Aratoi is offering Summer exhibitions which will be “a riot of colour,” but add the stories behind these works will surprise and inspire you.
Aratoi director, Sarah McClintock isn’t afraid of a bit of colour and her Main Gallery curated exhibition Never Be Seen proves this point.
“The saying goes ‘blue and green should never be seen’,” laughs McClintock. “As a rule of colour its origins are murky – but it likely relates to the fact that the colours sit next to each other on a standard colour wheel.
“Never Be Seen is an exhibition of artists who utilise the tension inherent in perception – through the literal use of blue and green tones, the telling of histories hidden in plain sight, forgotten objects, slippages in language, and unnerving contrasts.
“To truly see and understand something is to recognise everything that makes it both beautiful and ugly, important and irrelevant, comfortable and uncomfortable,” she noted.
On the opposite side of the Main Gallery, forces of nature Keren Chiaroni, Emily Efford and Cathrine Lloyd return to Aratoi with Dream Gardens, which opens the same weekend as the Wairarapa Garden Tour and continues over the summer until March.
“Dream Gardens constructs a theatrical space that unites people to mentally imagine themselves in a dream with the garden staged at night.” said Keren. “You walk through a walled space through a gate into this fabulous, staged dream-scape where not everything is quite what it seems. The more you look, the more details you will see.”
The Social History Gallery is brimming full of eclectic recent acquisitions in the show Mickey, A Pennant and a Wedding.
Aratoi collects art, objects, and taonga that all have strong association with the Wairarapa. The title gives a glimpse into the varied items that have been recently acquired. These items will be changing over the exhibition period.
Biennial popular fundraising exhibition Provincial Insurance Brokers presents Little Jewels organised by the Friends of Aratoi is once again hosted in the Wesley Wing. Established artists with an international reputation as well as emerging artists have contributed works for the exhibition, with all works are for sale at a live auction.
Summer Exhibitions:
- Never Be Seen 7 November – 2 March
- Keren Chiaroni, Emily Efford, Cathrine Lloyd: Dream Gardens 7 November – 2 March
- Hélène Carroll: Lacuna 7 November – 2 February
- Mickey, A Pennant and a Wedding 26 October – 13 April
- Provincial insurance’s Little Jewels 15 November – 9 February
