‘Auckland Art Week’ is happening in the city near you. Northart is contributing to the festivities with four strong and vibrant shows, which open on Monday 8 October.
‘The Poetic Condition’ has been curated for Northart by artist/writer/curator Sonja van Kerkoff, who divides her time between the Netherlands and New Zealand. This multimedia exhibition, by nine artists from Aotearoa | New Zealand and nine from the Hague, explores political, poetic, conceptual, and visual approaches to the human condition from diverse cultural perspectives. A public programme of floor talks, music events and poetry readings will accompany the exhibition. For further information, dates and times, go to www.northart.co.nz.
Roger Staples is an Auckland-based artist (and recently retired secondary school art teacher). Early this year he held a very successful exhibition in Palmerston North and we are delighted to be presenting ‘Still Life’, his first solo exhibition in Auckland for many years. He uses nature’s objects, rocks and stones, and shells among other things, as his still life elements, arranging them on wooden tables or inside crates. “I build my work by collecting objects that attract me” he explains. “I play with them, arrange and often discard them, but some combinations suggest the beginnings of a painting. Things evolve. It is an intuitive, creative, process. I hope my work provokes thought, rewards repeated viewing and retains a sense of mystery.”
The idea for the third exhibition ‘Five Days’ came from an American facebook challenge to photographers; it was picked up by Brown Bays photographer Clive Bartleet. Since Clive was not able to participate in the American version, we decided to organise our own, and invited the American originator, Carl Leet from Ohio, to be our guest exhibitor. Each of the twelve invited photographers will present five black and white, square format photographs, taken on five consecutive days on the theme of ‘about place’.
A display of looped ceramic sculptural works by ceramicist Brendan Adams in the gallery windows completes the set of exhibitions. Brendan, who grew up in Northcote Point, works full time as a potter and has works in the Auckland Museum and Wallace Art Trust Collection and many regional facilities.
‘The Poetic Condition’ continues until 30 October, while the other shows close a few days earlier on Wednesday 24th. Next month – November – Northart celebrates its 20th anniversary with two special exhibitions: ‘First Five’ which reprises the first every exhibition held in November 1998 and is of works by five outstanding North Shore based craft artists – jewellery Warwick Freeman, ceramicists Merilyn Wiseman and Peter Collis, machine embroiderer Freda Brierley and wearable art artist Susan Holmes and ‘Twenty’, 20 works, by 20 artists, one from each year.
For information on Gallery Time for Kids, and other public programmes including the monthly seminar and Movie Night please go to www.northart.co.nz
