The aim of this exhibition is simple: to provide a platform for five contemporary artists from Aotearoa whom I admire. That the show comprises non-figurative works in watercolour, or the closely related medium of ink, is in part a consequence of the many (perhaps too many) hours I spent thinking about the major painting show Necessary Distraction<\/em>, which opened at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o T\u0101maki in late 2015. Surprised by the absence of watercolour, I went seeking exceptional examples and so was introduced to the abstractions of Denys Watkins and Amber Wilson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kristy Gorman, Georgie Hill, and Motoko Kikkawa came to my attention quite separately last year. Gorman\u2019s infinitely delicate constructions seduced me when I visited the group exhibition Painting Programme<\/em> at the Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre. Hill\u2019s bolder, but equally precise, works, etched themselves onto my visual memory during her solo show, Forecast (Detail)<\/em>, at Ivan Anthony. I was introduced to Kikkawa\u2019s work through Artspace\u2019s excellent exhibition of new talent, New Perspectives<\/em>. Her cloud-like formations seemed to float above the other works on display, absolutely in their own stratum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watercolour, like other kinds of paper-based art, can feel rather \u2018unfortunate\u2019. Many of us today encounter it primarily in the form of amateur or tourist art, and associate it with romantic subjects, such as sweeping crepuscular landscapes and sun-dappled still lifes. In the past, it was used extensively for making sketches, and so was considered subordinate to subsequent, more worked up paintings in other media. Watercolour is fragile. It fades. For the artist, it\u2019s an unusually demanding and unforgiving medium. As Lucy Bennett comments in her essay on Wilson, \u2018One slip of the wrist can nullify a thousand careful marks.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet the rewards are huge. Watercolour is capable of great expressivity, when used by artists with the necessary experience, patience, and obsession. That the works in this show are all abstract allows us to appreciate more readily the medium\u2019s formal range. My hope is that you the visitor will take your time \u2013 reading the texts, homing in on the works on the walls. None of them is simple. None has been easily realised. But one of the things that makes these artists so exciting is how seemingly effortlessly they summon forth shape-shifting structures from their imaginations and from the fluid that it is their art form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more<\/a> and read essays<\/a> via Parlour Projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fluid structures: watercolour group show<\/em><\/strong> 24 March to 22 April 2017 The aim of this exhibition is simple: to provide a platform for five contemporary artists from Aotearoa whom I admire. That the show comprises non-figurative works in watercolour, or the closely related medium of ink, is in part a consequence of the many (perhaps too many) hours I spent thinking about the major painting show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[81,96,106,107,111,109,108,110,112],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions","tag-amber-wilson","tag-denys-watkins","tag-georgie-hill","tag-kristy-gorman","tag-linda-tyler","tag-lucinda-bennett","tag-motoko-kikkawa","tag-tendai-john-mutambu","tag-victoria-wynne-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1558,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/1558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n
Curated by Francis McWhannell<\/strong>
With essays by Lucinda Bennett, Francis McWhannell, Tendai John Mutambu, Linda Tyler, and Victoria Wynne-Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parlour Projects
Heretaunga Hastings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"