NZ Books, Issue 105, Autumn 2014 ___ Lateral Inversions: The Prints of Barry Cleavin contains over 120 colour plates and is a beautifully produced book that affords serious consideration to Barry Cleavin’s artwork. In the introduction author Dr. Melinda Johnston foregrounds Cleavin’s status as a major printmaker within New Zealand, […]
Art Writing
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Circuit, January 31, 2014 ___ Smoke exhales from a pair of matte pink pipes; a young woman sways against a white washed background, the soft caw of seagulls rising. Last year Yvonne Todd produced two hypnotic moving image works. Smoke Emitters debuted at Sydney Contemporary in September and Denim Seagull […]
Art + Object August 2013 Catalogue ___ Derek’s expression is dour. His brow deep set, the tip of his long nose snubbed. His eyes are minute, his clay lips pursed in a miserly pout. His face emerges from the form of a gigantic clay bag, bulky and rough-hewn, the surface indented […]
Eyecontact, 24 April 2013 ___ “If worries were things, like worms for example, I expect they would burrow right into you.” Let me begin by congratulating Christina Read on the least pretentious artist statement I have seen in some time. Artist statements are often riddled with pseudo-scientific vernacular; a hangover […]
NZ Listener, Issue 3795, 24 January, 2013 ___ Quiet is usually a form of faint praise when used as an adjective in the arts. Desk Collection is a survey of seventeen years of Saskia Leek’s practice and yes it is a quiet exhibition, but there within of course lies its […]
Fishhead Magazine, December 2012 ___ It’s evening. A veil of mist has shrouded the sea. Outside, rain is falling so faintly it is almost invisible, almost but not quite. I can see the strings. A fantail alights on the black licorice telegraph wires outside my window and spreads its unwelcome […]
Eyecontact, 24 August, 2012 ___ Reading Room is an exhibition with plenty of character. Look through the window of Objectspace today and you will see the rubble of a bookcase, lined with books, face out and spine on. A low-lying table is scattered with more titles, some splayed open, others […]
NZ Listener, 12 July, 2012 ___ Multidisciplinary artist Sharmila Samant has been in the country for four days when I call her to discuss the socially based artwork she will develop in the New Plymouth community. Our conversation quickly turns to the availability of water. “The thing about water is […]
Auckland Art Gallery News, 2004 ___ A collective gulp accompanied the announcement of the winner of the first Walters Prize two years ago. Harald Szeemann chose fledgling photographer Yvonne Todd because her work was “the most irritating”. Todd rode the wave of stardom, producing four new bodies of work in […]
Pavement, No.51, February/March 2003 ___ Experiencing my first Yvonne Todd exhibition was like being haunted by the ghost of my own depraved adolescence. 1998’s Fleshtone revelled in the seedy sexuality and misguided glamour of Todd’s Takapuna teenage years. “I used to wear a hot pink leather miniskirt, over-the-knee suede […]
Pavement Issue 57, February/March 2003 ___ “My drawings of snakes don’t even look like snakes,” shrugs Francis Upritchard. This is not quite true. On a piece of white paper, a lumpy blue outline coils into an impressive portrait of a carpet snake – the fat frumpy kind made to lie […]
Pavement, April/May 2001 (Issue 46, page 26) _____ An inherently melancholy mood pervades Michael Harrison’s latest exhibition I’ve Got This Friend. This feeling is captured by peculiar personifications of Harrison’s pet subject: the cat. Harrison’s cats are an intriguing continuation of his interest in the mysterious nature of attraction. The formerly […]