REVIEWS, COMMENTARIES, LETTERS AND CRITIQUES
...collage has always a potential to surprise, as the process depends upon the addition to an extant ground, therefore it is consistent to be pulled in, optically and sensorially, and held somewhat suspended, while meaning or sense is extracted from the engagement.
Every part of Free Art is loaded with ambiguity, multiple meanings and enigma...this pulse of uncertainty is a dynamic operation which tests and undermines... On Free Art by Anna Hollings and Richard Evans. 
Hello Marie,
I write to thank you for the work which we received and were able to show at the gallery last month. I was excited by some of the previews of your new work and was not disappointed by what you sent. It was a great show and we are inspired by your work and having it here in the Art Hotel. I'm posting some photographs taken of some of the pieces in rooms, on walls and adding to the atmosphere of the place. I like to take the time to look at them and am quickly set off marveling at the sense of fluid detachment your pieces evoke in me. Both Audrey and I are committed fans of your travails and take great pleasure in showing your work and having it about. I think you work invites people to find the art in themselves and while perhaps cleverly masking some of the formal constructs and conventions, it does not do so at the expense of ease, freshness and verve. This of course is my very subjective view. If one day you would like to come and visit Westport and see your work in situ, you would be made most welcome. In the meantime, please know your work is safe here, well loved and alive. Best regards from Daniel & Audrey at the Art Hotel 22 April 2014 
Chris Watson has photographed the Denniston Incline and brought her judicious eye to bare on the intersection of people and the relentless entropic forces which shape our collective memory. Her images, capture a good thick slice of what we are looking at, she probes deeply into the matrix of possible views and lays it before us to question and reflect on what it is we are looking at.
This is a process of waking -up the viewer. More work from Chris can be seen here. Whilst visiting Westport and the hotel she took the time to cast her gaze upon the mundane and ordinary features which make up the ArtHotel as we see it and also images from Interspace/Martin's Creek. For all inquiries regarding her work, please email: elfwood@xnet.co.nz |
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Duncan Bennett has given us a powerful rendering of the human drama as a struggle against the cruel indifference of natures force wherein a valiant soul plays out its sometimes tragic, futile and mundane existence.
With a deft confidence borne of a respect for the subject matter and the materials he paints with, he draws one into the deadly narrative so that the viewer may perhaps feel something of the rapture in the sublime.
These are powerful themes and the works themselves are fulsome tribute to both the enterprise and to the disdain of this beautiful Arctic Heaven.
With a deft confidence borne of a respect for the subject matter and the materials he paints with, he draws one into the deadly narrative so that the viewer may perhaps feel something of the rapture in the sublime.
These are powerful themes and the works themselves are fulsome tribute to both the enterprise and to the disdain of this beautiful Arctic Heaven.
Paul Haywood brings his second show to Interspace Gallery
Mary McGill's Rantings as she described her collection of painted words are not to be dismissed as the haphazard, random or ill conceived efforts of some delusional soul. There is too much which is beautiful, heart felt and deliberate in each brush stroke, each idea translated into image, altogether too vast to be contained in any one characterization. The rendering of the medium, in some cases, watery washes of every tonal grey, the ease and confidence, the casual originality of spatial symmetry....all point to a comprehensive and thorough grounding in practice and principles at the service of a committed artist..
Reprojection. Lebelland Collective. More images from this show can be found here.
When I met Bill Hartley at an opening some six months ago I had no idea that he has been a collector of New Zealand art for the past thirty years. His invitation to show some of the pieces here in Westport creates a unique opportunity to see into a collectors view and also an experience of mood, time and place as presented by 18 separate artists. Each piece has a story, tells a story, a connection which enlivens and activates the present. It is a private and intimate view, a collection of works which live together, belong together.
It is another view of what happens to art.
We thank Bill for his generosity.
It is another view of what happens to art.
We thank Bill for his generosity.
Grae' Clement's work is strongly grounded in place and the physical world, found objects transformed and represented, elements stripped away and re configured, challenging the notions of form and image. His work is confident and accomplished in that he knows what it is that he wants the viewer to see, to be looking at. This reflects in easy accessible arrangements in the gallery, in individual compositions and a show full of intrigue and whimsical shifts, deft touches from a mature working artist. (written by Daniel
Heidi McCulloch
Kaia Sjoberg and Laura Sonneveldt
For their first joint exhibition, Kaia and Laura have been asking the question: “What unifies us?”
The result is a series of artworks that celebrate unity in polarity. Of how two artists with completely different styles enter each other’s worlds. Worlds where, because of polarity, inspiration is infinite.
For their first joint exhibition, Kaia and Laura have been asking the question: “What unifies us?”
