Katharina Grosse and Judy Millar

This exhibition brings together the work of two artists at the cutting-edge of contemporary painting - Katharina Grosse and Judy Millar. German artist Grosse is known internationally for her large, site-specific paintings that have occupied numerous exhibition spaces and buildings around the world. Auckland-based Millar is one of New Zealand’s most prominent contemporary painters working today, and has also recently held exhibitions in Berlin, Zurich and Los Angeles. In addition Millar will hold a solo exhibition curated by Robert Leonard at the New Auckland Art Gallery from 24 September – 20 November 2005, titled I will, should, can, must, may, would like to express.

The penchant of both these artists to work on a large scale is apparent in their use of mural-sized canvases. In Grosse’s vertically shaped painting, which stretches from floor to ceiling, a reference is made to her installations that often encompass exhibition spaces from the floor to ceiling (inclusive) and spread from room to room. Grosse’s most recognised form of paint application is spray-painting – which she applies in a myriad of colours over various grounds such as buildings (internally and externally), canvases, furniture, books, clothing and billboards. In 2001 Grosse completed the largest painting ever produced in New Zealand - an outdoor billboard work measuring 6 x 20 metres located on Upper Queen St. Grosse’s installations have been exhibited in a long line of art institutions throughout the world, including UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Artsonje Museum Kyongju in Korea. Her work has also been presented in the Biennale in Sao Paulo (2002) and the Biennale in Sydney (1998).

Millar’s most recent works signal a shift from her earlier monochromatic paintings, which incorporated fluid motions across the surface. These new works employ swift and frenetic gestures, with vivid and unexpected colour palettes and combinations. Working within the tradition of action painting, Millar emphasises the physicality of the painting process in her works. The gestural shapes and marks formed by her hand, wrist and arm movements leave the spectator visualising the very nearly full-body involvement in Millar’s painting process. However, “while Millar’s paintings emphasis ‘the hand’ quite literally, they also seem slick and quotational, mediated and conventional, like Roy Lichtenstein’s comic-book brushstrokes or Gerhard Richter’s mannered paint drag.” (Robert Leonard, “I will, should, can, must, may, would like to express” in Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki Gallery News, July-October 2005, p.16.)

Also exhibited alongside these canvas works are a series of Grosse’s paintings on aluminium and Millar’s works on foamboard. These two artists, whose practices span the two hemispheres, create a dialogue on their abilities to push the boundaries of painting processes and materials, creating fresh and invigorating works that allure and provoke viewers.