A selection of small but rather exquisitely formed works from our artists’ studios and archives.
Tony Lane Cloud Signs I oil on board 400 x 450mm $5,500
The paintings of Tony Lane resist casual interpretation; the work is complex, the symbols elusive. The elements in his paintings are a kind of shorthand or the artist’s concerns. There are recognisably New Zealand volcanic cones, mountain ranges, barren hills, and yet there are also distant echoes of early Italian primitivist art. Click here to read more about the artist.
Leonie Ngahuia Mansfield Song of the Bellbirds acrylic on board 480 x 430mm incl re-purposed frame $2,200
Dr Leonie Ngahuia Mansbridge is of Ngāti Maniapoto/Pakeha descent. Through her work, she explores her connection to whenua as intertwined with her own whakapapa. In this series of work, her ancestral landscapes are reimagined and quite literally contained and confined by an ornate colonial framework. View works from her most recent exhibition here
Philippa Blair Stitch II Blue oil on canvas 485 x 485mm $4,200
Philippa Blair has been described as a traveller and a restless spirit, fluent in translating the tumultuous world around her into vibrant observations that are boldly autobiographical but also hum with the familiar rhythms of life. This cracker of a painting comes from her archive, created in 2005 when she was living in Los Angeles and thinking of Aotearoa. Click here to read more about the artist.
Richard McWhannell The Way of Water The way of Water oil on canvas 440 x 390mm $6,500
Richard McWhannell’s paintings are places where drama and enigma intersect, but also places that offer great calm and beauty. His practice encompasses portraiture, landscape, allegory, surrealism and satire – sometimes simultaneously. Click here to read more about the artist.
Peter James Smith Under Bowen Falls oil on canvas 620 x 510mm $4,500
Peter James Smith’s paintings take their inspiration from the natural world, including some of Aotearoa’s most iconic and dramatic places, drawing on mathematics, cartography, history and poetry to describe them. Click here to read more about the artist.
Bruce Howlett The Gum Trees oil on canvas framed with recycled iron cladding 480 x 450mm $3,500
Bruce Howlett is based in Canberra. He was most active as an artist in the mid-1990s, best known for creating works like this one - quintessentially Australian landscapes mounted within the materials most closely associated with the environment: timber from sheds, iron from roofing and tanks.
Siân Quennell Torrington Here to Balance watercolour, pencil, collage, stitchwork on card 575 x 590mm $1,950
Siân Quennell Torrington is a Wellington-based artist whose practice reflects her overlapping areas of interest and formal study: fine arts, philosophy and textiles. She uses mark-making and structural props in her drawings, including stitching, fabric and collage to create highly tactile and three dimensional pieces. See more of her work here
Martin Ball The Light of Day II oil on linen 400 x 500mm $5,200
Martin Ball is one of Aotearoa’s foremost realist painters. Known for decades as a portrait painter, he has shifted his focus toward the landscape and from personal and New Zealand history. This painting draws on the work of his Great-Grandfather, Thomas Ball’s paintings of the Pink and White terraces, which themselves were based on black-and-white photographs. by Valentine Appropriately entitled Echo, the series of paintings remained decidedly monochromatic. The catalogue from this 2021 show can be found here
Install view. From left: Peter James Smith, John Madden pot, Martin Ball, David Weir, Philippa Blair, Leonie Ngahuia Mansfield, Richard McWhannell
The above is a sample of the work in the show. For a more complete list of works please contact us.