The result is a series of artworks that celebrate unity in polarity. Of how two artists with completely different styles enter each other’s worlds. Worlds where, because of polarity, inspiration is infinite.
Rocketman @Interspace
Ten years of drawings, scratchings, experiments and designs from Lance Kerr was an intimate view into the committed process of an artist working and reworking themes with dedicaton, courage and doggedness. This more informal hanging provided an opportunity to see into the private and emergent world of one man as he brings these ideas/images and feelings into being. One is left with a new found appreciation and admiration for the undertaking with is paradoxically both private and very public.
Ten years of drawings, scratchings, experiments and designs from Lance Kerr was an intimate view into the committed process of an artist working and reworking themes with dedicaton, courage and doggedness. This more informal hanging provided an opportunity to see into the private and emergent world of one man as he brings these ideas/images and feelings into being. One is left with a new found appreciation and admiration for the undertaking with is paradoxically both private and very public.
Annoushka Szybowski continues to enchant us with her careful renditioning of bird life and now with her recent self titled show, she also brings a dramatic new collection of subjects for our consideration.
Something new has appeared in the garden, in the Gone are the various motifs and devices which served to frame up her subjects and now the bird is central to the experience, all of it, scaled up to larger than life and clearly looking fine.
Her use of the graphite and rubbing is accomplished with a beguiling ease and simplicity so much so that we are left free to enjoy the spaces around the subjects and the deep affection she clearly feels for these, the object of her critical attention.
12 pieces in a white room, stripped back and essential.
Something new has appeared in the garden, in the Gone are the various motifs and devices which served to frame up her subjects and now the bird is central to the experience, all of it, scaled up to larger than life and clearly looking fine.
Her use of the graphite and rubbing is accomplished with a beguiling ease and simplicity so much so that we are left free to enjoy the spaces around the subjects and the deep affection she clearly feels for these, the object of her critical attention.
12 pieces in a white room, stripped back and essential.
Comments on Mythical Kings by Paul Haywood. These works represent a departure, literally and figuratively, a journey and an arrival or perhaps more accurately multiple arrivals.
Works driven by a narrative and even the slightest reference to a story tend to operate as vessels, containers and holders of some weight and complexity. This work does not suffer for lack of seductive charm nor does it fade for want of heft and complexity. The breadth of the undertakings, the confidence and determination, the patience and the application all inspire and captivate, which is all as it should be when standing before these mythical kings.
This is an unfolding story and one which pushes forward into our futures no doubt. We are gathered up and woven into the story just as we are optically drawn into the visual landscape of our interconnectedness and meaning...........
(written by hectorjo)
Works driven by a narrative and even the slightest reference to a story tend to operate as vessels, containers and holders of some weight and complexity. This work does not suffer for lack of seductive charm nor does it fade for want of heft and complexity. The breadth of the undertakings, the confidence and determination, the patience and the application all inspire and captivate, which is all as it should be when standing before these mythical kings.
This is an unfolding story and one which pushes forward into our futures no doubt. We are gathered up and woven into the story just as we are optically drawn into the visual landscape of our interconnectedness and meaning...........
(written by hectorjo)
The constant and abiding restlessness of tides and time, the relentless configuration of forms rendered, hewn and scraped are pervasive themes driving these works from Brian Holmewood, works which capture all the light, saturated, fractalated, polarized, transmogrified and heaped up in thick slabs, crushed and then more still, the endless
Flotsam, the bearing witness, the Jetsam and the totemic rootedness of our own being, the one which stands and the one that is looked upon. These works are strong, vigorous and enduring and we experience them each as unique takes in a constantly shifting physical environment...
(written by hectorjo)
Flotsam, the bearing witness, the Jetsam and the totemic rootedness of our own being, the one which stands and the one that is looked upon. These works are strong, vigorous and enduring and we experience them each as unique takes in a constantly shifting physical environment...
(written by hectorjo)
Following on from a run of colourful shows at Interspace Gallery, all of which were notable for their bounce and accessibility; Black as Coal and Lance Kerr. offer no such relief.
We are directly confronted with a relentless and unforgiving flatness which is only barely relieved by a defused highlight and/or utilitarian signage. In this way the work offers an apolitical, indifferent blankness in response to the unspoken questions at the heart of coal and our various relations to it.
The 12 pieces on show each offer up a small glimpse, a trigger perhaps for inquiry, as if each tableau featured a remnant of something long gone, consumed, subsumed in the blackness; black as coal.
The trains which pull these carriages which carry this coal from here to there, which move as a constant picture through our lives, our views and valleys and gorge and towns, the daily procession of images an index of time and place.
