Fugitive Beings - photographs by Fiona Pardington

Fri, 10 Sep 2004

Fiona Pardington: Fugitive Beings Bartley Nees Gallery, 14 September - 9 October, 2004

Fugitive Beings - new photographs by Fiona Pardington

Museums continue to provide Fiona Pardington with the subject matter for her classic silver gelatin photographs. Following her exploration of pounamu heitiki, Fiona has moved on to explore the birds that she describes as "this country¹s other great treasure".

The title of the exhibition comes from a diptych featuring the heads of a huia and a kiwi. As Peter Shand has written: "They are stilled for us but as they refuse to be gathered up entirely, refuse to be known wholly, they seem to return to their loftier habitats and are all the more elusive for being present for us but forever evading our grasp."

Please find an invitation to the opening attached. The invitation image, Te Raukura (2004) shows moa feathers from the Te Papa collection and the image attached is MO AKE TONU/ETERNITY (2004)

For a high resolution or print quality image of the above please contact Amy or Alison at the gallery. The following is our quarterly newsletter. Should you require further information or images please do not hesitate to contact us.

-- Bartley Nees Gallery 147 Cuba Street, Wellington Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5.30pm, Saturday 11am - 3pm Phone: 04 801 9795 Please visit our website at http://www.bartleyneesgallery.co.nz/ to view our current exhibition and our online catalogue of works in stock

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Bartley Nees Gallery Newsletter September 2004

simon morris and sara hughes exhibition closes saturday, don¹t miss it!

In a very good review of this show, critic Mark Amery described these painters as making "a persuasive case for abstraction¹s recharged relevance." Sara¹s dynamic paisleys fly across the walls and interact superbly with Simon¹s more restrained geometries. Amery has provided a superb analysis of Simon¹s work ­ if you missed the review, we quote from it on our website ­ see the Simon Morris artist page. Both artists have also produced beautiful works on paper which can be viewed in the gallery or on our website. sara hughes catalogue available for sale in the gallery: The Hocken Library of the University of Otago has produced a very smart catalogue examining the work of the 2003 Frances Hodgkin¹s Fellow. Good images and strong essays make this a must have book for anyone interested in contemporary abstraction.

melbourne art fair

"Private, commercial galleries promote and support contemporary art and living artists. They are crucial in developing the reputation of artists before public galleries and private collectors are ready to acquire their work." Bronwyn Johnson, Director of the Melbourne Art Fair. It¹s great to see the role of commercial galleries celebrated and the Melbourne Art Fair certainly provides a great snapshot of contemporary art practice in the Asia Pacific region. Bartley Nees Gallery has been given a very prominent stand right in the middle of the ground floor of the Royal Exhibition Hall, so if you happen to be in Melbourne at the time please come and say hello. We are showing the work of Sara Hughes, Judy Millar, Simon Morris, Anne Noble, Fiona Pardington and Wayne Youle. All artists are attending the fair and will be giving a floortalk on their work at 5pm on Thursday 30 September. You are invited!

painting in the 21st century

With the emergence of post-object conceptual art in the 1970s, the death of painting became a frequently debated topic in the last two decades of the 20th century. As is obvious, however, painting has not died and we are starting to see quite a bit of writing about the ongoing vitality and relevance of the medium. The British art magazine Contemporary last Christmas featured a very good article by the eminent American art historian Linda Nochlin (most famous for her 1972 essay "Why have there been no great women artists") exploring the reasons for painting¹s survival. The Mark Amery review of the Morris Hughes exhibition referred to above also took this subject as its theme.

new features on the website Please note we have introduced two new features on our website; firstly a new featured works section so we can draw your attention to interesting new work that isn¹t on exhibition; under available works a new button so you can easily see recently added work.

introducing daniel du bern Artist Daniel du Bern has recently joined our team as a part-time gallery assistant. Daniel graduated with a Fine Arts degree from Massey University last year and currently has work in an exhibition of new artists at Artspace in Auckland. He will also be showing work at the Hirschfeld Gallery later this month.

artists¹ news

judy millar is currently showing in two exhibitions in Europe. A solo show at the leading Mark Muller Gallery in Zurich has been very well received with Judy¹s work selling well. Judy and Stephen Bambury, along with two Icelandic artists, are in an exhibition at the Kunstverein Ludwigsburg in Germany which examines the apparent contradiction in artists from two of the most remote parts of the world who might normally be categorised as "exotic" following more of a "pure" European tradition.

shigeyuki kihara is another artist attracting international attention and she has a very busy year ahead with exhibitions scheduled for Auckland, Sydney, New York and possibly London and Paris in 2005. Most excitingly for Yuki, she has been picked up by the Sherman Gallery, a high profile Sydney¹s gallery, and she will be having a solo show there next March.

simon morris is included in an exhibiton at Artspace in Sydney this month exploring the extension of painting into installation, architecture and video work.

anne noble is in a show with four other photographers at the Monash University Museum of Art. The Line Between Us: the maternal relation in contemporary photography, featuring 16 works from Anne¹s Ruby¹s Room series, runs until late October. At the Melbourne Art Fair, Anne will show some new work from her Antarctica series investigating the representation of the southern continent in diverse locations around the world. She also has a show in the gallery in October.

fiona pardington, natalie robertson, niki hastings-mcfall and sofia tekela-smith are all included in the major Christchurch art event: Scape Art and Industry Urban Arts Biennial 04. This third biennial explores the influence of the Asia Pacific region on the cultural evolution of Aotearoa New Zealand and consists of major public artworks, site-specific artworks and a range of exhibitions. Wayne Youle also has a work showing in Christchurch at the Physics Room Kiosk.

congratulations to chiara corbelletto who was recently named one of the four winners of the Arts Regional Trust¹s CUBE artist awards ­ the first ever creative sector ideas programme. Chiara and designer Katy Wallace are developing a system of wall-covering designs that will be seen throughout the Auckland region, from residential to commercial and civic buildings. Chiara¹s newest work can be seen in the gallery in November.

art new zealand this quarter features Sara Hughes on the cover and contains articles on her work and that of Max Gimblett, who has a show of new work with us in December. Simon Morris also gets a mention in the Wellington review for his work at Show, a newish artist-run gallery providing a site for more experimental practice.

Regards Alison Bartley, Tim Nees, Amy Wright and Daniel du Bern

-- Bartley Nees Gallery 147 Cuba Street, Wellington Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am - 5.30pm, Saturday 11am - 3pm Phone: 04 801 9795 Check out our website at

http://www.bartleyneesgallery.co.nz/

ENDS

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