Stunning portraits of New Zealand artists

Martin Ball, Recent Portraits
John Leech Gallery
Until August 27

Martin Ball's current show at the John Leech Gallery continues his series of portraits of important New Zealand artists. This show features dancer Tai Royal along with artists Sara Hughes, Sofia Tekela-Smith, Max Gimblett and Reuben Paterson

He has previously painted Arnold Wilson, Stanley Palmer, Dick Frizzell, Robert Ellis and Ralph Hotere.

The show could be seen as a major marketing campaign by the gallery as all those artists featured are ones who regularly show at the John Leech Gallery or the Gow Langsford Gallery.

As in his previous work we are confronted with photo realist works which on closer inspection seem to be more realist than photographs.

The artist’s application of colour is more like the adding of cosmetics to the skin leaving sheen of unreality.

Unlike many portraits he avoids inclusion of any background or devices that provide symbols or metaphoric additions to the person. Sofia Tekela-Smith ($6800), however, appears to be wearing one of her own necklaces.

He also attempts to remove any sense of emotion in the subjects face and most of them avoid the viewers gaze and, in the case of Max Gimblett ($6800), where he is depicted side on, the view is more like that of a traditional medallion

His use of the photograph is not so much as a visual aid to his painting but rather the subject of the paintings itself. This helps create a distance between the subject and the portrait image.

Photo realist painting touch on the whole notion of realism and representation, the realistic surface drawing the viewer’s attention to the tension that exists between the realism and the abstraction of the painted surface.

In this process the artist verges on being a contemporary magician, deceiving the audience into believing that he has created a lifelike figure.

He also likes s to play with his own skills, showing off to the viewer. In Jacqueline Fahey ($48,000) the silver earrings are rendered as sculptural lustrous objects but the subject’s lips which he could have made as well defined are by contrast a misty transition from skin to lips.

It is the older of the subjects which offer the artist more scope with the detailing of the faces. Jacqueline Fahey and Max Gimblett have wrinkles and folds that become an ideal surface for the artist to create a landscape of crevices, hollows and ridges while the younger skin of Sara Hughes ($6800) has less to offer with her smoother skin.

The stubble on the faces of Reuben Paterson ($35,000) and Tai Royal ($6800) also provides the artist with a surface which allows for texture and solidity.