Apollo41 is an exhibition exploring the feelings, ideas and wants of my closeted teenage self. Using second hand jackets as a medium, I am considering the common queer experience of living a hidden life, and the idea that LGBTQIA+ people often don’t experience their teenage years like others do because they don’t feel like they can be their authentic self.
All the proceeds from the sales in this exhibition are going to InsideOUT, a national organisation which works with youth, whānau, schools and communities to make Aotearoa a safer place for all rainbow young people to live and be in.
Painting is about being fully present to the moment. I endeavour to stay in the present and explore its possibilities. It’s like a form of meditation or prayer. Suspending judgement and expectations, being open to risk, struggle and joy are what move me. It's a practice of choosing to be in the present moment. I search for quiet spaces and stillness.
The inspiration for my paintings comes as a response to my surroundings; my home, my city, the contrasts of wildness and calm through the seasons, the colours, sounds and feelings. As I work I explore surface, shape, colour, texture, composition and mark making. I try to respond to the sensory experience of being in the landscape, and translate this into colourful narratives that express my inner world and my connection to the natural world around me.
I hope you will find your own quiet spaces in my work.
Wellington based artist Helen Williams presents Close In, her debut solo exhibition of paintings in acrylic and ink on canvas.
Her bold works explore her personal experiences of being both "closed in and close in with myself throughout the past year."
Williams draws upon her love of colour and movement with nature as her subject. Her works portray a vision of the inner and outer landscape that is vivid, explorative, satisfying and deeply comforting.
All works are for sale.
"What does it mean that the earth is so beautiful... and what should I do about it?" ~ Mary Oliver
The artworks in my Victorian Animal Family series present animals as if they were human beings. The viewer is invited to examine the portraits as if they were a family group, a collection of distantly related aunts, uncles, and cousins. Each animal has its own distinct personality and unique story.
The series of ten oil paintings is the culmination of a project that started at the beginning of 2018. Each painting takes several months to complete, as I work in thin glaze layers.
Each painting is accompanied by a small write-up that explains their back-story and relationship to the other characters.
The Weight of Words is the debut solo exhibition by local illustrator Cosmo Bones, combining poetry with gouache and ink work to create dreamy pieces examining mental health.
The pieces I have put together are inspired by my queer community both in Aotearoa, where I now live, and in California, where I grew up. For over fifty years now, the queer community has been represented by a rainbow flag, a symbol of diversity and inclusion, of peace and most importantly of hope. My paintings reflect this in their bright colors and composition, nearly all of them portraits of members of the queer community both here and abroad. Several of my paintings are also nude watercolors, as I seek to celebrate the body through my art.
The events of this year have highlighted (as have many years before for as long as we all can remember) how much work needs to be done to combat racism, so all proceeds will be going to BLM.
Enchanted by Whorls is an exhibition full of patterns, impressions and circles. Seema is inspired by her Fijian Indian culture. She uses acrylic paints, pastels and ink to create her art pieces. Her artwork is colourful and intriguing with a lot of focus on fine detailed work.
Free Workshop - Give Painting a go with Seema, Wed & Thur, 10.30am - 12noon
This exhibition is about Dementia & Art
The Artworks tell a story of an artist daughter supporting her artist mother through a journey together.
The artist laid sheets of paper down in a space with little light, poured on water but couldn’t really see the water, she couldn’t really see where she used a wide flat brush to move the water around, She guessed where it was, she dropped black fluid paint into the water that couldn’t really see. And then she walked away.
This mirrored how the artist felt about the situation she and her mother were in, they couldn’t see the future and they felt they had no control over the outcome.
Painting helped make sense of it all.
Many people share this journey of dementia with a loved one.
Dementia touches so many people. It is important to talk about dementia. This exhibition is an opportunity for discussion in a community venue about dementia, around a core of art and wellbeing.
Artists: Helen Casey, Shawna Chow, Corinne Goedbloed, Charlotte Hird, Rika Nagahata, Andrea Robinson, Annette Straugheir
Seven Wellington artists display a body of recent work inspired by the natural world featuring both figurative and impressionist styles with distinctive themes.
New Zealand provides rare gems of beauty in fauna and flora and here they are captured in seven unique ways. From playful layering and bold brushstrokes to intricate lines and patterns. We display visual narratives that tell stories about the land we love.
On display are delicate expressive watercolour landscapes, dramatic flowers and detailed birds which capture transparency and magic. There are large and small compositions in oil and textured acrylic works, with bold colours alongside serene graphite works.
Our styles are expressive and diverse, yet all works bring to life the beauty and drama of the New Zealand wilderness. We want to share our passion for art with the people of Wellington.
Helen Casey:
Makara Art Gallery, helen@helencasey.co.nz
Shawna Chow:
Bluekotukudesign@gmail.com, Facebook, Instagram
Corinne Goedbloed:
corinnegoedbloed@gmail.com, Instagram
Charlotte Hird:
charhird@gmail.com, Website, Facebook
Rika Nagahata:
info@rikas-art.com, Facebook, Instagram, Website
Andrea Robinson:
arobinsonfineart@gmail.com, Facebook, Instagram, Website
Annette Straugheir:
Ever since Maui first pulled his fish up from the depths, the sea has had a constant influence on Wellington and its people. It forms the land, the weather, the colours, and our feelings. We are surrounded by it and immersed in it.
