Every Day is like Sunday: Karl Maughan

Gow Langsford Gallery presents Every Day is like Sunday, a solo show by Karl Maughan featuring his iconic garden scenes. 

Karl Maughan’s perfectly executed gardens are iconic in contemporary New Zealand art. In his new exhibition Every Day is like Sunday the famous rhododendrons are taking a secondary space to the lush foliage and coloured petals of a variety of flower species and for the first time, Maughan has incorporated coastal gardens into his compositions.

Bright colours are highlighted through the use of light and shadow.  The many shades of green are touched by a hint of a breeze. Dense bushes crowded together are broken only by the flower bushes that mingle between them and there is no trace of neither human nor animal life.

Reminiscent of his work of the 1990s Maughan’s perspective is reduced in his new works which offer a close up view of his gardens rather than an expansive landscape. The slim views of sky and ground glimpsed at in the paintings provide a reference point for place and anchor the works in the world – albeit a perfectly manicured world.

Maughan holds a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts (Auckland University, 1987), and has been exhibiting both locally and abroad for over two decades.  Maughan’s work is held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom, including the prestigious Charles Saatchi collection (UK).  After over ten years based in London, Maughan returned to New Zealand in early 2005 where he is currently based.  A major retrospective and publication on Maughan’s work was shown at Te Manawa Museum in Palmerston North in late 2007.