For the month of May 2019, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting Blossom, a group art exhibition with a floral theme.

 

 

This month's group exhibition is in support of the national conference of the Floral Art Society of New Zealand. 

 

The Society is holding a competitive floral art exhibition on 4 and 5 May at the Palmerston North Conference & Function Centre. With the national exhibition being held within just a minute's walk of ZIMMERMAN, this month seemed an opportune time to host a complementary exhibition here, with flowers as the theme.  

 

ZIMMERMAN’s exhibition includes works by a number of regular gallery exhibitors.

 

Artists who have created entirely new work for the show include Kate Elder, Paul Dibble, Fran Dibble, Naga Tsutsumi, Katherine Claypole, Lee-Ann Dixon and Kirsty Gardiner. 

 

A selection of earlier pieces by other gallery artists also feature, including work by Anna Korver, Andrew Moon, Paige Williams, Tony Rumball, Angela Tier, Cam Munroe and Elspeth Shannon.

 

In addition to showcasing the work of artists already represented by ZIMMERMAN, this month is a fitting time to introduce the exuberant floral paintings of Auckland artist, Diana Peel. 

 

A first time exhibitor in Palmerston North, Peel initially worked in interior design. It was not until some 12 years later that Peel discovered the joys of painting.   

 

"I hadn't painted since university, but this time I couldn't stop. I had this desire to create and explore something hands on. I felt like I had to get it out of my system. My paintings are an emotional manifesto; a tool of self-expression and a reflection of my world".   

 

Peel is now a full time artist and art tutor, specialising in contemporary flower paintings.

 

With a mix of new and earlier works in a range of media, this month is an excellent opportunity to come and view a variety of art works at ZIMMERMAN. We hope you will find time to stop by to take a look!

 

Blossom runs at ZIMMERMAN from 1 to 31 May 2019 (open 11am to 3pm daily, free entry) 

 

The Floral Art Society competitive exhibition runs from 4 to 5 May at the Conference and Function Centre (adult entry $12 per person, children 12 and under free entry with a paying adult. Open from 10am both days)

 

 

 

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For the month of April 2019, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting "The Fallen", a series of new art work by Palmerston North artist Fran Dibble. 

 

Fran Dibble's exhibition comprises a mix of bronze works and paintings. Some of the bronze works are standalone objects, assuming the shape of falling leaves blowing across the gallery walls. A few of these bronze leaf forms appear to have lightly fallen to rest upon bronze books, while others are seemingly caught mid-flight, to become forever attached to the paintings on the walls.

 

Several of the artworks feature 24 carat gold gilding – an element the artist has incorporated in both paintings and sculpture in recent years.

 

The Fallen - artist's statement:

“I often think of the way the very common and mundane unite us in a shared experience, the simple treasures of the natural world creating delight across all the boundaries that now separate people – economic and political, educational levels and racial backgrounds – a world which might be more intermixed and meshed but somehow still managing to be fractionalized. It is a simplistic world view no doubt, and highly romantic, but one that I am happy to play with. 

 

An exhibition on falling leaves has this democratised ideal at its core, the experience of leaves fluttering from the skies enjoyed everywhere (or at least in places with deciduous trees).

 

The leaves are each individually copied from real counter-parts, modeled in wax using wax sheets before being cast in bronze. 

 

Leaves are very varied things, not just over the many species (sycamores, oaks, ginkgo, maples, plane trees, chestnuts and magnolia are represented here to name a few), but also in the different breeds within a species. They demonstrate a beauty and subtlety in things deemed value-less and transient.

 

In their own modest presence, they demonstrate the ‘big’ things in life too, like studies in physics demonstrating the passage of time with their drop each year, and the continual presence of gravity pulling things to earth.

 

The bronze leaves make up the main subject of the paintings, but they also flutter outside the frame to pitch down across the gallery walls, linking the artworks into a giant diorama.”

 

Exhibition runs from 1 to 30 April 2019

 

Brief artist bio:

Born in Connecticut (USA) in 1962, Fran immigrated to New Zealand with her family as a teenager.

 

Fran holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Botany, a M.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry and a BA in Philosophy. Fran’s interest in these disciplines informs her artistic practice, encompassing both painting and bronze sculpture. 

 

The artist draws inspiration from the natural environment, and scientific theories such as principles of gravity. Fran’s interest in bronze developed as part of her work with her husband, acclaimed sculptor Paul Dibble. 

 

Fran was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to art in 2007, and in 2012 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Universal College of Learning in Palmerston North. 

 

Fran has exhibited with ZIMMERMAN since 2011.

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For the month of March 2019, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting "Spook", an extraordinary installation by Angela Tier (photographs by Richard Wotton)

 

 

To draw attention to the plight of our endangered native bats, pekapeka, Angela Tier has sculpted 100 small bat urns from coiled stoneware. Measuring between just 10 and 16 cm high, each bat is unique. Some are styled after existing bat species, while others are imaginary and playful, representing species not yet discovered.

 

Looming behind the 100 bats are four large apocalyptic bats, representing Pestilence, War, Famine and Death.

 

The installation is a reminder of the impact of humans on our environment. It is also a chance to reflect on the important role that even our smallest and rarely seen creatures play in our continued existence.

 

Artist’s statement

 

Bats! You may be scared if you saw a colony or cloud of bats pass overhead. You may think of blood-thirsty vampires or even rabies. Can you imagine a world without bats? Well, you most likely can. Living in New Zealand we rarely see them flying about at night.

 

Although bat sightings are uncommon here, bats make up almost one quarter of all mammals on the planet, and are essential to human survival. Just as important to humanity as honeybees, bats are pollinators for forests and fruits. They also help farmers by eating insects that would otherwise need to be managed by pesticides.

 

Bats are New Zealand's only native land mammals. There are three species: the long-tailed bat, the lesser short-tailed bat and the greater short-tailed bat. The first two species are at risk, while the third species is considered extinct, with no sightings since 1967.

 

Close to 100 species of bats are listed as endangered and vulnerable worldwide. This is due to many things, such as habitat loss, windfarms and introduced diseases. White nose syndrome is thought to have been accidentally introduced to a cave that tourists regularly visit and has subsequently spread through bat colonies across America. This disease alone has killed close to 600 million bats.

 

In New Zealand, habitat degradation and disturbance, as well as predation and competition from introduced mammals, are key factors implicated in bat population declines.

 

All the reasons why bats are under threat can be linked to one common factor: humans!

 

The changes humans are making have exacted a heavy toll on the natural world, and threaten the planet’s ability to provide for us all. The existence of life is a fine balance. It relies on wild species like bats to thrive, for other species (including humans) to survive.

 

This installation of 100 bat urns, and four looming apocalyptic bats, is a grave image of endangerment. It is a chance to reflect on the impact we have on our environment, and to consider those which we may fear, or allow to slip from our thoughts, as being vital to our continued existence.

 

Angela Tier – brief artist bio

 

Born in 1980, Whanganui-based artist Angela Tier holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with distinction.

 

Tier’s sculptural works are hand built using the coiling technique, in which coils of clay are gradually stacked and joined one on top of the other. “I like working in the coils as it's a very old technique.”