To celebrate this unique relationship a group of some of Wellington’s finest artists are presenting an exhibition of ocean inspired paintings, prints and jewellery.
Artists: Jeremy Bennett, Margaret Elliot, Annie Hayward, Gerda Leenards, Steve Mahoney, Alfred Memelink, Lindsay Missen
Jewellery designer Rob Wright and Belinda Lubkoll, a combination of New Zealand meets Europe.
Simplicity and flowing designs with punchy colours are the result. Their collections are on display from 7th September to 13th September.
I am a Wellington-based painter. This is my first solo exhibition and includes two recent series of large-scale work – the Hound series and the Rally series.
The rhythmic colour studies that make up both series aim to capture a sweet spot between tension and release.
I am drawn to process and exploring how colour, light and form interact. Equally important to my life and practice is following my intuition; being playful and inquisitive.
I see abstraction as a representation of emotional states. I am interested in capturing the ebb and flow of a person’s inner life. What cannot be articulated, like in these paintings the experience of grief and settling into new states of being in the world.
‘Look’ Exhibition is a collaborative multimedia collection of works by MEAN Productions featuring Young Photographic. Three young female artists based in the Wellington Region working in a range of artistic mediums including short film, design structures, sculptures and photography to highlight the stresses and concerns of the Z generation.
This project is very near and dear to us as a team. It was a very different experience, one that made us feel quite vulnerable while making these pieces. We are very proud of what we will achieve with this exhibition and this is just the beginning of our journey and we are looking forward to future projects around all types of mental health.
Two fluids - air and water
What if the air was water? what if sea-levels rise and some of the air becomes water? and what will become of the sea’s wonderful inhabitants as the oceans warm?
Is there anything in the world more graceful than the leisurely flight of an eagle-ray?
Sometimes we only really SEE the astounding beauty of the natural world when it’s taken out of context….Mountains, bush as homes for eels; whales swimming through air….
"Apply" came as an idea to engage with the audience through our own and collaborative work, to create and achieve something that would inform and engage the community in the dialogue; we really enjoy working together. This exhibition is a showcase of practise and an invitation to learn and enquire.
Gill - My creativity is driven by lack of personal direction when I became unwell. “ I offend my own definition of an artist. I am an object maker and idea generator. I question the need for art to be beautiful or perfect--- I like and require some social comment to flow from my creations. I consider my work, ideas that I throw to the universe for others (more skilled and dedicated), to explore and grow.”
Aleksandra - My creativity is driven by nature my life force, my muse. Process of making and creative thinking is what interests me. I am a mixed media artist, creative process knows no bounds, a kind of originality that knows no limits.
Humbugaa presents “To Be Continued…” as part of an ongoing dialogue between architecture and the visual arts. Students from the Wellington School of Architecture and artists who have trained or taught at The Learning Connexion show work that reaches across the disciplinary divide between architecture and the visual arts, while preserving a commitment to their own discipline. The work connects a range of creative processes and formal tactics, and explores how some of these could scale up to impact the way we make cities. Design research on the Wellington suburb of Hataitai, which was presented at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2019, is also presented as a case study for how creative processes and formal tactics shared between architecture and visual arts might lead to richer urban experiences.
Take the works of half a dozen guitar makers and throw them all in one gallery to see how they all relate. In some cases the only thing they will have in common are strings, bridges and tuning machines. Some of these luthiers have been in their field for forty years, others recently got the guitar making bug.
We'll have many acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, ukes and even cigar box guitars on display, with most being for sale. Some makers present their works in natural wood tones, while others blast their works with bright paint and fit rusted pickgutards.
Contact Paddy Burgin
Song Lines. When one throws a pebble in the water, the ripples travel on beyond being still visible to the naked eye. This exhibition is inspired by the echoes of a Nikau forests. Trees and pagan rights and spirits are all connected . This is the base of this series of the works collectively and yet has it own individual stamp on it. For the “Is and Isn’t “are closely connected. Like day and night. To me dawn and dusk are the letter box in the day. Where night slips into the day and vice. Namaste.
Bruce and Roger have each been taking photographs for over half a century. Recently, Bruce has been combining old film and digital cameras with a mixture of lenses and Roger has been exploring high-resolution digital cameras (up to 151 megapixels) and developing “Scrollups” as a way to affordably present large images (at least one metre in each dimension) without the hassles of the weight and bulk of large works framed under glass.
Bruce will be presenting a range of images that explore and define his own aesthetic. The subject of the images are centred around his varied life interests. “Art implies control of reality, for reality itself possesses no sense of the aesthetic. . .“–Ansel Adams.
Roger will be showing large images covering a broad spectrum—from the quirky to hero images of items found in the landscape to pinhole images (pictures taken without a lens).
This exhibition portrays Aotearoa’s nature and wildlife, created by two artists whose ethnic origins are East Asia. Yeong Kyung is from South Korea and Ayumi is from Japan.
Both Ayumi and Yeong like immersing themselves in the beauty and nature of their adopted country. They particularly love and appreciate New Zealand’s unique bird-life and birdsong that have been part of Aotearoa since the dawn of time. They wish to engage and connect to others who also appreciate Aotearoa’s precious taonga - the native species both birds and plants; but to experience it from their very unique perspective as ‘manahiri’ to Aotearoa.
taonga - treasure, manuhiri - visitors
Yeong:
Ayumi: