The best of NZ abstract art on show
Coinciding with the release of the new publication on the work of abstract painter Mervyn Williams is an exhibition of abstract art of the last 40 years at Artis Gallery
Abstraction Practice
ARTIS Gallery
Until September. 23
Coinciding with the release of the new publication on the work of abstract painter Mervyn Williams is an exhibition of abstract art of the past 40 years at Artis Gallery.
As well as Mervyn Williams, the show features the work of Roy Good, Ron Left, Milan Mrkusich, JS Parker, Don Peebles, Ian Scott and Geoff Thornley.
Williams is represented by several of his recent paintings including Red Mirage ($16,500) where the pulsing colour creates remarkable optical effects. Ron Left has one of the oldest works in the show Tondo/Nimbus from 1975.
He also has one of the more recent with Rondo ($5000), which is painted on a spherical aluminum surface, combining an abstract colour field with a quirky piece of realism, a car depicted from a bird’s eye point of view. One of Milan Mrkusich’s paintings is in variations of grey, Three Areas Achromatic ($35,000), contrasting with his more colorful works.
Here there is a coolness and restraint which emphasides the architectural nature of his work.
This architectural quality and restricted palette is seen to a greater extent in the large Geoff Thornely work Unnamed Name # 11. 10.97 ($36,000) in which the structures and grids are overlays with layers of paint creating subtle shifts in the monochrome surface ...
Don Peebles is represented by one of his large untitled works ($28,500) with separate flaps of canvas that fold and hang out from the flat surface bringing to mind plants, marine forms and landscapes.
The exhibition neatly encapsulates many of the ideas and practices of abstract art in New Zealand showing both the consistency and the evolution of the various artists' work.
John Daly-Peoples
Sat, 13 Sep 2014
Sat, 13 Sep 2014
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The best of NZ abstract art on show
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