 

Recent works have highlighted the plight of New Zealand’s extinct and endangered species. “It only takes a few centuries of human activity to have such an impact on the environment that we might lose these species forever.”

 

“Spook” is Tier’s first solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

 

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For the month of February 2019, ZIMMERMAN is featuring selected oil paintings on canvas by Taranaki artist Tony Rumball.

 

 

Rumball’s paintings range from new to earlier works, including “Don’t mind if I do”, completed in 2008 but exhibited publicly for the first time this year.

 

The selected paintings brim with Rumball’s characteristic colour and humour.

 

In the optimistically titled “A Last Ciggie” a winged pig flies overhead, while the red-haired woman enjoys a few more puffs.

 

The playful diptych “Kids in Masks” depicts a group of youngsters having a riotously good time, dancing about the streets in their brightly hued shirts and hats.

 

“Steady Eddie” features a jauntily swinging plastic clown, brought face to chest with a voluptuous porcelain doll. Inspired by two miniature figurines in Rumball’s home, the composition places the unlikely pair in a comical encounter.

 

“Oops 2”, by its title, suggests an accident waiting to happen. A student server, absorbed in her own thoughts, distractedly carries a tray of food and drink – what could possibly go wrong?

 

The largest – and earliest – painting in the exhibition is “Don’t mind if I do”. It features a Nigella-esque barmaid, leaning across the counter with a beer mug, her gathered patrons reflected in the glass.

 

“Man at an exhibition” portrays just that: a pompous elderly gentleman leans on a cane, critically surveying the displayed art works. “Hand tools” has a similarly self-explanatory title, depicting a mix of familiar and obscure implements lined up on a work bench.

 

More curious is “Out and about”, a work inspired by Guy Fawkes night on the farm. A masked figure carries a sack of coal, ready to further stoke a blazing bonfire, while the hapless animal behind him nervously watches on.

 

For more than 30 years Tony Rumball has painted with an art group founded in Stratford by the late Tom Kriesler. A regular exhibitor in Taranaki, Rumball has shown works with ZIMMERMAN since 2010.

 

 

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For the summer months December 2018 and January 2019, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting Stairways and enclaves - sculptural works by Anna Korver.

 

 

 

Stairways and enclaves - Artist’s statement

“This exhibition is a collection of works that continue two main series, which have recently become literally and thematically linked: works from my signature figurative and dress form series, and a more recent series based on architectural forms.”

Figurative and dress form series

“My figurative works retain a strong feminine narrative, and generally speak about an internal dialogue of balance and strength.

The directly figurative pieces embrace the hard lines of the masculine while also reclaiming the softer feminine attributes which are often seen as weaknesses, re-forging and celebrating them into a different kind of strength.

The dress forms take on various narratives about the feminine experience, some as forms of armour, while others are lighter and more whimsical.”

Architectural series

“My architectural works depict a chaotic, deconstructed landscape.

They symbolise the rebuilding of the idea of home, and connection to a specific place or culture, questioning and clarifying the need and importance of this idea to our own identity.

These architectural works touch on the quantum theory of the observer effect giving reference to the way people and places impact, imprint on and define each other.”

Evolution of staircases and enclaves

“My figurative works have often incorporated the staircase element. The more recent works incorporate the two in a way where they have evolved into a single form, one unable to exist without the other.

The staircases and architectural forms can be seen emerging from the figure, or leading into tiny rooms and enclaves within the figures, alluding to the idea that the concept of home has become an internal feeling.”


Anna Korver – brief artist bio

Anna Korver holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Canterbury (2003).

Korver is a regular participant in sculpture symposia and sculpture park exhibitions both locally and abroad.

In 2018, Korver was part of international sculpture symposia in New Zealand, Korea, Romania, Albania and Macedonia. In earlier years Korver has participated in sculpture symposia in Qatar, Montenegro, Cyprus, Australia, Denmark, Turkey, Iran and Costa Rica. The artist was awarded first prize for her work at sculpture symposia in Rotorua (2014), Whangarei (2012) and Coromandel (2008).

Public sculpture by Korver has been installed both in New Zealand and abroad, including in Romania, Albania, Egypt, Montenegro, Australia, Turkey, Iran and Costa Rica.

Korver’s work has been exhibited on multiple occasions at New Zealand Sculpture Onshore (Devonport), Sculpture on the Peninsula (Banks Peninsula) and Art in a Garden (Canterbury). Korver has twice exhibited as part of Shapeshifter at the Dowse (Lower Hutt), and has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards (2016 and 2018).

Korver is a former a co-owner of The Korver Molloy Gallery and Sculpture Park, which operated in Taranaki for four years. 

 

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For the month of November 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting Rag and Bottle Shop - new works by Kirsty Gardiner.   

  

 

Artist's Statement

“This exhibition, Rag and Bottle Shop, is inspired by French and English porcelain and objects collected over time.

 

Imagine an op shop in New Zealand at the end of the 19th century. The ‘Rag and Bottle Shop’ was London’s equivalent; mudlarking along the Thames would have been the next best option.

 

Around this time huia were already an endangered species (the last official sighting was in 1907). Many homes would have mounted birds in glass domes in the parlour. High tea was a regular event, and the best tea service would come out for guests.

 

I have endeavoured to make some of these items, with a twist of my own. They are whimsical yet serious: the drinking bowl cannot hold water and the Bird Dolls express the passing of the huia from our forests.

 

I like to think of the work as a trans-cultural mix of myths, ceramic archetypes and, of course, extinct birds.”

 

Exhibition commentary

While Kirsty Gardiner is well known locally for her ceramic huia and moths, this month’s exhibition is a more wide-ranging showcase of the artist’s extensive practice.

 

Rag and Bottle Shop comprises a medley of objects d’art, inspired by ideas from history, fantasy and ornithology, as well as the artist’s imaginings as to what one visiting a 1900 New Zealand second-hand shop might have discovered inside.

 

The works are predominantly wheel thrown altered and hand-made forms, incorporating mid fire porcelain and textile.

 

The exhibition also features a stunning large porcelain centrepiece: a wall-mounted installation of 29 South Island kokako, 130 cm in diameter.

 

The South Island kokako is one of five New Zealand wattlebirds (the others being the extinct huia, two species of saddlebacks, and the North Island kokako).

 

South Island kokako are slightly smaller and darker than their North Island counterparts, with orange rather than blue facial wattles. Their numbers declined markedly after the introduction of cats, ship rats and stoats, with the last accepted 20th century sighting being at Mt Aspiring National Park in 1967.

 

Declared extinct by the Department of Conservation in 2008, in 2013 the species' conservation status was moved from extinct to “data deficient”, based on a claimed sighting in 2007 near Reefton on the West Coast.

 

Kirsty Gardiner - artist bio

Kirsty Gardiner has exhibited throughout New Zealand for over 20 years. This is the artist’s second solo show at ZIMMERMAN.

 

Gardiner’s ceramic sculptures are influenced by her childhood, French and English porcelain, Lewis Carroll (the father of nonsense literature), natural history and the collections with which she came into contact while working for eight years as a gallery technician for Aratoi Museum of Art and History in Masterton.

