Rhondda Greig's Exhibition on Home, Paint and Poem: First there was Phoenician
30 November 2019 – 9 February 2020
Opening function - everyone is invited, Friday 29 November, 5.30pm
Exhibition is open daily, 10am – 4pm, free entry.
In the new exhibition First there was Phoenician, the Carterton-based artist Rhondda Greig explores the notion of home through painted letters and words. She also bridges
the space and time between the script of ancient Phoenicia and contemporary living.
“This exhibition is a fine showcase of Rhondda Greig’s skills as both graphic artist and poet,” says Aratoi Director
Susanna Shadbolt. “Not many artists work at such a high standard in the two media.”
The artist Rhondda Greig writes, “Poem becomes painting. Painting employs poetry. In works recalling the Phoenician
origins of script itself the exhibition expresses the continuity throughout human history of the attempt to transmit the
idea through word-meaning, word-shape, the visual sound of the word.”
First there was Phoenician features 18 works created from 2005 to 2019 – paintings, drawings and a large 2-panel self-portrait.
Greig has exhibited internationally, and her work is held in public and private collections in New Zealand and abroad.
Her coloured glass-text installation held in the Aratoi collection is currently on view at the Wairarapa Hospital, and
her 1981 watercolour Moons was part of the recent 50/Fifty – Fifty years at Aratoi exhibition.
Greig’s many public art projects include for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Wellington District Police Headquarters,
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, and Carterton Events Centre.
The artist has also authored several books. Matarawa Cats (1984) is an award-winning children’s classic, and her most recent book, Noa’s Calf (2009), is told entirely in illustrations.
The exhibition continues at Aratoi through the summer holidays, closing on 9 February 2020.