of cynicism and an interest in consumerist culture. The artist has over the years utilised an eclectic assortment of stylistic approaches from cubism, realist landscapes to pop art and cartoons.

In Frizzell’s most recent series, the subject matter is characteristically tongue and cheek. Harking back to his figurative paintings of the 1970s, the works depict generic citizens going about daily activities such as mowing the lawn or walking the dog. These understated tasks are elevated to a position of glorification not usually placed upon them. The central figures float in isolation upon an array of complimentary ‘retro’ hues. Each flattened form is simplified and deliniated with a fine black border akin to cartoon drawings such as Tintin. The artist constructs a dialogue between foreground and background; in high contrast to the flattened portrayal of figures, the background is alive with layers of texture and colour.

Woman Singing( 2008), oil on board, 550x550mm	Man Mowing (2008), oil on board, 550x550mm

Lady With Her Dog (2008), oil on board, 550x550mm	Man With Wheelbarrow(2008), oil on board, 550x550mm

Glenda Randerson

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 enamel plates and milk jugs.

Still Life with Egg Cup I (2008), oil on panel, Framed size 200x200mm SOLD	Still Life with Egg Cup II(2008), oil on panel, Framed size 200x200mm SOLD	Still Life with Egg Cup III (2008), oil on panel, Framed size 200x200mm SOLD

Pichet de Creme I(2008), oil on panel, Framed size 400x300mm SOLD	Pichet de Creme II (2008), oil on panel, Framed size 600x600 mm SOLD

Michael Smither

Comparisons have been repeatedly made between the work of Binney and fellow artist Michael Smither and are perhaps most evident in Smither’s early regionalist works. However the artist’s focus has also been turned to his family and immediate surroundings, and the realist manner he primarily utilises has developed into a highly stylised rendition that pushes against the definitions of the label, spilling into the terrain of ‘new realism’.

In 2005 the artist made a journey through Central Otago. The Hawkdun ranges proved inspirational to the series of recent watercolours included in Crème. The undulating hills and valleys of the Hawkdun’s are abstracted and simplified to anthropomorphic shapes. There is a poetic rhythm to Smither’s depiction of the blue hills of Central Otago demonstrating the scope and breadth of the artist’s oeuvre.

Hawkdun Absrtact I (2006), watercolour on paper, Framed size 1170x425mm	Hawkdun Absrtact II (2008), watercolour on paper, Framed size 1170x425mm

Philip Trusttum

Philip Trusttum has a painterly style best described as expressionistic abstraction as he takes everyday objects and situations and translates them into a visual language that borders on abstraction. In addition to American abstract expressionism and artists such as Pollock and De Kooning, Trusttum’s tutor at Ilam, Rudolf Gopas was a key influence.

Trusttum began painting on loose canvases in the 1970’s allowing a suppleness of form to emerge. The artist exuberantly gathers inspiration from sources such as textile art, tapa cloth design and architecture and his subject matter has included a diverse range of themes for instance his grandchildren, tennis, the Pacific, opera, trucks and horses. 

Trusttum has described his recent paintings as ‘a kind of high class doodling’ (3). He first began making drawings for the series in 2001 and from this has eventuated his 2007 Alphabet series. Hidden beneath layers of pattern and colour akin to batik, letters of the alphabet emerge. Trusttum begins each painting with a specific letter in mind and from this the shape of the painting evolves. In keeping with Trusttum’s previous work, the Alphabet paintings are characterized by a sharp demarcation of fields and lines in celebratory colours. 

'Anon' (2001-2007), acrylic on unstretched canvas, 720x460mm	'BB' (2001-2007), acrylic on unstretched canvas, 670x650mm	'M' (2001-2007), acrylic on unstretched canvas, 1080x525mm

Michel Tuffery

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

The works exhibited in Crème are unified by cattle as a central motif and their unusual medium. Painted on tin, the works explore themes of Pacific culture, history and environmental change .In Walking Waka with Taranaki in the Background and Tall Ships arrive at Walking Land; Tuffery re-appropriates the landscape prominently displayed on the pacific brand of cornbeef tins. Utilising a dioramic view, the artist generates a commentary on the change in the environment. Cattle and birds act as onlookers observing as the history of the land transpires. Aotearoa Rescue and Rescue Mission are from a small series acknowledging the RNZAF’s rescue missions through-out the Pacific by delivering aid during natural disasters. In Aotearoa Rescue, Three figures huddle in the foreground waiting as cattle transform into vehicles of flight to salvage them from impeding danger. In Rescue Mission cows with the red-cross emblem emblazoned on their backs are plucked to safety by aeroplanes that alter mid flight into birds. Tuffery’s paintings offer a wry social commentary on historical events and encounters from a Pacific Island perspective.

Aotearoa Rescue (2005), acrylic on tin plate, Framed size 90x485mm	Rescue Mission (2006), acrylic on tin plate, Framed size 90x485mm SOLD

Tall Ships arrive (2004), acrylic on tin plate, Framed size 90x485mm SOLD	Walking Waka with Ta(2004), acrylic on tin plate, Framed size 90x485mm SOLD

(1) Allan Smith, Dick Frizzell: Portrait of a Serious Artiste, The City Gallery, Wellington/Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1997

(2) Glenda Randerson, Artist Statement, 2008

(3) Philip Trusttum, Artist Statement, 2008

Catalogue Essay by Lydia Baxendell 2008