Prize takes Darcy Lange exhibition to Europe

Media Release

 
12 August 2009

Prize takes Darcy Lange exhibition to Europe as video pioneer’s reputation grows

Pioneering New Zealand video artist Darcy Lange gains a new European audience next week – thanks to a prize-winning bid by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

Curator Mercedes Vicente won this year’s Igor Zabel Competition at the Moderna Galerija in Slovenia.

Her winning proposal sees a selection of Darcy Lange’s videos, 16mm film and photography from his Work Studies series on show in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana. The works are from the Gallery’s collection and in association with the NZ Film Archive.

The annual Igor Zabel Competition is held by Slovenia’s Moderna Galerija (Museum of Modern Art) the national institution for modern and contemporary art.

Prize-winners exhibit in Mala Galerija, a highly-frequented free access exhibition space in the centre of Ljubljana. Over recent decades Mala Galerija has hosted exhibitions by numerous internationally-renowned artists and prominent guest curators from all over the world.

Darcy Lange (1946-2005) was one of the first artists to use the long take, recording in real-time people performing daily work tasks. His experimental video work of the 1970s and 1980s is receiving renewed attention nationally and internationally. Last year Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery exhibited Work Studies in Schools and Electronic Art Intermix will soon be offering Lange’s videos for international distribution.

Interest is also being fuelled by Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work, released in May. Edited by Mercedes Vicente, the book was born out of the 2006 Govett-Brewster retrospective of the same name, which travelled nationally. Published with generous support from Creative New Zealand, Taranaki Electricity Trust and the Govett-Brewster Foundation, it is available through the Gallery’s Art and Design Shop, at selected bookstores and internationally through Cornerhouse.

ENDS

© Scoop Media