 

Gardiner’s works have been selected multiple times for The Portage Ceramic Awards, New Zealand’s most prestigious ceramics prize. In 2010, Gardiner’s work received the coveted Premier Award.

 

In 2013 Gardiner won the Friends of Aratoi Award, and in 2015 Gardiner secured the Excellence Award in the New Zealand Society of Potter Elements exhibition.

 

Gardiner’s work has also been twice selected for the James Wallace Art Awards.

 

In 2012-2013, Kirsty’s exhibition Portmanteau: A Cabinet of Curiosities toured the lower North Island, with showings at Aratoi, Expressions (Upper Hutt) and Te Manawa (Palmerston North).

 

Earlier this year, Kirsty has had two public art gallery exhibitions: Remnants, Remains at Aratoi, and Rag and Bottle Shop at Pataka in Porirua.

 

The exhibition “Rag and Bottle Shop” is at ZIMMERMAN until 30 November 2018.

 

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For the month of October 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting Constructed, Deconstructed, Reconstructed - new works by Kate Elder.

 

 

 

Elder’s new works continue an ongoing focus on the constructed world:

 

“Because of our thirst for space, construction often creeps towards the physical limits. And while one can try to simulate unbounded and limitless spaces, of course they’re a myth.

 

You can easily take one of these complex interiors and turn it inside out - deconstructing the form in all its parts, ready to rebuild and start the process again.”

 

Kate Elder was born in Wellington in 1980. In 2001 Elder completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (majoring in sculpture) at Dunedin School of Art, and went on to study cabinetmaking in Spain.

 

Elder spent a number of years working with furniture, before returning her focus to art, using the skills and knowledge acquired over this period to refine her art practice.

 

Elder has twice received awards as part of her participation in the Mahara Gallery Review, taking out the top Open award in 2015 and the 3D Award in 2017.

 

This is the artist’s third solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

 

The exhibition “Constructed, Deconstructed, Reconstructed” runs from 1 to 31 October 2018.

 

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For the month of September 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting Notes + corrections - new paintings by artist Cam Munroe.  

  

 

These new works on canvas speak confidently of shape and gesture, with mark making that offers contour and form, with a purposeful balance between light and dark.

 

The collected shapes are presented like a coded language, with figures and forms arranged in orderly rows, in the same manner as traditional script might be depicted.

 

This compositional structure creates the tantalising suggestion that words and messages lie in plain sight, waiting for us to unlock and reveal meaning, if only we knew how to decipher the cryptic code.

 

But there is no secret key to understanding this unfamiliar alphabet; the assembled shapes and forms are not based on any literal or historic writing system or cipher.

 

Instead, the artist’s first consideration is that the shapes aesthetically work together in each painting. Technique, restraint and problem solving are all also integral to the successful outcome of each work.

 

Each mark builds on the next, enabling the artist to capture on canvas, through gesture and contour, an eclectic collection of objects and forms.

 

The exhibition of Notes + corrections by Cam Munroe runs from 1 to 30 September 2018.

 

 

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This month ZIMMERMAN continued its exhibition of BLACK, a response to the closure of the Manawatu Art Gallery for "up to 10 months".   

 

** UPDATE ** Due to the public outcry about a 10 month closure of the Manawatu Art Gallery, the Palmerston North City Council has now slashed the closure by a full seven months. The Art Gallery will open again at the end of September. 

 

However, despite this welcome intervention by Council, the Art Gallery still faces an uncertain future. The same management remains, and the Art Gallery building may potentially be demolished within the next few years. If you would like to support the call to "Save the Art Gallery in Palmerston North", then please click on the following link to sign the online petition:

 

Save the art gallery in Palmerston North  

 

 

BLACK is a response to the closure of the Manawatu Art Gallery “for up to 10 months” from 1 July 2018.

Official information requests made to Te Manawa and Palmerston North City Council reveal:

 

- The decision to close the Art Gallery for up to 10 months was not based on any external evidence or advice – it was an internal decision made by Te Manawa’s management and accepted by Te Manawa’s Trust Board.

 

- In Te Manawa’s view “exhibitions in the gallery’s five exhibition spaces are a significant drain on staff time and resources”. Closing the Art Gallery for “maintenance and repairs” provided Te Manawa with an opportunity to redirect staff resources into other projects, including “redevelopment of the long-term exhibitions in the museum” and projects to “exemplify TM2025” (ie; projects to show what the Te Manawa experience might transform into by the year 2025).

 

- While some renewal works will take place in the Art Gallery during the 10 month closure, no structural changes are being made. The Art Gallery building is structurally sound, and no public safety issues existed before the closure

 

In closing our Art Gallery for up to 10 months, Te Manawa is taking away from our community, for almost a full year, the many opportunities and access to artworks that only a public art gallery can provide. The Art Gallery is the only venue in the Manawatu capable of securing prestigious touring art exhibitions, and able to bring works by prominent artists who have no local dealer here

 

Many of us who live and work here have dedicated our lives and careers to practising, teaching or promoting the visual arts.

 

Our region is also home to many students - primary, secondary and tertiary – whose opportunities for art education and inspiration instantly shrank when the Manawatu Art Gallery closed. Add to this the many artists, collectors and art viewing public who live or visit here – the doors have been shut on us all.

 

The time has come for Palmerston North City Council to step in and appoint a new Trust Board to manage the Art Gallery.

 

Please show your support by signing the online petition at:

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-art-gallery-in-palmerston-north

 

With over 725 signatures already, your signature will help show that the arts community treasures the Manawatu Art Gallery, and wants our Council to take the action needed for it to hum again.

 

 

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This month’s exhibition at ZIMMERMAN is BLACK: a response to the closure of our public art gallery in Palmerston North.

 

Due to public concern about the 10 month closure and the uncertain future of the art gallery, Bronwyn Zimmerman has posted an online petition to "save the art gallery in Palmerston North". You can support the petition by clicking on the following link:

 

Save the art gallery in Palmerston North  

 

In March this year, our community was informed that the public art gallery in Palmerston North would close on 1 July, for up to 10 months, for “desperately needed” maintenance and repairs.

 

The Chief Executive of Te Manawa said it was unfortunate that the doors would have to shut, but stated it was necessary, given the nature of the work.

 

The decision was supported by Te Manawa’s Trust Board, with the Chair claiming “there was no other way but this way.”

 

Members of our local arts community have repeatedly asked what works would be carried out to require such a lengthy closure.

 

Yet even the day before the start of the closure, Te Manawa remained unable to identify even a single item of repair or maintenance actually scheduled to take place.

 

To add insult to injury, Te Manawa has also released a statement confirming that “no decision has been made” on the future of the art gallery.

 

The continuing uncertainty about the future of our public art gallery is of grave concern – it would be a very sad day for our City, if we were to lose the standalone public art gallery we currently have.

 

Meantime, a 10 month closure of the public art gallery leaves a substantial hole in our region’s art offering.

 

Te Manawa has not confirmed any alternative exhibition venues, meaning the City’s entire permanent art collection may be locked away for many months, unable to be seen by anyone.