This is work which calls the viewer to attention, to position himself in response to the time we all share with this stuff, this culture it makes, this world it shapes, the lives it feeds and those it leaves in its path. These works are a dark portal into a place which is not obviously pink or any other colour; at least, not at first glance. (written by hectorjo)
We are directly confronted with a relentless and unforgiving flatness which is only barely relieved by a defused highlight and/or utilitarian signage. In this way the work offers an apolitical, indifferent blankness in response to the unspoken questions at the heart of coal and our various relations to it.
The 12 pieces on show each offer up a small glimpse, a trigger perhaps for inquiry, as if each tableau featured a remnant of something long gone, consumed, subsumed in the blackness; black as coal.
The trains which pull these carriages which carry this coal from here to there, which move as a constant picture through our lives, our views and valleys and gorge and towns, the daily procession of images an index of time and place.
This is work which calls the viewer to attention, to position himself in response to the time we all share with this stuff, this culture it makes, this world it shapes, the lives it feeds and those it leaves in its path. These works are a dark portal into a place which is not obviously pink or any other colour; at least, not at first glance. (written by hectorjo)
(A Statement from Lebelland Collective.)
Intrinsic to the practice (and life) of Audrey and Daniel Lebel, otherwise known as the Lebelland Collective, are the concepts of collaboration and freedom from preconceived art making processes. It is to this end that they have adopted their own rules and work actively at undermining the conventions of painting. This is the background to the naming of the current exhibition “Autonomy in the Realm of Art. Using the modernist grid as the technical support for their work and always employing play, ordinary materials and passing of time as the ground for their experimentations all makes for results that are, unusual, unexpected and unique.
Our work has evolved in recent years to be pure abstraction and much informed by the Formless (Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss) as a conceptual framework and practice. This essentially means that we are using the concepts of Horizontality, Base Materialism, Pulse and Entropy actively in our practice - working on the ground, allowing the materials themselves to dictate the direction of the work, using serialisation and figure/ground shift to generate pulse and allowing entropy into the work, subverting and undermining the conventions of fine art. As artists of long standing, we find ourselves constantly drawn to work that contains the emergence of space. This is a space that opens up when a shift or shifts happen in the viewing. Sometimes this is the result of something unusual, unexpected, a tension and always it is the thing that draws us back into the work and keeps us interested.This is the element we seek in our experiments with media and process and it is only when this space, which is more than the sum of it's parts, opens up, that we are interested in taking the work further.
Intrinsic to the practice (and life) of Audrey and Daniel Lebel, otherwise known as the Lebelland Collective, are the concepts of collaboration and freedom from preconceived art making processes. It is to this end that they have adopted their own rules and work actively at undermining the conventions of painting. This is the background to the naming of the current exhibition “Autonomy in the Realm of Art. Using the modernist grid as the technical support for their work and always employing play, ordinary materials and passing of time as the ground for their experimentations all makes for results that are, unusual, unexpected and unique.
Our work has evolved in recent years to be pure abstraction and much informed by the Formless (Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss) as a conceptual framework and practice. This essentially means that we are using the concepts of Horizontality, Base Materialism, Pulse and Entropy actively in our practice - working on the ground, allowing the materials themselves to dictate the direction of the work, using serialisation and figure/ground shift to generate pulse and allowing entropy into the work, subverting and undermining the conventions of fine art. As artists of long standing, we find ourselves constantly drawn to work that contains the emergence of space. This is a space that opens up when a shift or shifts happen in the viewing. Sometimes this is the result of something unusual, unexpected, a tension and always it is the thing that draws us back into the work and keeps us interested.This is the element we seek in our experiments with media and process and it is only when this space, which is more than the sum of it's parts, opens up, that we are interested in taking the work further.
A Review of Coloured Cloth by Heather Holland
It's possible that there are other quilt makers out there who are perfect seamstresses and who make up very sophisticated patterns. We wanted to show Heather's work in our gallery because it goes beyond the normal definition of patchwork quilts and into the realm of exciting, interesting art.
Her sense of colour is purely intuitive and reflects her positive and bright nature as well as a use of what she has available in her environment. Her work might start off being based on some standard pattern but somewhere in the process risks are taken and cloth is adapted to the free flow of Heather's creativity. A careful study of the pieces hanging here will reveal the idiosyncrasies hidden in the work and the playful nature of both Heather and her art.
Whilst bowing to the fact that these pieces are practical, useful and beautiful quilts, a craft steeped in history and sentiment – we respectfully request a suspension of these overriding qualities and enjoin you to feast your eyes on a riotous kaleidoscope of colour.
Written by Audrey
It's possible that there are other quilt makers out there who are perfect seamstresses and who make up very sophisticated patterns. We wanted to show Heather's work in our gallery because it goes beyond the normal definition of patchwork quilts and into the realm of exciting, interesting art.
