After a year of rain-thinned hues, artists have begun 2024 with strong, colourful works that seem full of bold resilience.
At pop-up 250 Gallery (250 Ponsonby Road), painters Hamish Haldane, Sarah Oostendorp and Sean Whittaker presented 'What Would Donald Judd Do?' While each artist used different media, from Perspex and oil colour to airbrush and paint pen, their work was connected through minimalism, the use of single, primary colours and using the circle as a central motif.
The shiny surfaces of Sam Mitchell’s paintings at Melanie Roger are anything but minimalist. Her head and shoulder portraits swirl with patterns and historical references, all in glorious pinks and blues. Following on from last year’s exhibition at the Dowse, these new works are assured and focused, balancing nuanced narratives with a riot of dayglo exuberance. However, even with their visual cues bubbling to the surface, 'The Curse of Knowledge' shows the impossibility of discerning another’s multifaceted inner self or fully expressing our own.
At Ivan Anthony, Julian Hooper’s usual tubular line work is invaded by an orphic prism of shifting colours in his show 'Talking Pit'. Their diagrammatic nature is softened by playfully exposing the constructed nature of a painting, by painting back in the wooden frame beneath the canvas, while the canvas itself is lain skew-whiff, forming a frame within a frame.
Patrick Lundberg’s ‘eybodey', also at Ivan Anthony, is as intriguing as this exhibition title. Drawn in by small pops of colour, closer eyeballing of his intimate painted objects reveals complex tussles between close colour groups and rigorously worked surfaces.
Especially with the very tall, very narrow works, travelling along them becomes a meditative act, as the meticulous construction of each section persuades us to slow down as we cross from one to the next.
A long hot summer requires refreshment by some cool observation of art – make sure to visit one of the galleries in our very arty hood.
EVAN WOODRUFFE, Studio Art Supplies
www.studioart.co.nz
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Published: March 2024