Autumn begins with several new exhibitions, each with a unique environmental and historical viewpoint. Our major exhibition, Toitū Te Whenua, The Land Will Always Remain, takes up the main gallery, with large installations and thought-provoking paintings to encourage the viewer to think about the forces that have shaped our environment. Artist Showcase #1, with ConArt Galleries and Studios, bring into contrast the beauty of wild meadows from Lindy McLachlan against the photographer Jim Simmons; who has captured an environment that many of us never see.
Steve Carr’s popular exhibition Making Space has been extended until the 6th March. Watch the slow inevitability of a bubble popping and a watermelon exploding, or the hypnotic symmetry of a synchronised swimmer with no fixed conclusion.
Toitū Te Whenua, The Land Will Always Remain
Jacqui Colley, Bruce Foster, Ian-Wayne Grant, Simon Lardelli, and Jenna Packer
Dates: 5 March – 26 June
Artist Talk: Saturday 5 March, 11am
Showing in the Main Gallery, the exhibition showcases five diverse artists which have investigated the ecological, historical, political and social forces which have shaped our environment. From large installations to intimate paintings, the exhibition’s kaupapa focuses on matters that affect all of us in Aotearoa and around the world: our physical environment, the land, our home, our actions, our history, and how this shapes our identity.
Artist Jacqui Colley explains “This exhibition is designed to be minimalist, with a meditative quality. The main gallery feels like dusk, each work quietly lit with a beam of light
William’s Legacy: The Beetham Portraits
Dates: 5 March – 26 June
William Beetham was already established as a professional portrait artist in England with many exhibitions across the world, when in 1855, anxious about prospects for his children, he emigrated with his large family to Wellington. He quickly became a significant figure as a colonist, pastoralist and portrait artist and founded one of New Zealand’s most extensive pastoral stations – Brancepeth, in the Wairarapa.
Beetham was the first professional portrait artist in New Zealand decades before Gottfried Lindauer and Charles Goldie and this exhibition showcases selected portraits from the family, including some that have never been seen in a public exhibition before. Most of these portraits are still owned by descendants of William and Mary Beetham.
ConArt Gallery & Studios: Artist Showcase #1
Mikayla Forster, Lindy McLachlan, Jim Simmons and Shelley Vernon
Dates: 12 Feb – 3 April
Four selected artists from ConArt Gallery & Studios come together in the first of a new artist showcase series. Paintings in oil and acrylic, ceramics and photographs sit side by side demonstrating the incredible level of local artistic talent within the region.
Lindy McLachlan takes you off for a walk to a wild meadow while Jim Simmons’s photographs are of places that we never normally see or take any notice of. Mikayla Forster wows with her lifelike oil paintings, while Shelley Vernon brings beauty to everyday ceramic pieces.
