The Familiar

My latest exhibition, held with artist Ben Pearce, opened last night at Black Barn Gallery in Hawke's Bay.  My works for this show operated around an idea of creating portraits; capturing memories of people and places through objects.  Below is a selection from the exhibition, see the full group on the gallery's website.


Still life - Self Portrait (2011), cast glass

Wedding Day (2011), cast glass

Interval (2011), cast glass and sterling silver

Mantel Urn - Auckland Art Fair

I have spent the past weeks working on a new large work, the Mantel Urn (2011), which was on show in Masterworks Gallery's display at the recent Auckland Art Fair. This piece was a major development for me technically, being the largest I have made to date. Its imagery draws from the objects I use in my still life and mantel series', reconfiguring these as 2-dimensional motifs which work as a decorative narrative treatment. I am excited about the possibilities this work opens up, so will be developing the series further in the lead up to my next exhibition.

Nga Pou Whenua - Waikato Museum of Art and History

A new work in my still life series, Portrait of my Whanau, is part of the exhibition Nga Pou Whenua currently on at Waikato Museum of Art and History. The exhibition explores the modern story of the four iwi of Tainui, including Ngati Raukawa to which I affiliate.

New Glass Review 32

I was pleased to be selected for the annual New Glass Review - Corning Glass Museum's Periodical of international glass. Each year 100 artists worldwide are selected, this time including a still life from my 2010 exhibition Mantel, originally exhibited at Masterworks gallery in Auckland. I am working on a new work in this series as part of Waikato Museum of Art and History's ongoing exhibition Nga Pou Whenua, which I will post once it is completed.

Matuku Moana Jugs

These works are currently exhibited at the Royal Easter Show at Milford Galleries Queenstown. The Matuku Moana (or Reef Heron) is another endangered species, and the dark blue grey or black plumage is endemic to New Zealand.

Images courtesy of Glenn Frei

Kotuku Jugs

Since the end of 2010 I have been working on a new series of paired works, taking a lead from Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand. The birds are often recorded in male/female pairings in Buller's illustrations.

The first of these new forms reference the Kotuku, or White Heron. Here is one of the early pairings.



Image courtesy of Glenn Frei

Change is in the air

Its been a long time between posts with a change of home and workshop over past months, followed by the distractions of a long hot summer and christmas festivities. Work is catching up now though as the new workshop gets up and running and my new kiln passed its first test firing.

There will be plenty of photos to come as the new series of Kotuku bowls develops for exhibitions in April, but in the meantime here are a couple of photos of the kumete that was commissioned by the University of Waikato collection at the end of last year.