Chris Heaphy
b.1965, Aotearoa (Ngāi Tahu)

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Chris Heaphy has created a substantial body of artwork. His visually and conceptually layered paintings examine themes of time, place, and memory, often tapping into the dynamic interaction of diverse cultural perspectives. His earlier paintings were often comprised of unified images constructed from a kaleidoscopic array of smaller symbols. More recently, Heaphy's paintings have been comparatively pared back, employing a handful of recurrent motifs rather than the dazzling imagistic mosaic of his earlier work.

Reading the Air is a prime example of Heaphy’s more restrained recent work. While still vibrantly colourful, the painting rests on just two pictorial elements – a bird and a ceramic vessel. The bird seems still, poised atop the vessel. This image is set against energetic paint work, setting up dynamic tension between the calmness of the bird and the turbulence of the background. To Heaphy, image and paintwork are physically and conceptually intertwined; the image is materially comprised of paint, and the conceptual meaning of the image is inseparable from how it has been painted. The contrast in pictorial foreground image and abstract background plays into this – contrast and visual tension part of the conceptual substance of the work.

Writer Keith Stewart suggested that Heaphy’s paintings tap into rich currents of the visual systems that have evolved in Aotearoa and the Pacific. He wrote, “[…] the artist uses the comfort of established symbols to build a new suit of images that are both islands looming from the mists of history, and new destinations that we seek in our futures.” In keeping with this, Heaphy makes paintings that are both contemporary and timeless.