THE LANDSCAPES OF REG MOMBASSA & ANTPODEAN SCENERY: VIEWS FROM THE EYES OF A CAR
NZ Exhibition and Limited Edition Book & Print launch
Artist, musician and poet Reg Mombassa has been part of the fabric of our pop culture for nearly 40 years. His
hyper-coloured, irreverent images of Antipodean life – in particular his graphics for surfwear label Mambo – have made
him one of Australasia’s most recognisable artists. He’s also famous for being in popular bands Mental As Anything and
Dog Trumpet.
But Reg is a man who evades labelling; what many people don’t know about him is that for the largest part of his career
he has been painting and exhibiting landscapes. Now, for the first time, over 200 of his iconic landscapes, painted
between 1968 and the present, have been brought together in a stunning limited edition book. Created on paper, canvas
and board using oil and acrylic paint, charcoal, coloured pencils, pastels and glitter, the landscapes are presented in
(more or less) chronological order with some themed sections, including a complete chapter on Waiheke Island, which Reg
visited recently. Reg’s work is accompanied by his own written commentary, explanation and semi-absurd observations.
Inspired by the rural environment of his New Zealand childhood, Reg began painting landscapes as a teenager and has
continued to do so in his adopted Australian home. Many of his early works are featured, including a series of paintings
of the houses where he grew up in Papakura. “I have always had a keen interest in the landscape. As a child I
experienced it directly by roaming around the wet hills and climbing the big black macrocarpa trees that were usually
just over the back fence of our family homes,” says Mombassa.
Oftentimes his images have been sketched looking out of car or bus windows while on the road with his bands. Says
Mombassa, “There are certain aspects of the landscape that I am drawn to: such things as hedges and shrubs, roads and
tracks, tree trunks and telegraph poles, power stations and factories and rolling green hills. I occasionally go on art
trips to the wilderness or visit friends who live in the bush to draw or paint en plein air, but the maximum
appreciation of the landscape is best achieved through a car windscreen or motel window, as that is how the majority of
humans perceive the natural world in modern times.”
Presented in a beautifully crafted clamshell presentation box, THE LANDSCAPES OF REG MOMBASSA limited edition book is accompanied by a signed and numbered limited edition print depicting the kengaroo – Reg’s
amalgam of the kiwi and the kangaroo, one of his many observations on the sociopolitical status of trans-Tasman
relationships – and is available in an edition of 500 from Auckland’s Whitespace, Wellington’s Bowen Galleries and
selected book stores.
Reg is returning to his native Auckland as the feature artist for Artweek Auckland, kicking off an exhibition of his
landscapes at Whitespace in Auckland on 8 October 2016 that runs until 6 November, followed by an exhibition at Bowen
Galleries in Wellington from 10–30 November
ANTPODEAN SCENERY: VIEWS FROM THE EYES OF A CAR
White Space Contemporary Art, Ponsonby
8 October – 6 November 2016
Tues-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-4pm & Sun 11am-3pm