 

It should rarely be the case that every available space within a public facility is completely closed to ratepayers and visitors.

 

And when closure really is necessary, then appropriate plans should be in place to minimise both the period of closure and the resulting loss and inconvenience to the community.

 

This month’s exhibition, BLACK, is ZIMMERMAN’s response to this inexplicable closure.

 

BLACK encompasses many ideas; the exhibited works include feelings of sadness, loss, bewilderment, watching, waiting, falling, floating, fragility and instability.

 

But there are also signs of heart and hope that rise above the darkness: artists are resilient, and will find a way to communicate and be heard.

BLACK: a response to the closure of our public art gallery - exhibition runs from 1 to 31 July 2018 

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For the month of June 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting a selection of abstract paintings by artist Talulah Belle Lautrec-Nunes. 

  

Lautrec-Nunes’ paintings are loaded with colour and movement, a symphony of gestural brushstrokes, loose mark-making and meandering brush strokes.

 

“I’m continually searching for the perfect mark … It has to be instant and uncomplicated, natural, fluid and fresh.”

 

With every mark and colour, Lautrec-Nunes navigates the space between artistic control and abandon, to enable the personality of each painting to emerge:

 

“I’m convinced that the more I remove myself from the process the better the works end up being … I’m just allowing the works to be made and then see what becomes of them.”

 

“I love the abstracts as they challenge me in ways no other genre has … They’re so diverse and frustrating and thrilling at the same time.”

 

Lautrec-Nunes is a full time artist with a diploma in Art and Creativity (Honours). 

 

The exhibition of Talulah Belle Lautrec Nunes’ paintings runs at ZIMMERMAN from 1 to 30 June 2018

 

 

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For the month of May 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting a selection of new oil paintings on vintage ware by Nelson-based artist, Lee-Ann Dixon.  

 

Birds, moths and precious keepsakes all feature in Lee-Ann Dixon’s works - studies that pay tribute to memories and the passage of time.

 

“In recent works I delve into the past and use symbols to reference events and relationships that have shaped my psyche. It's hard to explain without sounding cliche, but as you age you get to look back at the story that is your life, re run the film and analyse it.” – Lee-Ann Dixon (2018)

 

Dixon holds a Visual Arts Diploma and Bachelor of Visual Arts from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. The exhibition of Dixon's works at ZIMMERMAN runs from 1 to 31 May 2018.

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For the month of April 2018, ZIMMERMAN is celebrating new beginnings, with a move to new gallery premises at 329 Main Street, Palmerston NorthTo celebrate the move, local artists Naga Tsutsumi, Fran Dibble and Paul Dibble have each contributed new work.

 

Over the Easter break, ZIMMERMAN moved to new premises at 329 Main Street, Palmerston North (directly opposite Te Manawa Art Gallery).

 

We bought the former “Foto First” building just over a month ago - and have spent almost every available hour since then busily preparing the space for ZIMMERMAN to move in.

 

We’ve been assisted in our toil by Bronwyn’s never-quite-managing-to-retire father, Peter Zimmerman – thanks Dad for all your tireless help! 

 

The new building has more than double the exhibition footprint of ZIMMERMAN’s former space, and also enjoys generous office and storage areas. There’s an abundance of nearby carparking, including the adjacent free public carpark outside Harvey Norman.

 

We’re still finding our feet, but the doors are now open, so feel welcome to stop by – we’re always here at our regular daily hours of 11am to 3pm (including weekends). 

 

 We’ll be having a “relocation celebration” later this month, at 4pm on 25 April (ANZAC Day), so please save the date and join with us then if you can.

 

“New Beginnings” is on display at ZIMMERMAN from now until 30 April 2018

 

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 For the month of March 2018, ZIMMERMAN is featuring Painted Words - new paintings by Naga Tsutsumi.   

 

This month: Painted Words – new works by Naga Tsutsumi

This month ZIMMERMAN is delighted to feature Painted Words – a series of new works by Naga Tsutsumi in which the artist has combined images with words and phrases drawn from the Japanese language.

Artist commentary

“In early February I went to Auckland to see the Corsini Collection exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery.

 

The exhibited works were obviously secondary works from the Collection, but it was still a great opportunity to see real Renaissance paintings, especially Pontormo's study work, and Caravaggio's portrait.

 

My fascination with the paintings in the Corsini Collection was not to do with realism or anatomy, but was instead about the spontaneous brush strokes, still vivid colours, uncountable layers to create depth, the facial expressions on each figure that unsettle the viewer’s mind, and symbolic objects suggesting mysteries ... the paintings were so meaningful! 

 

In my own work, the idea or concept is of primary importance. But painted subjects – usually people - don't always clearly deliver the underlying idea. And while I sometimes use symbolic objects in my paintings, there is a risk of losing the desired simplicity of the final image. I want my paintings to reach the viewer’s mind, like Renaissance paintings do.

 

Rediscovering the power of words

 

Following a conversation with a local cartoonist, Brent Putze, I rediscovered the power of cartoons and comics – they convey what the artist desires to communicate with a combination of pictures and words.  Even direct dialogue can pose a dichotomy, or carry hidden messages between the lines, like in a poem. 

 

Reflecting on this inspired me to adopt words in my latest paintings.

 

I have used my native language, Japanese, to recall favourite old sayings, parts of poems or lyrics, words expressing my state of mind, or simply words I wanted to play with.

 

The dilemmas of using words in painting

 

Art work or graphic design?

 

Whenever I place words on a picture, it feels as if I’m designing a book cover. But I really like the paperback covers of old detective or horror novels: the perfect match of illustrations and titles with a certain typeface

 

Should I write, or paint, the words?

 

Writing words on a canvas, and painting words on a canvas, are different activities with different significance.

 

Initially I thought it would be rude to Kiwi audiences for me to show paintings using foreign words. So I selected the words I wished to use to deliver my message, then carefully examined the visual appeal of the shape of the letters.

 

While words written on a painting are usually meant to be read, painted words are objects to be looked at (like Jasper Johns alphabets or numbers) – reading is not the primary concern. In this series of paintings, the titles (while not direct translations) reflect the painted words; my hope is that messages are conveyed through the picture surface.

 

What if Japanese people see the work?

 

Many Japanese letters are pictographs, enabling viewers familiar with the language to instantly recognise what is being said without reading. I wonder if Japanese people, on viewing the paintings, will first look at the image, or the words? 

The words and phrases used in these paintings may be unusual for them to see outside Japan in this era.”

 

The exhibition of Naga Tsutsumi’s new works, “Painted Words”, runs from 1 to 29 March 2018.

 

 

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For the month of February 2018, ZIMMERMAN is featuring new paintings by Andrew Moon.   

Andrew Moon: artist's commentary for this exhibition

“Many of my concept pieces feature my immediate family. Originally this was for reasons of pure convenience – they were the artist models who were always within reach! But over time they have also become more central actors throughout the creative process. Because they have now sat for me so many times, they already have a good idea of what I’m looking for in terms of light fall and shadow, and make their own suggestions or adjustments even as they sit.

