unpainted Curated by Briar Holt

Considering painting as the premise for this exhibition but not the parameter, ‘unpainted’ manifests in symmetrical configurations by drawing together four artists: two based in Dunedin, two based elsewhere; two positioned as emerging practitioners, two more established. 

Kim Pieters’ dreamy moving image soundscape Flame takes on a number of painterly qualities, picturing soft focus renderings of Dunedin’s first church steeple against a background of scumbling and swirling dabs of light.

Dynamic and swirling textural elements are also present in the work of James Bellaney. These are created by the painstaking process of layering and manipulating the trajectory of paint as it travels across the surfaces of large scaled panels.

Helen Calder’s suspended acrylic paint skins have no wall on which to hang, removing any framework that denotes the installation as traditional painting. Calder’s use of intensely saturated colour is reflected her title; red,red,red.red.

As Calder’s works imagine a painterly collapse, Fu-On Chung’s canvas works comment on the potential redundancy of painting. Masked with bright colours and light-reflecting wrapping, Chung’s work is a bittersweet approach to painting as a practice.

Public Programme: Thursday 25 September, 5.30pm - 6.30pm
To coincide with the exhibition, 2014 Creative New Zealand - Tautai Pacific Arts Trust Intern Amiria Puia-Taylor will be giving a talk around her ongoing project Painting for the People, all welcome.

Upcoming Workshop: Friday 10 - Saturday 11 October
Amiria will also be leading Community Practices, the first in a series of Blue Oyster Workshops held in late 2014 and early 2015. Sign up before 30 September by emailing admin@blueoyster.org.nz all welcome and free to attend.