John Leech Gallery along with Gow Langsford Gallery are showing The Daring Young Man on The Flying Trapeze, a collection of new works by New York based painter Max Gimblett in which he combines the abstraction of Western art along with the abstraction
Max Gimblett, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
Gow Langsford Gallery & John Leech Gallery
Until February 26
Max Gimblett, On the Shores of Infinity
Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington
Until March 6
John Leech Gallery along with Gow Langsford Gallery are showing The Daring Young Man on The Flying Trapeze, a collection of new works by New York based painter Max Gimblett in which he combines the abstraction of Western art along with the abstraction of Eastern art. The title of the show comes from William Saroyan's seminal text, The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze),
Gimblett, who has worked in the US since the seventies is in New Zealand for exhibitions he is having in Auckland and Wellington. Earlier this year two works of Gimblett's became part of the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, signaling the regard with which he is held internationally.
This month Christchurch Art Gallery will celebrate the addition of a significant number of Max Gimblett works to their permanent collection. Gimblett is also gifting his old school, Auckland Grammar, a major new painting. And last Sunday at Te Papa he led a workshop on ink drawing and Asian aesthetics.
The Auckland exhibition features nearly forty works which are mainly in his distinctive quatrefoil form and range from small works of 15” x 15” to larger works of 90” x 90”.
The show at John Leech presents a contemplative space with two of his large works including “Orpheus and Eurydice” ($109,250). There are also some elegant small works such as “The Black Knight” ($13,125) in which the paint takes on an almost molten texture.
The exhibition at Gow Langsford is more of a selection of goodies, a colourful display in which he combines playfulness and intensity as well as incorporating a range of stylistic features. The works feature his giant gestural; brush strokes laid over a variety of surfaces. Some of these are appropriations of op artists with works like “The Darkest Night” ($19,950) while others such as “Silver Chariot – After Kandinsky” ($44,100) owe more to graphic designs for M & M’s confectionary.
