Emerging artists get McCahon residency

McCahon House Trust recently announced the three New Zealand artists who have been selected for the 2015 -2016 artists’ residency programme,  Louise Menzies, Bepen Bhana and Suji Park,

The McCahon House residency is awarded to emerging and mid career professional artists and aims to give artists an opportunity to develop their work through a supportive programme while living in the environment that impacted profoundly on the work of Colin McCahon.

Louise Menzies, an Auckland based artist, typically offers the viewer objects, images and situations that explore past and present through attention to the way they are already represented. Her cross-media practice has incorporated film and print into performances and installations.

She has recently returned from being artist in residence at the University of Connecticut Her work featured the group exhibitions Freedom Farmers at the Auckland Art Gallery and in Everybody knows this is nowhere (castillo/corrales, Paris). Menzies, who  takes up her residency in late autumn next year, said of the residency,” I’m honoured and excited to have been awarded this opportunity to undertake this. The focused time and space the residency provides is invaluable, and will allow me to begin a series of new work with an intensity and purpose that can be otherwise difficult to carve out as an artist. I can't wait."

Bepen Bhana is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer and academic based in Auckland. His studio-based research practice encompasses a number of art and design subjects, and is connected conceptually and polemically through critical investigations that examine integral components of Popular Culture. His recent projects include: The Leif Garrett Fun Club at Ferarispace, Postcards From the Edge at Te Tuhi Center for the Arts, the Curry Bunch at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Dream If You Want To Go Faster at the Bledisloe Light Boxes.

Bhana commented on his award “Viewing the calibre of practitioners who have previously been awarded this residency over the past nine years, and what they have gone on to achieve in both their practice and careers post-residency, I’m flattered to be selected for such an esteemed, competitive and highly sort after residency.” Park, a New Zealand-Korean artist, works across a range of media including fired and unfired clay embellished with gold leaf, tempera, garnet, pigment and mica epoxy to create works ranging from iridescent abstract forms to intricately subjective figurative sculpture.

She completed an MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2013 and since then has held numerous solo exhibitions, contributed to work to various group shows and art events throughout Australasia. These three artists have been selected to further develop their skills and practice in an environment that shifts artists into a new context charged with artistic legacy.

Following a rigorous selection process the panel commented, “the applications received revealed the depth and variety of practice around making, materials, research and ideas. The number of fulltime artists in New Zealand is increasing and the residency is a part of that landscape”. During their residency, located in the purposebuilt studio and accommodation adjacent to McCahon House Museum in French Bay Titirangi, the artists will engage with local community and artists though a public programme that includes studio visits and talks. Each artist will contribute a work to the McCahon House Artists Residency collection, and gift work for fundraising purposes.

Alumni work can be seen in the halls of the Lopdell Precinct. The residencies are supported through funding from Creative New Zealand. The trust is supported by many organisations and individuals including: the Trusts Community Foundation, ASB Community Trust, and Waitakere Ranges Local Board.

John Daly-Peoples is a member of the selection panel for the McCahon House Residency