Media Release
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery launches vibrant winter programme
The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's winter programme bursts into life this month with the launch of three exhibitions.
Lil' Mama's Art Klub Colour wheel 2008
Opening on May 31, the winter suite of exhibitions features one of Taranaki's most celebrated and influential artists,
Don Driver; New Delhi-based independent filmmaker Amar Kanwar and a number of MÄori and Pacific artists uniting to
investigate contemporary Pacific art practices.
Don Driver: Banners marks the first major exhibition of Driver's work at the gallery since his 1999 retrospective, With
Spirit.
Banners focuses solely on Driver's robust banner works - texturally rich collages that began in the 1970s and remain a
vital part of the artist's practice today. His assemblages recycle and re-animate ordinary and discarded materials with
wit and visual certitude.
Driver was a pioneer in the use of assemblage which has featured prominently in New Zealand art, experiencing a
resurgence of popularity amongst contemporary artists in the past few years.
For the first time in New Zealand the gallery is proud to present the work of leading independent Indian filmmaker Amar
Kanwar.
Amar Kanwar's poetic documentary films and video works primarily concern issues relating to politics, ecology, violence
and sexuality associated with the South Asian subcontinent.
His films have been shown internationally in film festivals as well as exhibited in an art context in Europe, America
and Asia. His work has been presented in important institutions such as MoMA, Whitechapel and featured in leading
international events including Documenta XI (2002) and XII (2007) and the 2006 Biennale of Sydney.
A Season Outside, which won The Golden Conch award at the 5th Mumbai International Documentary Film Festival in 1998 and
The Golden Gate award at the 42nd San Francisco International Film Festival in 1999, will be screened daily in the
gallery's auditorium at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
Curated by Mercedes Vicente, this exhibition brings a survey of Kanwar's most recent works including the Trilogy films,
The Lightning Testimonies (2007) and his work in progress The Torn First Pages (2008). The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
is the only venue in New Zealand to show Kanwar's work.
Closer to home a number of Pacific artists from throughout Aotearoa New Zealand explore recent developments in
contemporary art of the Pacific, investigating how established and new generations of Maori and Pacific artists living
in Aotearoa New Zealand respond to the complex interplays amongst customary practice, diasporic living and the poetics
of daily life.
Dateline Return is the New Zealand response to the exhibition Dateline: Contemporary Art from the Pacific, a
Govett-Brewster and NBK exhibition that toured Germany 2007-2008.
Featuring a diverse range of artists and practices that stretch across performance, photography, video, painting and
dance, Dateline Return explores issues of knowledge exchange, relationships within communities and connections to land
and sea. As it revisits the shifts over the past twenty years in how MÄori and Pacific artists have defined and
represented themselves, Dateline Return both celebrates and questions the significance of an artist's cultural
affiliations.
Curated by Govett-Brewster Director Rhana Devenport and Assistant Curator Melanie Oliver, Dateline Return includes Edith
Amituanai, Louise Potiki Bryant, Shane Cotton, Lonnie Hutchinson, Shigeyuki Kihara, Andy Leleisi'uao, Li'l Mama's Art
Klub, Janet Lilo, Vea Mafileo, Ani O'Neill, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekowhai, Reuben Paterson, John Pule, Rachel
Rakena, Lisa Reihana, Natalie Robertson, Greg Semu, Filipe Tohi, and Michel Tuffery. Amituanai and Reihana have both
been nominated as finalists for the Walters Prize, New Zealand's most prestigious contemporary art award.
Don Driver: Banners
31 May - 31 August
Amar Kanwar
31 May - 31 August
Dateline Returns
1 May - 24 August
ENDS