 

Later, during the painting process, I bring them into the studio to critique what I’ve done. It’s easy to lose objectivity when you’re working on a piece day in and day out. And while it’s sometimes hard to endure someone calling your baby ugly, ultimately I find it really useful (once I’ve finished sulking) to see things from a different perspective. For me it’s about being more aware of how someone might see it for the first time, and it helps me produce a painting that I feel is more complete or polished.

 

My daughter Josie, who features in many of my paintings, is now pursuing her own creative career – in music. This in itself has continued to be useful, as I find that creativity in itself inspires more creativity. 

 

Josie was the model for two recent paintings, Stand and Advance. The works are companion pieces, in that they are recognisably of a similar theme in a similar setting, and they are the same size (120 x 90 cm). But I have set out to have them both convey different sensations.

 

I selected the colour palette for each to be highly vibrant and striking, but also unique – they are not historical depictions. The composition for each character is different: Stand shows an alert and defensive posture, while Advance shows a deliberate charge forward. In this way, with their individual compositions and colour palettes, each piece conveys a different response to the same stimulus - which is the stimulus of being challenged or threatened in some way. And my intent is to convey not only two different possible responses (or choices), but also to convey them with two different feelings or moods.”

 

Andrew Moon’s new paintings are on display at ZIMMERMAN from 1 to 28 February 2018

 

Featured images (all are oil on canvas paintings by Andrew Moon, 2017)

 

Advance, 120 x 90 cm
Stand, 120 x 90 cm
Fragment 1, 50 x 40 cm
Fragment 2, 50 x 50 cm
Brood, 90 x 60 cm

Brief artist bio

Andrew Moon is a self-taught artist based on the Kapiti Coast. 

Painting mainly in oil and acrylic, Moon is inspired by the realist styles and techniques of a range of Old Masters. He enjoys working with an emphasis on the harsh lighting contrasts of chiaroscuro (exaggerated contrasts of light and dark). Finding inspiration in the works of 17th Century masters such as Caravaggio, Velazquez and Rembrandt, Moon’s intensely illuminated figures are often picked out from shadowy backgrounds by bold, directional sources of light. 

The influence of Caravaggio, in particular, is visible in a number of Moon’s works. In similar fashion to the Old Master, Moon takes as his models the people close or familiar to him, transforming family members and friends into models for compositions ranging from the historic to the contemporary.

 

While Moon enjoys exploring a range of subjects and settings for his paintings, he often returns to portraits and people, drawn back by the challenge and intensity of the human form.

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For the summer months December 2017 and January 2018, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting a selection of small works by a number of different artists represented by the gallery.   

All things small and wonderful

A few months ago, ZIMMERMAN asked each of its artists to consider creating work for a “small things” summer exhibition.

The question “how small is small?” was left to each artist to determine, and a number of ZIMMERMAN artists approached the challenge with enthusiasm and vigour.

A few artists discovered they had “just the thing” already in their studio, while others were spurred to begin completely new projects for this exhibition.

The result is an eclectic collection of stunning works in a variety of different media, including works created using porcelain, bronze, steel, glass, wood, canvas, paper and silk.

Titled All things small and wonderful, the exhibited works will change over the course of the exhibition: as some of these works are taken away, new small works (including works by other artists) will be added in their place.

The changing face of this exhibition, and the number of small works featured, makes it tricky to show you all the works that form part of this evolving exhibition - so featured here are just a few images of some of the works included in this exhibition.

Selected images:

o   Light bulb, Cam Munroe, hand painted porcelain

o   A beautiful destruction # 8, Fran Dibble, cast patinated bronze

o   tinysmearandcatch, Rebecca Wallis, acrylic + acrylic medium + GAC 100 on unprimed cotton

o   Misosgi-harai #1, #2 and #3, Naga Tsutsumi, acrylic on canvas

o   Cosmic Landscape: Nebulae and Pulsar, Sebastien Jaunas, steel and mixed media

o   Pomp and Circumstance, Tony Rumball, drawing on watercolour paper

Exhibition runs from 1 December 2017 until 31 January 2018.

 

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For the month of November 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring new paintings by Taranaki artist Tony Rumball.   

Tony Rumball: selected new works

This month’s exhibition is large scale and full of colour. 

 

Tony Rumball spontaneously approaches each canvas, first broadly sketching in charcoal or ink, then applying undiluted oil paint with a palette knife. The result is a multi-layered impasto texture, where rich warm tones jostle against cool blues, and big gentle figures emerge from a blizzard of paint. 

 

Rumball’s works focus on the incidents and accidents of everyday life: from the stiff-bodied determinedness of the stout figure in Blue in the Face, to the look of surprise a farmer exchanges with his dog in A Misunderstanding.   

 

Snapshots of human mood and expression, the paintings typically appear off-beat and humorous, yet hints of something deeper and darker also swirl within the psychological mix. 

 

The exhibition of Tony Rumball’s new works runs from 1 to 30 November 2017. 

 

Tony Rumball – brief artist bio 

Born in 1943, for more than 30 years Tony Rumball has painted with an art group founded in Stratford by the late Tom Kriesler. 

 

Many of Rumball’s works are begun at these weekly Stratford painting sessions, then completed at the artist’s home studio in New Plymouth.

 

A regular exhibitor in Taranaki, Rumball’s work is frequently exhibited at Stratford’s Percy Thomson Gallery, as well as featuring in selected group shows in New Zealand and Paris. 

 

Rumball has exhibited with ZIMMERMAN in Palmerston North since 2010.

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For the month of October 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring From her perspective - new works by Whanganui-based artist Katherine Claypole.   

By way of artist's statement for this exhibition, the artist has supplied the following excerpt from Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale:

 

"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bed sheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, crisscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.”

 

The works in this exhibition play with spatial relationships, cleverly juxtaposing collage with hand stitched forms.

 

Vaguely nostalgic imagery is combined with futuristic forms, associating memory and the familiar with the uncertainty of the new and unknown.

 

Drawing foremost on the artist’s skills in drawing and design, Claypole’s work also requires considerable technical dexterity, time and determination to complete.

 

Katherine Claypole – brief artist bio

Born in Hawkes Bay, Claypole holds a Master of Fine Arts from Canterbury University School of Fine Arts (Christchurch) and a Bachelor of Design from Unitec Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design (Auckland).

 

After seven years of lecturing in drawing at Whanganui UCOL, Claypole recently left teaching to pursue a full time career as an artist.

 

In addition to solo exhibitions in Christchurch, Auckland and Whanganui, Claypole has also participated in a number of group exhibitions and award shows.

 

In 2011, Claypole was the winner of the Carey Smith & Co Whanganui Art Award at Sarjeant Gallery. Earlier this year, one of Claypole’s hand stitched thread drawing and collage works was selected as a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize, New Zealand’s premier drawing award.

 

Claypole’s works are held in art collections across the country, including four works owned by the James Wallace Arts Trust.

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For the month of September 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring Shape Shift - new paintings by Wellington-based artist Cam Munroe.   

Cam Munroe: Shape Shift

Cam Munroe’s “shape shift” works take the form of 10 paintings on 200 mm round panels. 

