Singular opportunity to meet favourite artists

Media Release
Wednesday 1 July 2009

Singular opportunity to meet favourite artists face to face at NZ Affordable Art Show

A chance to meet face to face with some of their favourite artists is being offered to art fanciers who visit the New Zealand Affordable Art Show in Wellington later this month.

Eighty-seven artists – 73 individuals and two groups - have been selected to mount exclusive displays of their works and will be in attendance to talk to visitors.

These displays – known as Single Artist Walls – have been highly sought after among the total 600 exhibitors chosen for this year’s show. The usual number of works allowed per artist is restricted to three items in the genres of oil, acrylic, watercolour, photography, etchings, mixed media, ceramic, glassware, mosaic and sculpture.

“The walls offer the public a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and view a wider selection of their current work,” New Zealand Affordable Art Trust executive director Carla Russell says.
“For the artists it is a time for promoting themselves and gaining valuable contacts. We staged a smaller number of Single Artist Walls at last year’s show and they were such a success we are making them an ongoing feature.”
The New Zealand Affordable Art Show at the TSB Arena from July 31 to August 2 is an annual event open to new, emerging and established artists from all over the country. Artists selected for the show have their work seen by thousands of prospective customers over the three days – more than 10,000 attended last year. All the art must be original and priced under $5,000.
The show is a cash and carry event. Once an artwork is purchased, it is taken by the buyer and the space is filled by another piece of art.
The show is run by a charitable trust which means costs to the artist are kept to a minimum. An objective of the trust is to give artists the tools and confidence to promote themselves. During the past five years nearly $3 million has been returned to the artists whose works have been bought at the show.

ENDS

Some of the artists selected for Single Artist Walls this year are:

* Barbara Franklet, Nelson

Barbara Franklet says she is more of a graphic designer than an artist and loves folk and outsider art. Her work translates everyday life into whimsical and lively images. Barbara worked as a professional artist for 12 years in the United States. Her works hang throughout the world as well as in children’s hospitals in her home state of Texas. Fort Worth Library, Texas, recently turned several of her images into giant banners to hang in its newly renovated library.

* Bee Doughty-Pratt, Otaki
Bee Doughty-Pratt, is based at her home studio on the banks of the Otaki River. Bee’s preference is to work intuitively in layered oils and inks on heavily textured, canvas and board. This creates depth and interest in her contemporary abstract paintings which employ deeply vibrant colours. She usually works on large canvases of at least 1m x 1m, though sometimes an inspiration will trigger her to produce a smaller work. “Every day is an experiment,” she says.

* Samuel Sakaria, Wellington

Samuel Sakaria works as an illustrator in Wellington. The art he will exhibit at the show is rich in symbolism, such as his Goldilocks oil painting which is a tribute to New Zealand and its guidance over the Pacific, particularly Samuel’s birthplace of Tokelau. Other paintings feature well-known Wellington sites like the Carillon National War Memorial.

* Dave Sotogi, Auckland

Dave Sotogi was born and raised on Auckland’s North Shore of Samoan and European descent. His oil colours demonstrate a love of colour and texture and are contemporary in style with a New Zealand flavour. His works collected worldwide.

ENDS

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