Past Exhibition

unpainted. Helen Calder, James Bellaney, Kim Pieters & Fu-On Chung

Tūrei 23 Hepetema -
Hātarei 18 Oketopa

Tuesday 23 September -
Saturday 18 October

2014

multi-coloured paint layered on a surface

James Bellaney, Reading Room (detail), 2014

Considering painting as the premise for this exhibition but not the parameter, unpainted manifests in symmetrical configuration by drawing together four artists. The exhibition is curated by Briar Holt and features work by Helen Calder, James Bellaney, Kim Pieters and Fu On Chung.

The exhibition draws together four artists: two based in Dunedin, two based elsewhere; two positioned as emerging practitioners, two more established.

Kim Pieters’ dreamy moving image soundscape Flame takes on a number of painterly qualities, picturing soft focus renderings of Dunedin’s first church steeple against a background of scumbling and swirling dabs of light.

Dynamic and swirling textural elements are also present in the work of James Bellaney. These are created by the painstaking process of layering and manipulating the trajectory of paint as it travels across the surfaces of large scaled panels.

Helen Calder’s suspended acrylic paint skins have no wall on which to hang, removing any framework that denotes the installation as traditional painting. Calder’s use of intensely saturated colour is reflected her title; red,red,red.red.

As Calder’s works imagine a painterly collapse, Fu-On Chung’s canvas works comment on the potential redundancy of painting. Masked with bright colours and light-reflecting wrapping, Chung’s work is a bittersweet approach to painting as a practice.

Painting for the people is a public arts project about a bunch of various projects made specifically to create an awareness about the social issues relevant to South Auckland. This extends to the wider Auckland Region also.

The projects involved working with local communities to beautify their neighborhood using contemporary arts. Educating our children in a positive way, preventing them from heading down the wrong track. Inspiring our youth to still express themselves but in a legit way that has all the qualities that graffiti has, the only difference is PERMISSION is the key word.

Public Programme: 

Thursday 25 September
5.30pm – 6.30pm  

To coincide with the exhibition, 2014 Creative New Zealand - Tautai Pacific Arts Trust Intern Amiria Puia-Taylor will be giving a talk around her ongoing project  Painting for the People, all welcome.

Friday 10 – Saturday 11 October
Amiria will also be leading Community Practices, the first in a series of Blue Oyster Workshops held in late 2014 and early 2015. Sign up before 30 September by emailing admin@blueoyster.org.nz all welcome and free to attend.

Helen Calder
James Bellaney
Kim Pieters

Kim Pieters (1959) lives and works in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her artistic practice could be described as emergent, adaptive & nonlinear. She is predominantly a nonrepresentational painter and also produces photographs, experimental film, writing and music from her Dunedin studio. Pieters has a tendency to build her work, no matter what genre, around two or more distinct nuclei, using the juxtaposition of these autonomous yet resonant realms to create a clearing of sorts. This clearing allows for thinking itself rather than the mere recognition of thought. Her work is represented in private and public collections including the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki, Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna O Waiwhetu, Victoria University Collection and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Fu-On Chung

Fu-On Chung (1991) is a painter and founding member of GLOVEBOX. Recent exhibitions include: Hoardings of Fury with Philippa Emery, Play_station, Wellington (2017); Nets with Sam Thomas, GLOVEBOX, Auckland, (2016); Painting: A Transitive Space, curated by Simon McIntyre, ST PAUL St Gallery Three, Auckland (2016); Drawing Rehearsals, Two Rooms, Auckland (2016).