The works play with space, form and dimension; an assemblage of carefully crafted geometric shapes, meticulously mapped and marked out in finely painted white rows, contained within dark circular bases.  

“This most recent work reflects my continuing interest in the workings of the mind. For example the power of thought to alter one's mood or outlook of a moment in time. These paintings offer a type of 'flip book animation' of sorts; a snap shot of forms from one form to another.”  

Picking up and extending the aesthetic of these small “shape shift” works are five large paintings on canvas. 

The large works, while employing similar tones and techniques to the circular panels, introduce the idea of palisades: fence-like structures, suggestive of containment, fortification and enclosure.  

“Previously I have dealt with large black paintings that used a more grid like approach. I am hoping these works that allow more open space around the canvas to take this into further maturation. Painting with white ink on a textured substrate has been integral to the work, in doing this forcing my mind and hand to slow down and benefiting each finished composition.”  

The exhibition of Cam Munroe’s new paintings at ZIMMERMAN runs from 1 to 30 September 2017.  

Cam Munroe – brief artist bio

Born in Melbourne in 1972, Cam Munroe is a graduate of the Meadowbank School of Art and Design in Sydney. In 1994, Munroe moved to New Zealand, and established her home and studio in Wellington.  

Munroe has a solid exhibition history, extending over more than two decades. The artist has been represented by ZIMMERMAN since her first solo exhibition at the gallery in 2010.  

Munroe’s art practice initially focused on painting, with wood, canvas, cardboard and aluminium all employed as bases on which the artist marked out her unique pictorial language.  

Characteristically comprising a collection of curious objects and cryptic symbols, the artist’s paintings frequently assume a grid-like arrangement, in which strange and mysterious forms are captured, collated and contained. Munroe’s current series of paintings expands upon this former body of work, featuring new forms that transcend the faintly marked and disintegrating gridlines that lie beneath. 

In recent years, the artist has extended her media of choice to include ceramics. This new media has provided Munroe with a means of translating her pictorial language into three-dimensional form. 

In 2015, a ceramic composition by Munroe was slected as a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize, New Zealand’s most prestigious drawing award. In 2016, Munroe took out the Premier Award at Ceramicus in Wellington, confirming the artist’s successful adoption of this new media.

 

 

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For the month of August 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring 10 new paintings by 20 year old Paige Williams.  

 

Paige Williams is fascinated by “the weird and interesting”. 

Working from a home studio in Auckland, the artist paints “all sorts of animals, in strange or unusual situations.” 

In this month’s show, the featured creatures are an eclectic collection of the furry, feathered, six-legged and amphibian. 

A bunny shyly peeks out from behind a stylised Japanese mask; the innocent young rabbit who really wants to be a fox. 

In a counterpoised work, a keen-eyed fox has donned the face of a rabbit. Does the fox really wish to be a bunny … or is this a clever confidence trick, to charm an unsuspecting prey? 

While the rabbit and fox wear masks, in another painting it is the mask that wears the creatures. An ancient Balinese mask, lost or abandoned by its human actors, provides a gathering place for a congregation of praying mantises.  

In A Pack of Mice, a mischief of mice have discovered their own curious place in which to play, a lively game of hide and seek taking place in an alpaca’s fur. The soft-eyed alpaca appears unperturbed by the flurry of activity around her head, or by the untamed flora sprouting from her dainty collar. 

Another creature apparently at ease with his unusual circumstances is a bug-eyed green frog. His characteristic camouflage colours are dotted with bright patches of purple, red, orange and blue, topped off with a playful hat. Look more closely and you will see that this patchwork frog appears to already have found an appreciative audience for his quirky appearance - the transparent bubbles floating about his head are host to numerous small fish, perhaps transfixed by this unique character’s queer and colourful look. 

Meanwhile, as if portraying some bizarre magician’s trick, Cat-tea features a cat’s face emerging from a cup and saucer. 

A giant brown-eyed blue gecko makes a dramatic appearance; emerging larger-than-life from an imagined forest, she patiently bears an assortment of smaller lizards on her head. 

In the midst of this cast of the cute, the creeping and the curious, a stoic white stag enters the frame, droplets of morning dew falling from his mossy antlers. 

Droplets also feature in Fungi Frog, in which a plump green frog sits atop a toadstool. Glistening water drops adhere like limpets to his froggy skin, while an escargatoire of snails slide across his slippery surfaces. 

More delicately poised, in Humming Berry, a hummingbird perches on a lush red strawberry, balancing a perfect water bubble on her beak. 

This is the artist’s second solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN. 

Exhibition runs from 1 to 31 August 2017

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For the month of July 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring Bloom - new paintings by Elspeth Shannon. This is the artist's seventh solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

Elspeth Shannon: Bloom

The works in this exhibition spring from the artist’s continued exploration of the process of painting, in which works are begun with no initial idea or subject matter in mind.

 

“For my last exhibition, in November 2016, I made a conscious decision to forgo my former painting process in search of a new language. Without the familiar focus of an object, I’ve been forced to intuitively feel my way forward. Like a game of chess, every mark making helps dictate the next move.  A sequence that is as enervating as it is challenging.”

 

From the artist’s first free applications of paint an underlying order starts to emerge, and the works begin to suggest a variety of organic forms. 

 

Softly emerging shapes, suggestive of petals, leaves and fruit, bunch and spread across the artist’s canvases, a virtual harvest of peach, grape, orange and avocado tones.

 

In some paintings the forms appear suspended mid-air, frozen moments caught on canvas; in other works, colour spreads fluidly outward from ovoid bases, like untamed living bouquets.

 

This is the artist’s seventh solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

 

Elspeth Shannon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from Massey University, Wellington

 

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For the month of June 2017, ZIMMERMAN presents The Otherness of Ourselves: paintings by Rebecca Wallis. This is the artist's third solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

Rebecca Wallis: The Otherness of Ourselves

Rebecca Wallis seeks to make associations between the corporeal (the body) and the painterly (paint and the painting).

 

Paint seeps, leaps and spills across the artist’s canvases, spawning forms at once fleshly, fluid and alive.

 

The artist, noted for her mastery in working with gouache, has achieved unexpectedly soft and seductive painterly effects in this latest body of work, begun in 2015 and completed this year.

 

The result is a series of paintings that are simultaneously fascinating and disconcerting, evoking in the viewer a “push and pull” response of both curiosity and unease.

 

Wallis’ paintings also reference “the abject, through ideas of the Other, seen as displacement (that which is out of place)."

 

"The Otherness in these works is something that at one time belongs to us, is part of us and our autonomy. When it escapes, or separates itself away, it becomes something Other; foreign alien, unfamiliar, and threatening because of this.” 

 

The paintings give physical form to internal realms, with emotion and instinct played against logic and the external world.

 

Brief artist bio

 

Born in the UK in 1964, Rebecca Wallis has lived and practised between London and Auckland since completing her first Fine Arts qualifications in 1988. In 1995, Wallis attained a Masters in Visual Arts from Goldsmiths College of Art in London.