Her sense of colour is purely intuitive and reflects her positive and bright nature as well as a use of what she has available in her environment. Her work might start off being based on some standard pattern but somewhere in the process risks are taken and cloth is adapted to the free flow of Heather's creativity. A careful study of the pieces hanging here will reveal the idiosyncrasies hidden in the work and the playful nature of both Heather and her art.
Whilst bowing to the fact that these pieces are practical, useful and beautiful quilts, a craft steeped in history and sentiment – we respectfully request a suspension of these overriding qualities and enjoin you to feast your eyes on a riotous kaleidoscope of colour.
Written by Audrey
A letter to Marie Nalder of Building Paper Works
Thank you for the opportunity to show your work here and for the pleasure in living with your work over these past weeks. Both Audrey and I have enjoyed the process and the learning offered up with these paintings on building paper. I'm thinking a lot about what your work does and am busily inventing all sorts of wild theories. Mainly we think you're very clever, in the nicest possible sense, and that you bring a deliberate experience to the business of painting and in the process you defy and undermine any or all conventions which might get in the way of you doing just what you want to do. There is a quality of exuberance which will not sit quietly and we are the happier for it. I think you remind us that painting is a visual medium which we are to look at.
Your paintings shout out boldly, look, look here at love, happiness, joy, movement and abandonment. Each image is a dynamic compositional index oh so casually crafted which distills the very necessary from the endlessly possible. We are looking at the essential in it's startling simplicity.
So these few words stumble in the face of your output, clues are scattered about and your generosity reveals only more of your commitment and confidence.
I hope to have the chance to look at more of your work and being reminded to consider what is possible when seeing, when breathing and when being.
Anna sent us 6 photos of some recent? work, on brown paper, large format.
We love these.
For now.
Best regards
Daniel & Audrey Lebel
Thank you for the opportunity to show your work here and for the pleasure in living with your work over these past weeks. Both Audrey and I have enjoyed the process and the learning offered up with these paintings on building paper. I'm thinking a lot about what your work does and am busily inventing all sorts of wild theories. Mainly we think you're very clever, in the nicest possible sense, and that you bring a deliberate experience to the business of painting and in the process you defy and undermine any or all conventions which might get in the way of you doing just what you want to do. There is a quality of exuberance which will not sit quietly and we are the happier for it. I think you remind us that painting is a visual medium which we are to look at.
Your paintings shout out boldly, look, look here at love, happiness, joy, movement and abandonment. Each image is a dynamic compositional index oh so casually crafted which distills the very necessary from the endlessly possible. We are looking at the essential in it's startling simplicity.
So these few words stumble in the face of your output, clues are scattered about and your generosity reveals only more of your commitment and confidence.
I hope to have the chance to look at more of your work and being reminded to consider what is possible when seeing, when breathing and when being.
Anna sent us 6 photos of some recent? work, on brown paper, large format.
We love these.
For now.
Best regards
Daniel & Audrey Lebel
A Review of 13 New Paintings by Anna Hollings
The opening of 13 New Paintings of Anna Hollings was a evening of quiet satisfaction, sumptuousness and whimsy when faced with these vital ocular jewels. There is much to enjoy in her expressive laying down of paint, colour and texture, her deliberate and considered attention to form and the all at the service of such intriguing visual moments, fleeting, personal and ethereal. The sublime in the mundane. Obliquely the works pose questions and the operation of narrative tends to prescribe some interpretations but we are left with ambiguity in the place of any certainty which might close off the moment and the viewing experience. This dynamic is a constant theme never overarching, always brought back into the service of the state of being, the feeling held up in quiet anticipation of some new revelation. These works are accomplished, completely accessible and a generous invitation for us all to take a moment and perhaps question just where we think we stand literally and figuratively. They are the work of the mundane and the ordinary as paintings. (written by Daniel)
The opening of 13 New Paintings of Anna Hollings was a evening of quiet satisfaction, sumptuousness and whimsy when faced with these vital ocular jewels. There is much to enjoy in her expressive laying down of paint, colour and texture, her deliberate and considered attention to form and the all at the service of such intriguing visual moments, fleeting, personal and ethereal. The sublime in the mundane. Obliquely the works pose questions and the operation of narrative tends to prescribe some interpretations but we are left with ambiguity in the place of any certainty which might close off the moment and the viewing experience. This dynamic is a constant theme never overarching, always brought back into the service of the state of being, the feeling held up in quiet anticipation of some new revelation. These works are accomplished, completely accessible and a generous invitation for us all to take a moment and perhaps question just where we think we stand literally and figuratively. They are the work of the mundane and the ordinary as paintings. (written by Daniel)
