B.
Open House – our opening (and reopening) exhibitions
Gallery
It's an open house. Come in. That's the simple message we'll be sending when the Gallery reopens later this year.
For months the Gallery has been home to a great many Civil Defence workers. But when it is returned to its other rightful users – that's you – the main event in the opening programme will put the emphasis on 'you' too. We are here will be your chance to make art in, and on, the Gallery walls. Sixty metres of wall space will be cleared for a sprawling, all-hands-on mural – a post-quake process painting that will be what the community makes of it. Change and momentum also define our second 'open house' show, a dynamic survey of new art from Christchurch titled Rolling Maul. Eighteen artists will appear in the show, but not all at once. Instead, every week, new works will go on view to create a dynamic and unpredictable picture of art here and now.
Glen Hayward Yertle (detail) 2011. Acrylic paint, metal, wood (kauri, pine, puriri, rimu, totara). Courtesy of the artist and Starkwhite, Auckland
Upstairs, the Gallery's flagship collection exhibition, Brought to Light will be back, with many spaces completely refreshed. There's a complete rehang of the arcade and a focus show of British Modernism, starring the Gallery's much-loved L.S. Lowry. There's also a second life for parts of the architectural exhibition De-Building, with Peter Robinson returning to remake his awesome installation Cache.
The exact timing of our 2011–12 shows is still up in the air, but what's not in doubt is the variety. We hope to bring back two local favourites whose time on the walls was rudely interrupted. A Fantastic Art Venture examines the graphic and painted worlds of Leo Bensemann, while Van der Velden: Otira offers a journey through an incredible South Island landscape.
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River 1893. Oil on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1965
In a city where many of the usual children's activities are out of action, we're looking forward to launching Bad hair day, the latest of our exhibitions for kids. Then there's 10 Down: A Wayne Youle Survey, showcasing ten years of bright objects and bright ideas by the North Canterbury artist. And with debates about rebuilding and heritage revving up, keep an eye out for a cross-section of architectural studies and paintings from the collection – works revealing how dreams and values take shape in the built environment.
As never before, the Gallery will be a place to relax, reflect, remember and look forward. See you here.
Related
Exhibition
Great Britten! A work by Billy Apple
6 November 2016
Billy Apple blurs the line between life and art with a new installation that celebrates the triumphant, record-shattering 1995 campaign of the Christchurch-designed Britten V1000 motorbike.
Exhibition
Bad Hair Day
28 May 2017
Bad Hair Day investigates the wild and wonderful ways of hair through painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and video.
Collection
Glen Hayward Yertle
Glen Hayward’s towering Yertle had its origins in a collection of twenty-eight abandoned paint tins he spied in a back-of-house Christchurch Art Gallery storeroom, containing the residue of wall colours from past exhibitions. Meticulously recreating these tins out of wood, Hayward then painted his carved replicas, faithfully reproducing every smear and drip of forgotten paint.
Stacked up like its namesake, Dr Seuss’s vainglorious turtle king, Hayward's Yertle is a feat of painstaking fearlessness. (Above ground, 2015)
Collection
Petrus van der Velden Mount Rolleston and the Otira River
“For the first three days I did nothing at all but just looked, it took my breath away.” —Petrus van der Velden on his first visit to Ōtira.
Van der Velden sensed something about Ōtira that inspired him to avoid the picturesque in favour of something more powerful, and works like Mount Rolleston and the Otira River contain a great visual energy. The mountains seem to wedge into the landscape, their softness suggests a misty or rainy wind and emphasises the intense silvery light breaking the dauntingly overcast sky. A hint of blue is either a speck of hope or the last gasp of light before the storm completely envelops the land and raging river below.
(Endless Light, 29 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)