Thistle Hall is a vibrant community centre in the heart of New Zealand's cultural capital. We provide a community hall,
meeting room and Wellington's only community gallery showcasing a range of artists and crafts people, from the
established to the emerging. Thistle Hall is located one the corner of Cuba and Arthur streets. The shows on at Thistle
Hall Community Gallery are run by the artists who hire it.
On Now
7 - 13 JULY 2008
THE SUN IN PINK
Alpha Studio
Open Wednesday to Thursday 10.00am - 2.00pm and 4.:30 - 6.30pm / Friday 10.00am - 2.00pm / Saturday and Sunday 11.00am -
3.00pm.
In the Dennehy household there’s a family legend about the cake that came out of the oven and went “splat” upside down
on the floor. Denise Dennehy recounts this story with a dramatic flourish. This illuminates the title to one of her
latest works, “A Birthday Cake Going Up the Right Way,” which features in an upcoming exhibition at Thistle Hall.
Dennehy’s quirky and winsome paintings are about the familiar things of life; the garden, seasons and celebrations, and
numerous medical checkups, but she imbues them with her own charming perspective. “A Blue Vase in the Sunlight” is
another example. The simple pleasure of such an everyday thing is transformed into a yellow and blue phosphorescence,
giving us a sense of not only the visual, but also the emotional and physical experience.
The exhibition title, “The Sun in Pink” stems from a work by Michael Cupples. Layer upon layer he experiments with
colour combinations which peep through repeated segments, creating the effect of stained glass windows set free from
their constraints. When asked what his paintings are about he responds, “All the colours… That’s it!” Sometimes he
starts painting and then sees something in it, but mostly its all about the colour.
Juliet Nally says that painting is good for her, “when I get mad it helps calm me down.” Nally’s work expresses her love
of the medium of paint. She applies streaks of colour that blend, swirl and literally flow right off the canvas.
Piotrus Knapp is a prolific artist, a master of composition. He has produced a huge body of work, full of surprises, as
he constantly pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved with pencil, pen and oil pastel, crosses, circles, squares
and lines.
Other artists featured in this exhibition are Louise Andersen, Debbie Nilsen, Ashok Bava, Poppy Hill, Shaun O’Riordan,
Tim Badrick, Tim Bagnall, Damon Catchpole, Julie Bradshaw, Martin Kershbaumer, Sharlene Monaghan, Tracey Tse, Peter
Oliver, Piri Kohu, Alan Liu, David Wong, Marie-Louise Cosgrove and Almitra Langton - twenty two artists in all. Only a
few works from each artist have be included, but hopefully we will see many of them showing in individual exhibitions
very soon.
This is no ordinary exhibition, The Sun in Pink is just as delicious as it sounds.
Up Next
14 - 20 JULY 2008
FULL DROP
New work by Massey University textile design undergraduate students
Open daily from 10.00am – 6.00pm 14 - 20 July.
The exhibition combines hand painted and digital wallpaper designs on paper, together with large fabric lengths, hand
screen printed on fabric.
All the work has been created with contemporary marketplace in mind. The wallpaper designs are a combination of
commercially viable projects, developed with the help and guidance of Dave Abbots (Pacific/Vision Wall Coverings),
complimented by a collection of modern designs, using the new Chews Lane Apartments, in Wellington’s CBD, as its primary
focus.
Designed for interior applications and apparel, the fabric lengths combine texture, colour, pattern and imagery inspired
by areas of interest in Wellington. These diverse sites, which the students have chosen include the workman’s porter
cabin at Newtown Hospital, and the monument commemorating Hiroshima in the Botanical Gardens, which have been used to
inspire and drive the development of their final pieces.
The featured projects showcase the student’s skill and understanding of complex systems within textile design, including
colour, form, and the production of repeat patterns.
Visitors to Full Drop can expect to see creative and dynamic work, from a new generation of New Zealand textile
designers, which illustrates how cutting edge design can be inspired by the most unusual, seemingly banal subject
matter.
Images by Chris Jackson, copyright Massey University 2008
Please see http://www.thistlehall.org.nz for more information
ENDS