2013 is off to a glittering start with Reuben Paterson

REUBEN PATERSON
Meinong's Jungle

29 January - 23 February 2013

Opening Preview: Tuesday 29 January 2013, 5.30 - 7.30pm

Deep in the metaphorical jungle at the centre of this exhibition a three-dimensional, hand-made clay orchid glitters serenely, impervious to any threat from the life-size carnivorous creatures that gaze upon it. This immediate juxtaposition of beauty and danger captures the polarities that have long characterised Reuben Paterson’s work. Well-known for his distinctive glitter paintings, Paterson has seduced, teased and provoked. In his paintings, glitter has entered the galleries of the world with its own complex set of connotations overlying an active, albeit more subtle, engagement with the politics of race, history, gender and sexuality.

As Magritte famously declared, in his 1928 painting The Treachery of Images, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" or “This is not a pipe”, so too here Paterson plays with ideas of perception, representation and how art operates in the world. Notions of the imaginary, the dreamy sub-conscious and the real are further reinforced with the exhibition title derived from the late 19th and early 20th century Austrian philosopher Alexius Meinong who proposed a theory of objects, including things that can exist in the mind rather than the world. These ‘homeless’ non-existent objects, which he argued were as real as any other objects, were said to live in Meinong’s Jungle.

Bartley + Company Art is proud to present this exhibition of sculptural works, paintings and prints, which amazingly is the artist’s first commercial show in Wellington. He has, however, had a major exhibition at the Pataka Art Museum in Porirua in 2011 and been included in shows at Te Papa and the Adam Art Gallery. Paterson featured prominently in the opening of the new Auckland Art Gallery with a major interactive learning installation. His work has been included in the Biennale of Sydney (2010), Asia Pacific Triennial, Brisbane (2009), Prague Biennial (2005), and in exhibitions at PLUG-IN Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg (2011), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2007), and the Rarotongan Cultural Centre (2003), as well as public institutions throughout New Zealand and Australia. Paterson completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts in 1997, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma of Teaching.
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Coming up next: Roger Mortimer
A new exhibition of paintings with, for the first time, digital prints. Please enquire if you would like to see more of this work in advance of the exhibition opening.

ENDS

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