The artist turned Apple into wine

Billy Apple®: Official Selection
The Waiheke Community Art Gallery
September 28 - October 15

This year marks 50 years of the Billy Apple® brand. As part of the global celebrations, Apple has worked with Waiheke winemakers to produce Billy Apple®: Official Selection.

It features premium red wines from the 2010 vintage from the Waiheke vineyards of Kennedy Point, Man O’War, Miro, Obsidian, Peacock Sky and Poderi Crisci.

Apple’s contribution to New Zealand art, both here and abroad, is immense. As one of the “young contemporaries,” he was at the vanguard of British pop.

In 1964, he moved to the US, where he showed alongside the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, later becoming one of the pioneers of New York conceptual art.

His tours of New Zealand galleries in the late 1970s were seminal moments in our art history, and since his return in 1990 he has been one of the most influential figures in the contemporary scene.

Over many years he has worked with New Zealand winemakers producing works with Collards (1983 and 1989), Corbans (1993) and Villa Maria (1999). In 1990 he produced his Good as Gold golden rose with Robard and Butler which came either as a single 375ml bottle or a case of 16.

The forthcoming auction of work from the Les and Millie Paris collection at Art + Object on September 20 features a couple of single bottles ($300 for the pair) and an unopened case ($1000).

The Waiheke exhibition will be his first collaboration with the six Waiheke wineries, with each of the 50 cases numbered to commemorate each year from 1962 to 2012 of the Billy Apple® art brand.

The works are priced accordingly: $1962 for gallery members and $2012 for non-members. The design of the case, and the layout of the show, will also follow one of Apple’s other defining traits: his use of the Golden Section.

Waiheke Community Art Gallery director Linda Chalmers says “it’s a real thrill for us to be exhibiting the work of Billy Apple on Waiheke. He is an inspirational New Zealand artist who is extremely generous in his support of the gallery”.

The exhibition will also include a survey of Apple’s wine works. They will be presented together for the first time, shedding light on the unique way he has worked with winemakers to investigate the intersection between advertising, product design and contemporary art.

A publication will accompany the exhibition, with a short essay by art critic and Waiheke resident Anthony Byrt.