Web-based virtual gallery art consultancy launched

Web-based virtual gallery and art consultancy launched

The inaugural exhibition of the new web-based virtual gallery, Bartley and Company Art marks a first for New Zealand art, as the first exhibition by an established artist presented online.

Wellington photographer Neil Pardington is exhibiting his latest series of photographs ‘The Vault’ on www.bartleyandcompanyart.co.nz

The exhibition plays on the idea of the camera being a storehouse of ideas and images or, as Kodak would have it, memories. Pardington, who is also an award-winning designer and filmmaker, developed his ideas for this new series when working behind the scenes at Te Papa as the designer for the book on Te Papa collections -Icons Nga Taonga.

Pardington says this series focuses on the places we store those things that are most precious to us, and conversely those very similar spaces we store the obsolete and unwanted.

“In the process of making this new body of work I am visiting archives, museums, art galleries, banks, libraries, hospitals and the like. But it’s not the face, or front-of-house of these places that I am exploring, but the storage areas themselves – the back-of-house vaults, archives and basements.

“These images have their own rhythm or heartbeat and are redolent with the collected culture and history of those things we deem important enough to keep, and those we too easily discard. And in the end we may wonder which tells us more about ourselves.”

Bartley and Company Art has been established as a new way of working in the art world. The new venture will operate primarily in the virtual web-based world but will also hold exhibitions and open days on a regular basis. People wanting to buy work will be able to view it before committing to their purchase.

Other artists showing with Bartley and Company Art include photographer Anne Noble, painters Kelcy Taratoa and Andre Hemer, sculptor Brett Graham and multi-media artist Mary-Louise Browne. More artists will join the gallery as it evolves over the coming year.

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