Judy Millar's Red Red Orange

5 February - 1 March 2014

You are warmly invited to attend the opening preview and to meet Judy
Wednesday 5 February, 5.30 – 7.30pm.

We are proud to present Judy Millar’s second solo exhibition in the gallery. The exhibition title draws attention to the role of colour in Millar’s work. Hot, strong, joyful, fiery, wild colour.

Much has been written about the Millar gesture - its bold, expansive, assured form swirling across her chosen surface whether canvas, paper or vinyl or, as we have seen most notably in her Venice Biennale exhibitions in 2009 and 2011, taking painting off the wall and into sculptural form out into space and the world. However here in this exhibition of three large and one smaller painting, paint remains contained and the place of colour in her work is foregrounded.

It is this colour that we respond to emotionally or sensually in the first instance before the intellect steps up and engages, drawing us in to Millar’s underlying project - a sustained investigation of the issues and challenges of painting and its place today’s visual economy today. Rather than the issues of representation and the tension between two and three-dimensional space that have more often been discussed in relation to Millar’s work, what first comes to mind here are ideas about how painting engages with the emotions. Again history provides the springboard with Kandinsky and his colour theories and Rothko and the colour field painters of the mid 20th century providing the starting point to let us think both about how art makes us feel personally and how it operates in a way that is quite different to its antecedents. Formal purity is not a concern of this 21st century abstraction, what is more relevant is a kind of subversive questioning of possibility and progress.

Alongside the exhibition we will be launching a new billboard by Judy Millar.

One of New Zealand’s most acclaimed painters, Millar represented New Zealand at the 2009 Venice Biennale and in the 2011 Biennale was included in a major collateral exhibition. Based in Berlin and Auckland, she has exhibited throughout the world for 20 years.

Happy new year and the very best wishes for 2014. We have a strong programme coming up for you and are looking forward to a great year. As we celebrate our 5th birthday, we are enjoying hearing news of a soaring economy - the most positive talk we have heard in five years.

ENDS

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