Diary February 22 – March 1VISUAL ARTSPhilip Trusttum, Horse SeriesWhitespaceFebruary 23 – March 12The Horse Series is inspired by Johnny, the artist's much-loved quarterhorse.These energetic paintings reveal his close study of his horses in p
Diary February 22 – March 1
VISUAL ARTS
Philip Trusttum, Horse Series
Whitespace
February 23 – March 12
The Horse Series is inspired by Johnny, the artist’s much-loved quarterhorse.
These energetic paintings reveal his close study of his horses in playful and vibrant renditions. The figurative elements within the abstract paintings depict personal experience while allowing viewers their own interpretation.
This exhibition includes works dating back to the 80s alongside recent works.
Felix Kelly: A Kiwi at Brideshead
Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland St, Auckland
February 26 - 10 April 10
Auckland born, Felix Kelly (1914-1994) left New Zealand as a young man for the bright lights of London. He never returned, but, unlike other New Zealand expatriate painters who quickly removed their homeland from their subject matter, Kelly kept painting an increasingly misremembered New Zealand which with each new work became a more and more fantastical place.
Kelly established himself as a graphic designer in 1930s London before moving seamlessly into stage and interior design in the 1950s. All this time he was also establishing himself as a painter of note. Initially exhibiting alongside Lucian Freud and Julian Trevelyan – and on one occasion Frances Hodgkins – Kelly soon developed a romantic, surreal style entirely his own, and cultivated a rich, upper-class clientele whom he supplied with house portraits, straight or strange as they preferred. In this his career bore a startling resemblance to that of Charles Ryder in the Evelyn Waugh novel, Brideshead Revisited.
Focusing on Kelly’s output until the mid 1960s, the exhibition ranges from paintings to book illustrations, and from cartoons to design for the stage. This body of work shows Kelly as an artist of whimsical imagination and invention. It also adds a new complexity and depth to New Zealand’s art history.
Reuben Paterson, Dear Beauty, Dear Beast
Gow Langsford Gallery
February 24 - March 20
Dear Beauty, Dear Beast, is a show of new paintings by Reuben Paterson which uses colours commissioned especially from the glitter manufacturer.
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 in the emotional responses to his genealogy, Paterson views these works, in part, as a personal homage to the victims of murder cases which have successfully used the provocation or "gay panic" defence.
The work suggests that in the same way that we have an underlying culture of racism, there is also an underlying culture of homophobia.
Dear Beauty, Dear Beast, coincides with Paterson's inclusion in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery (5th December 2009 5 April 2010) and precedes his exhibition at the 17th Biennale of Sydney (May 12 - August 1 2010).
MUSIC
Auckland Philharmonia, Exhibition Opening
APN News & Media Premier Series
February 25, 8.00pm
Auckland Town Hall, The Edge
Eckehard Stier, Conductor
Eugene Mursky, Piano
Corigliano, The Mannheim Rocket
Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No.3
Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel), Pictures at an Exhibition
APO Music Director Eckehard Stier presents the vivid wonders of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Making his NZ debut, young powerhouse Eugene Mursky displays his mastery of Prokofiev’s explosive Piano Concerto No.3. The concert launches with Corigliano’s brilliantly conceived symphonic fantasia, The Mannheim Rocket.
Eight paintings from Philip Trusttum’s Pictures from an Exhibition series, on loan from the James Wallace Arts Trust, will be hung inside the Auckland Town Hall on the day of the concert.
