Exhibitions 2010
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Bird's Eye View
Paul Dibble 8 - 30 Oct 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Native birds hold particular resonance in New Zealand culture and have emerged as somewhat emblematic of its national identity. Once revered by Maori, their metaphorical significance is remembered in local legends, while contemporary bird imagery commonly represents the country's unique wildlife and natural environment. Fittingly, it is a subject frequently... Read more -
Spring Catalogue 2010
Group Exhibition 8 Sep - 2 Oct 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] The Spring Catalogue Exhibition is a highlight of the John Leech and Gow Langsford Galleries' exhibition schedules and an annual tradition that began in 1996. Including a range of local and international investment artworks the exhibition brings together a collection of historical artefacts, contemporary painting and sculpture, many of which are of museum quality. Read more -
Recent Paintings
Dale Frank 11 Aug - 3 Sep 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Complex galaxies of brilliant colour react into each other in Dale Frank's enigmatic abstractions. Laden surfaces reveal the expressive potential of paint but the fluid and lyrical nature of his canvases belie the calculated science of his painting practice. Read more -
The Gloves Are Off
Dick Frizzell 28 Jul - 7 Aug 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Inspired by shop front signs and placards The Gloves Are Off brings together a series of typically Frizzellean sign paintings. Read more -
New Traditions: Recurring Themes in Maori Art
14 - 24 Jul 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] New Traditions brings together contemporary paintings, folk art and traditional Maori art forms to explore three different eras of New Zealands art history. The pairing of works highlights the ongoing significance and contemporary relevance of themes pertinent to traditional Maori art practices. Pre-colonial Maori artisans were constantly finding innovative solutions... Read more -
Cultural Nature
Gregor Kregar 16 Jun - 10 Jul 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Cultural Nature, Gregor Kregar's inaugural solo exhibition with Gow Langsford Gallery features an immersive environment of gleaming metallic sculpture and glazed stoneware ceramics. Disrupting the conventional gallery space, abstract sculptures hang from the ceiling and seemingly grow from the walls. Several of the structures are highly reflective and mirror the viewer and surrounding space in refracted shards. An integral component of Kregar's practice to date has been the interactive element of much of his work. For this exhibition, in addition to reflective materials such as stainless steel, Kregar has been working with new substances such as chameleon paint. This relies on the viewer's movement around the work to reveal the paint's multi-coloured properties and the theretofore hidden variability of the work.
The distinctive form of Kregar's aluminium and stainless steel works is key to many of the concerns explored within his wider practice. The pieces embody the contradictions of nature versus culture, and the mathematical versus a more intuitive artistic process. Comprised of a number of smaller geometrical units, the works appear self-determining, growing like crystalline formations. Their structure echoes some of our world's more elemental building blocks - of molecules, of DNA. Developed from small cardboard models, Kregar also refers to his large, full size works as models. Inherent in this reference is a realm of possibility, stemming from the artist's interest in Constructivism and utopian architecture, and the different ways in which sculpture can operate. Read more -
3 x 1: A Series of Photographic Exhibitions
25 May - 12 Jun 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Gow Langsford Gallery presents 3 x 1 a series of photography exhibitions. Throughout the series photographers Bruce Jarvis, Simon Devitt and Patrick Reynolds will each exhibit week long exhibitions. The series begins with Rock Legends (25 - 29 May) a series of works by photographer Bruce Jarvis. The series includes... Read more -
Rarohiko
Darryn George 28 Apr - 22 May 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Gow Langford Gallery presents Rarohiko an exhibition of new paintings by Darryn George. The exhibition brings together two bodies of works, Rarohiko and Countdown, and coincides with the launch of the artist's first monograph Darryn George. Read more -
Thomas Ruff: Photographs
26 Mar - 24 Apr 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Gow Langsford Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of photographs by Thomas Ruff.
Thomas Ruff is a celebrated German artist, internationally renowned for his conceptual photographic series. Since the 1980s his work has explored many fields of contemporary life. His first solo exhibition in New Zealand, Thomas Ruff: Photographs includes pieces from four major bodies of work: nudes, portraits, architecture and constellations. Read more -
Dear Beauty, Dear Beast
Reuben Paterson 24 Feb - 20 Mar 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] In colours commissioned especially from the glitter manufacturer Dear Beauty, Dear Beast, is a handsome show of new paintings by Reuben Paterson. The series began for Paterson as a reaction to New Zealand's provocation debate. In the way that previous bodies of work have honoured his whakapapa and found basis... Read more -
New Works
David McCracken 20 Jan - 20 Feb 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] Working from his rail side studio in a converted factory in Parnell, Auckland, David McCracken has created a series of dexterous and minimal works for his first solo show with Gow Langsford Gallery.
Through a combination of processes including hydrostatic pressure McCracken toys with our perception of material forms. His works often appear to transcend their physicality - dense works appear light, solid works appear malleable, impenetrable surfaces appear pliable.
Like inflated toys or helium balloons, his spherical and tear shaped works in New Works appear weightless although they are constructed from dense materials. In two large works McCracken emulates tread plate, a typically light weight metal stock with a regular pattern of raised diamonds. Here panels in the style of tread plate are welded in dense Corten steel, again suggesting a defiance of the traditional elements of his materials.
When exposed to elements the surface of Corten steel develops a stable rust-like appearance. In comparison other works which have highly polished and reflected surfaces, some pieces in New Works have been rain washed adding a painterly quality to the surface to the works.
The relationship between an austere physical presence and more sensuous aesthetic qualities gives McCracken’s sculptures their conceptual efficacy; and refined compositions their striking elegance. Read more -
TAG
James Cousins & Simon Ingram 9 - 23 Jan 2010 Lorne Street [2008 - 2021] TAG is the first exhibition in the INITIATIVE series, a program established to offer gallery artists an opportunity to exhibit more experimental or project based works and to add diversity to the gallery exhibition schedule.
In TAG painters Simon Ingram and James Cousins present an exhibition of new paintings that sit outside their regular exhibiting practice. As the title suggests their joint exhibition promotes an exchange of ideas and provides a new context in which to consider their works. Read more
