Exhibition of the week: Lisa Munnelly

The artist is interested in providing a ‘temporal and corporeal account of the drawing process’; that is, in investigating the relationship between drawing, time and the body. These are works which acknowledge that seeing takes time; the title of the exhibition refers not only to the work involved in their conception and realisation, but also to the physical experience of seeing them. Rather than re-present an image or idea, according to the practice of conventional drawing, these works operate in the immediate tense, to present energy, time and space on visual terms.

Compelling, mesmerising... pure poetry. Don't miss out on her performance films too.

Exhibition of the week: Brit Bunkley

Sure, terrorism, impending nuclear war, Stalinist infiltration, fascist dictatorship, the neoliberal war on democracy, global warming, the end of oil, stock market crashes, destruction of the biosphere and rogue asteroids are all realities. They have been for decades. These threats are also ameliorated by the possibilities of innate human creativity, critical thinking, the thirst for freedom, courage, the ability to adapt and change and the catharsis within real tragic drama. (Brit Bunkley)


Brit Bunkley, Don't Worry Be Happy
Wednesday 18 August - 12 September @ Mary Newton Gallery

Exhibition of the week

Madeleine Child and Philip Jarvis @ Mary Newton Gallery

The Age of Aquarius

Artists are obsessive magicians that constantly challenge the ways we connect with the world, by means of engagement and creativity; and there is a growing tendency amongst them to (re)use and recycle everyday objects and give a new life to detritus or "left-over". There is also a growing fascination, perhaps echoing our current environmental situation, for the mineral and the organic, that are capable of evolving ways to survive... So the idea of a growing obsession can quickly come in to minds when looking at the work of Madeleine child and Philip Jarvis presented at the Mary Newton Gallery, and described by the artists as coral from obsessive compulsive nervous fiddling.
Out of rubber bans, paint-saturated sponges, ceramic polyps and pottery, they made joyful and bright sculptures , that mirror both complex marine life systems and sophisticated embedded decorations, raising questions about nature versus culture; but also male/female, authentic/inauthentic, funny/serious...etc. With a contagious humour, and through an engagement with the everyday, whether they imitate domestic detritus (as seen in their previous work) or they use them, they express something crucial about being in and of this planet, about the here and now.

Exhibition of the week

Benjamin Buchanan and Carla Cescon @ Hamish McKay Gallery

Exhibition of the week

Second Life @ Pataka Museum, with Eve Armstrong, Judy Darragh, Niki Hastings-McFall, Joanna Langford and Peter Madden.

Exhibition of the week

Plastic Maori @ The New Dowse, with Andre Te Hira, Aroha Armstrong, Christina Wirihana, Gina Matchitt, Hemi MacGregor, Inez Crawford, Jacob Scott, Michael Parekowhai, Ngatai Taepa, Rangi Kipa, Dr Robert Jahnke, Suzanne Tamaki, Tawa Hunter and Wayne Youle.

Exhibition of the week

Lonnie Hutchinson @ Mary Newton Gallery