Major New Exhibition Celebrates New Zealand Artists

Major New Exhibition Celebrates New Zealand Artists

Thirty New Zealand artists explore connections between humanity, nature and art, at a major outdoor art exhibition which opens at The Sculpture Park @ Waitakaruru Arboretum, near Hamilton this weekend.

The exhibition, titled Summer: Sky above, earth below (formerly 'Sculpture in the Park'), is convened by The Waikato Sculpture Trust, and runs from 20 November 2011 to 04 March 2012. It features works from some of New Zealand's most prominent artists, including Barry Brickell, Regan Gentry, and Leon van den Eijkel.

Summer: Sky above, earth below is curated by the highly-regarded Andrew Clifford and is sub-titled 'Sky above, earth below' to reflect the exhibition's relationship to its site and the world around. Clifford is Curator at The University of Auckland's Gus Fisher Gallery; his recent exhibitions include Auckland Council's Living Room: Metropolis Dreaming, the Sean Kerr survey Bruce danced if Victoria Sang... and the touring Pat Hanly show, Seven Ages of Man.

The Sculpture Park is the ideal setting for Clilfford's latest exhibition and supports his vision to "clearly contextualise the works in relation to the Arboretum's extraordinary surroundings, in a relatively open landscape with wide horizons; a situation that is rare in the much tighter confines of city spaces and galleries where art is usually found".

The Sculpture Park is situated on a 17.5 ha (42 acre) hillside site with panoramic vistas over the fertile Waikato valley, containing intimate tree-enclosed spaces and interesting landforms. It recently qualified as a permanent Forest Sink and won the right to sell carbon credits. Clifford says that "in this kind of raw environment, the way we inhabit the earth is much more evident and the environmental concerns addressed by the Waitakaruru Arboretum provide an ideal platform from which to explore these issues."

The Waikato Sculpture Trust facilitates innovative sculpture exhibitions at the Sculpture Park @ Waitakaruru Arboretum and each curator brings his or her own particular vision to the task. The Trust creates three curated exhibitions every year, two of which encompass the entire site, with at least 40 new works in each of the two major seasonal shows. At any time over 60 sculptures are to be seen within the Park. The third event, Refraction, runs every Spring and features outdoor glass sculpture sited in the rock garden area of the Park; an idyllic setting for the only outdoor glass exhibition in New Zealand.

www.sculpturepark.co.nz

ENDS

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