12 August – 4 September 2021
An exhibition of exceptional drawings by new and established gallery artists. We introduce the work of Jodie di Natale, Sian Quennell Torrington and Marilyn Murphy – and reacquaint you with the drawing practice of a few of our long standing artists, Philippa Blair, Martin Ball and Richard Adams.
installation view clockwise from 12:00: Jodie di Natale, Marilyn Murphy, Martin Ball, Sian Torrington
For some, drawing is preparatory, a workaday task central to a process that is destined to yield results in painting, sculpture or installation. For others, it is the end game, the goal of countless hours of painstaking application of graphite, charcoal, or whatever else is at the heart of their drawing practice.
Some of these artists use traditional tools and methods: ink, pen, pencil or brush, others employ cutting, sticking, scratching and stitching of a variety of materials to create a work. Each in his or her own way pushes the boundaries of how the act of drawing might be viewed, now.
Martin Ball, Sian Torrington, Philippa Blair
Jody di Natale received a Masters of Contemporary Art from VCA and lives in Melbourne. She was introduced to us by our friend, and equally sublime drawer, Richard Lewer. The softness and subtlety of the graphite used to make the drawing, seems out of sync with the intensity of its subject, a working police dog, which only adds to the drama and potency of this larger-than-life drawing.
Jodie di Natale Species 2019 graphite on Paper 1540mm x 1040cmm $7,500 framed
Sian Quennell Torrington is a Wellington-based artist whose practice reflects her overlapping areas of interest and formal study: fine arts, philosophy and textiles. Her current work explores relationships of interconnectivity, and interdependence through colour, mark-making and structural props that hold drawings and sculptures together into life-like forms. Sian has a solo exhibition, of drawing and sculpture opening at the Gallery in September.
Sian Torrington Woven Body pastel pencil charcoal on paper 2300 x 1200mm $2,600 unframed
Marilyn Murphy Out the Window graphite on paper 640 x 480mm $4,200 framed
Originally from Oklahoma, Marilyn Murphy is an artist and a Professor of Art Emeritus at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where she taught before moving to New Zealand. Her current works are concerned with the act of seeing – or perhaps re-seeing. Like deja vous, the objects and subjects are both familiar and strange, echoing early Film Noir, or American magazines from the 1940s.
Philippa Blair Decollages ink, graphite, collage on paper 420 x 297mm each $1200 (unframed)
Philippa Blair pushes any boundary she encounters. Her energetic but carefully structured works on paper are small whirlwinds of contained energy. Drawing is at the heart of her practice: these are the haiku (short Japanese poems) before the renga (longer poems) but as in haiku they always have a kireji (cutting word) or a defining line or mark.
Martin Ball Remnant graphite on paper 600 x 900mm $6,200 (framed)
Martin Ball, whose practice has centred around drawing from more than forty years, is a master of the precise line. His portraits are well known both in graphite and paint. The two drawings in this exhibition can be seen as companion works to his recent series of paintings of the Pink and White Terraces. Look into these drawings and you will see landscapes as details as if torn from a sketch book. They are wonders of subtlety and imagination.
The above are a selection of works in this exhibition. Additional work is available by most of these artists. Please inquire if you wish to see other images.