Press Release
CITY GALLERY WELLINGTON Wednesday 24 May 2000
Civic Square Contact: Anne Irving
anne.irving@wcc.govt.nz
Speaking of art….
Tours of Winter Season shows
13 May – 13 August 2000
A series of free afternoon guided tours on the Gallery’s Winter Season kicks off this weekend, to inspire and inform
visitors about the exciting New Zealand artwork currently on display.
Exhibitions by three prominent New Zealand artists are featured. Experienced guides take visitors around the shows
giving an outline of the themes and context of the works. Questions are welcome, with talks lasting around 45 minutes.
Tours begin with Michael Parekowhai’s Ten Guitars installation, a multi-layered work that both celebrates and critiques
ideas of racial harmony. New Zealand landscape is a key theme in Bill Hammond’s 23 Pictures. His large-scale paintings
and drawings are an often-hallucinatory take on the landscape (interior, exterior and psychological). Upstairs, Stories
we tell ourselves - The Paintings of Richard Killeen charts thirty years of Killeen’s work, showcasing his progression
from realist paintings of Kiwi ‘types’, to the spectacular ‘cut-out’ works, some of which feature several hundred
fragments.
The first tour starts on Saturday 27 May at 2.30pm. Thereafter, the tours will be at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, until
Sunday 4 June. The Winter Season of free exhibitions continues with two further exhibitions opening on 1 July 2000.
These are Mary Louise Browne’s Out of Character and the Millennium Medallions exhibitions, on display until August 13,
2000. City Gallery Wellington is open 10am-5pm.
Ten Guitars (until 25 June) is An Artspace Touring Exhibition with support from Gow Langsford Gallery. Stories We Tell
Ourselves - The Paintings of Richard Killeen is An Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tâmaki Touring Exhibition, curated by Dr
Francis Pound. Bill Hammond: 23 Big Pictures is A Dunedin Public Art Gallery Touring Exhibition. These exhibitions are
supported by Creative New Zealand.
www.city-gallery.org.nz