 

A former winner of the Walker & Hall Art Award (2008), Wallis’ work has also been selected for a number of other significant national art awards, including the Painting and Printmaking Art Awards (2012 and 2009) and the National Contemporary Art Awards (2011).

 

In 2017, Wallis’ work was a finalist in the Aesthetica Art Prize (UK).

 

Wallis is also a regular finalist in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards (2015, 2014, 2009 and 2008).

 

In 2015, Wallis enjoyed a sell-out show at Art Taipei (Taiwan). As a result, she was invited to exhibit at Asia Contemporary 2016 (Hong Kong).

 

Wallis’ paintings are held in a number of important national art collections, including the James Wallace Arts Trust and the Walker & Hall collection. Local institutions holding art works by Wallis include Te Manawa (Museum of Art, Science & History) and Massey University.  

 

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For the month of May 2017, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting the works of Palmerston North’s powerhouse creative couple, Fran and Paul Dibble. With a longstanding foothold in the Manawatu, this month’s exhibition is the latest of several exhibitions the husband and wife team have held at ZIMMERMAN since 2011.

Fran Dibble – Strange Fruit

Fran Dibble’s paintings occupy the walls in a new series the artist calls “Strange Fruit”.

The paintings are an unusual cross of realistic still life works with abstracted elements, each of similar importance, so we are unsure whether the fruit is nestled into an abstract back drop or whether the abstract elements are puncturing a more traditional scene.

This conveys the oddity of the world of illusions we live amongst where solid ordinary things are made up of empty space – particles within, moving with their own odd physics of behaviour, or gravity pulling objects to ground.

They are intentional play-offs of static objects with volume against the light airy movements of the unseen.

Paul Dibble – Once There Were Huia

Paul Dibble’s sculptures occupy the three dimensions, with a menagerie of celebratory animals promenading the gallery.

A collection of his rabbits gather in one grouping, turning-the-tails on their human exterminators, either wielding shotguns themselves or just smugly strolling the grounds.

The sculptor’s trademark creations of huia (Palmerston North’s natural icon, with its last siting in the Tararuas) either perch against golden kowhai or tower outside the gallery on a leafed Corten stand, surveying passers-by.

The central work The Last Huia (1907) is more solemn, immortalising the bird in flames, burning like the Phoenix, in recognition of its demise.

Brief artist biographies

Fran Dibble 

Born in Connecticut (USA) in 1962, Fran immigrated to New Zealand with her family as a teenager.

Fran holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Botany, a M.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry and a BA in Philosophy. Her interest in these disciplines informs her artistic practice, encompassing both painting and bronze casting. 

The artist draws inspiration from the natural environment, as well as shapes observed under a microscope, and scientific theories such as principles of gravity and the diffusion of particles.

In 2007, Fran was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to art, and in 2012 Fran was made an Honorary Fellow of Universal College of Learning, Palmerston North. 

 

Paul Dibble 

Paul Dibble is a well-known sculptor, both nationally and abroad, with his significant work for the New Zealand Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London receiving high acclaim.

Born in 1943, Paul studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, and graduated with a BFA Honours in Sculpture.

Paul is involved in all aspects of his studio practice, working with a small team, in a time where many other sculptors contract out the manufacture of their work to other businesses.

Paul has maintained a consistent exhibition schedule in New Zealand, with work also appearing in national and international Art Fairs. He is represented by leading galleries in New Zealand and Australia, and has produced a number of significant commissions – most recently, a large sculptural work unveiled at University of Otago in November 2016.

Paul was awarded a New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004, an Honorary Doctorate in Visual Arts from Massey University in 2007, and an Honorary Fellowship from Universal College of Learning in 2012.

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For the month of April 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring Between Shadows, new works by Kate Elder.

Artist’s Statement 

“My work generally deals with the notion of landscapes, the preoccupation we have for controlling our environments, and what happens when our natural and constructed worlds collide.

Each work is a combination of positive forms, negative cut-outs, painted surface and shadows. 

Through lighting positive and negative spaces, the presence of the forms and objects extend much further than their physical boundaries.

Some shadows are painted – the imprint of a different time or place – others are current and are subject to change, or can disappear completely.”

Artist info

Born in Wellington in 1980, Kate Elder has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Dunedin School of Art.

After two years studying cabinet making in Madrid, Elder returned to New Zealand, and now lives and works on the Kapiti Coast.

“My return to New Zealand provoked a newfound appreciation for my environment, the formation and idiosyncrasies of the landscape: permanent in a broader sense, yet in a constant state of flux.”

Winner of the top award at the 2015 Mahara Gallery Arts Review, more recently Elder’s work was selected as a finalist in the Wellington Regional Arts Review (2016) and the Waiheke Community Art Gallery Small Sculpture Prize (2017).

“Working in 3D, I’m conscious of the role that the viewer can play in ‘animating’ an artwork. A viewer moving around a work can experience the dynamic quality of a sculpture, appreciating the changes that can occur from different viewpoints, and gradually making sense of the work through this movement.”

Elder’s works are held in private collections in New Zealand, Australia and Spain.

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For the month of March 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring the works of Wellington based artist, Lorraine Rastorfer

Comprising a selection of paintings from the artist’s recent solo exhibition at Pataka Art + Museum, this is the artist’s first exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.  

 

Rastorfer’s large abstract paintings are evocative of golden flax strands and silver ribbons, as if twisting, turning and floating in the breeze.

 

Iridescent lines of colour curl and intertwine across deep monochromatic surfaces, each painting possessing “its own pace and rhythm, with some containing a frenetic sense of energy and movement and others unfurling slowly and leisurely.”(1)  

 

Each painterly comb and flourish across the surface contributes to the pattern, depth and balance of the completed work.

 

“Rastorfer looks for the dynamics within the paint medium, investigating the same process over and over again with small graduated differences exploring the permutations of possibility and chance ... For her each painting is the emergent variation of the one that preceded it. The same tools and techniques are applied to each work. What differs is the colour and the gesture, the way the paint responds, the tonal variations, the texture.”(2)

 

“I work with the fluidity, viscosity, opacity and transparency of paint, a variety of mark-making tools that I have designed myself and the effects of chance, control and an overall conceptual intent. I keep going until I find a spatial balance; a sense of ordered freedom, a unified variety of rhythms and streams.”  - Lorraine Rastorfer

  

References:
(1) Review by Laura Elliott - published in Art Seen, Otago Daily Times, November 2015
(2) Essay by Jacquie Clarke - published in connection with Rastorfer’s Meshworks exhibition at The New Dowse, December 2007 to March 2008

 

Artist's bio

 

Born in Wellington in 1961, Lorraine Rastorfer holds a Master of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from Auckland University, Elam School of Fine Arts (1992). 

 

Rastorfer is a regular exhibitor, with recent solo exhibitions at Pataka Art + Museum (2015 and 2016), and five solo exhibitions at Milford Galleries in Dunedin between 2006 and 2015.

 

A runner up in the Wallace Art Awards 1993, and a finalist in each year from 1999-2002, 2004 and 2011-2012, Rastorfer has received a number of other awards and grants. These include the 2005 CoCA/Anthony Harper Contemporary Art Award, 1993 Ida Eise Painting Award and 2002 WSA NZ Painting and Printmaking Award.

