Michael Hight

In recent years Michael Hight's practice has focused on his 'Night Paintings', an ongoing body of work that reimagines the New Zealand landscape within theatrical still lives comprised of a myriad of familiar and obscure objects. For this exhibition of new paintings, Hight returns to well-known hyperreal landscapes, inspired by South Island imagery from Glenorchy to the Buller River. Here he continues his exploration of the New Zealand landscape with the ubiquitous beehive as a touchstone and a recurring motif. There is a particular focus on the Rangitata River Valley and the iconic almost mythical high-country stations of Mesopotamia and Erewhon. 

For the artist, the works are both an ongoing meditation on human manipulation of the natural world as well as a literal recording of the sometimes-dishevelled chaos of rural New Zealand.