Thursday, August 30, 2012
ARTS - THE city’s public art gallery has focused on looking at the local in the exhibition programme it has scheduled for spring and summer.
Tairawhiti Museum’s new programme is launched on September 21 with the opening of Reckoning, a combined exhibition of both retrospective and contemporary works by renowned East Coast potter Baye Riddell that highlights the development of his work from 1974 to the present day.
A week later sees the opening of Everywhere But Here, a major collection of paintings, sculptures and sketches by local artist Graeme Mudge (QSM), installed to mark his 80th birthday.
From October 5 the museum will show Eighth Wonder, a collection of historic paintings depicting the famous (and long lost) Pink and White Terraces. Curated by artist/teacher Rowan Belcher, the exhibition includes photographs and paintings showing both the Terraces and the eruption that destroyed them, all created by Charles Blomfield, Kennet Watkins and William Crawford.
The vivacious paintings — many depicting the natural world — by John Hovell will again be celebrated in A Coastal Progress (opening November 16), this time in a series of new works that, the museum says, continue to explore the intricacies and visual narratives of kowhaiwhai.
The following week contemporary Maori art school Toihou-kura will open its annual show, which this year is entitled Toi Ora. The traditionally substantial show exhibits the best work created by students and tutors throughout the academic year,
And at the end of November Auckland-based fine arts jeweller Raewyn Walsh returns to her home town to open Accoutrements, a collection of objects that illustrate her ongoing interest both in vessels and in traditional silversmithing techniques.
Meanwhile, after a quiet winter independent Gisborne dealer gallery PaulNache plans to reopen in style on October 19 with The Whaling And Nashing Of Teeth, a collection of works by Las Vegas-based Kiwi artist Matt Couper.