 

More recently, the artist’s work was selected as a finalist for the NZ Painting and Printmaking Award in 2008, 2011 and 2017.

 

Work by Rastorfer has also been selected for the Parkin Drawing Prize each year from 2014 to 2016, and in 2014 and 2015 for the Art Waikato National Contemporary Art Award. 

 

The artist’s work is represented in notable private and corporate collections, including the collections of Chapman Tripp Sheffield Young, ANZ National Bank, Auckland Institute of Architects and the James Wallace Arts Trust.

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For the month of February 2017, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting new paintings by Naga Tsutsumi. 

This month's exhibition comprises two distinct series, both begun by the artist last year.

The works in the first series, Perspective, explore the artist’s reflections on the sensory rituals of a pre-digital world. "Do I miss awe and excitement of placing the needle on the turntable, pushing the play button on the cassette player, opening the book and turning pages?”

The works in the second series, Possession, are the product of the artist seeking to set aside adult rationality, to paint intuitively and unselfconsciously, “as children do.” 

Naga Tsutsumi: Artist’s Statement 

PERSPECTIVE 

“It was not long ago that music and books became available as digital data. 

I use iPod and Kindle every day, because they are accessible and convenient. 

But these digital devices don’t have the same excitement as turning the very first page of a printed book, or placing a needle on a record.  

Books, music, photographs … as digitalisation progresses, part of the sensory experience of each book, song and photo is lost. The weight of a book, the smell and texture of its papers, the typeset letters with their specifically selected fonts. The record disc inserted in a paper jacket with its own cover artwork design, the smell of the vinyl, the sound of a needle touching down. Pushing down the play/rec buttons on a cassette player, using the shutter button on a manual camera, dialling an old phone, or tuning into a radio station by turning the knob ... all physical actions that engage our senses to create an “experience". 

Reading books and listening to music used to be such precious moments for me. So I feel relieved to see people still reading printed books, or listening to music with analogue players. 

I like that painting is still a physical activity, one that has not been replaced by a 0/1 (binary) format or automated system. 

Painting is an accumulation of human mistakes toward perfection, showing a history of thinking and decision making, frustrations and joys, all at the same time.” 

POSSESSION 

“This series is simply about painting what I want to paint. 

It is inspired by my daughter's drawing, and my ongoing suspicion about art making.  

Children, before receiving art education at school, are pure picture makers without theories and knowledge. 

Children draw whatever they like. Lines and colours are so bold and decisive. We can't retrieve this natural creativity after losing it (just like boys' soprano). 

I try to interact with my daughter as much as possible when she draws. 

When we collaborate, I observe how she draws and chooses colours, from which I can learn a lot. 

Nobody compels me to paint, so I am supposed to be free to paint however I wish. 

But what I was told by art school professors has become not just a useful foundation, but is also a spell, which keeps me from being a truly free painter. 

To cast off this spell, in this series of paintings I have reintroduced candy colours and free spontaneous strokes on the canvas, something I haven’t done for 25 years. 

I used to believe the statements of modern masters that "art is a weapon" and "art is not a decoration on the wall".  

But I have to conclude, as far as I paint, my paintings are not a weapon - and I am grateful if one of my works is hung in someone's living room, after all.” 

Brief artist’s bio  

Born in Japan in 1967, Naga Tsutsumi has lived in Palmerston North for more than a decade. 

From a samurai line, the artist is the last descendant of the main branch of the Tsutsumi family. 

“But I don’t have any inheritance or family treasures like swords, armour or written manuals about swordsmanship; my only legacy from the glory era is a family tree book, made about a hundred years ago, and my name.” 

Tsutsumi holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa, USA. 

This month marks the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at ZIMMERMAN.

 

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From December 2016 to January 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring @newnormal - ceramic works by Kirsty Gardiner.  

Kirsty Gardiner: Artist’s Statement

@newnormal is inspired by my fascination with the “@” symbol and a desire to create a new history. 

The “@” symbol originated during medieval times, used by monks who copied manuscripts by hand. 

The preposition “at” in Latin became “@” to make writing faster. This medieval relic is at the heart of our online lives. 

It is a reminder of the past, the present, and the continual desire to create ever expanding markets for tangible and intangible products, labelled “new”. 

Imagine looking into your mind's eye and finding nothing. Waiting for something to return, still nothing … then creating a new normal. A new imagined history, evoking a dialogue between the imagined creatures and the space they inhabit. 

Brief artist’s bio

Gardiner’s ceramic sculptures are influenced by her childhood, natural history, and the collections with which Gardiner came into contact while working as a gallery technician at Aratoi Museum of Art and History in Masterton.

Gardiner’s works have been selected multiple times for The Portage Ceramic Awards, New Zealand’s most prestigious ceramics prize. In 2016 Gardiner’s work received an Honourable Mention at the Portage Awards, and in 2010 Gardiner’s work secured the Premier Award.

Gardiner’s work has also twice been selected for the James Wallace Art Awards, and in 2013 Gardiner was the winner of the Friends of Aratoi Award.

A regular exhibitor since 1997, Gardiner’s exhibition Portmanteau: A Cabinet of Curiosities, was shown in 2012 at Aratoi, and in 2013 at Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and History.

Installations of Gardiner's ceramic huia skins have featured in a number of public exhibitions, including at Aratoi (Masterton), Expressions (Upper Hutt), Shapeshifter (a biennial sculpture exhibition curated by The Dowse in Lower Hutt), Te Manawa (Palmerston North) and as one of the finalists in the 2016 Molly Morpeth Canaday Awards 3D (Whakatane).

 

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For the month of November 2016, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting a new body of work by painter Elspeth Shannon. 

Elspeth Shannon: Artist’s Statement

“This latest body of work deliberately plays with the slippage between representation and figuration. 

Paintings begin as a chance process with loose bold applications of paint and inks. Gradually, through building, destroying and painting over with more deliberate mark making, an underlying order begins to emerge and it’s around here that the painting may start to suggest forms of plants or animals. 

It’s as though I’m constantly altering and adjusting the visual framework of some invisible reality. 

Painting is very much about the process with the image being secondary to the making.  Eventually the feeling of visual anxiety is gone and the work is done. 

Unlike most of my previous work, each painting is completed with no initial idea or subject matter in mind. I celebrate the varied interpretation this process allows. 

It’s an exciting ‘white knuckle ride’ that is challenging yet ultimately rewarding.” 

* Elspeth Shannon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from Massey University, Wellington.  

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For the month of October 2016, ZIMMERMAN is exhibiting a series of paintings by 19 year old Auckland artist, Paige Williams.

A surreal animal painter, Paige is fascinated by “the weird and interesting.” 

Introduced to art as a child by her grandfather, it wasn’t until Paige William’s later high school years that her enjoyment of painting deepened. 

Having commenced studies toward a career in gaming, earlier this year Paige withdrew from University to pursue a professional career in painting and illustration. 

Working from a home studio in Auckland, Paige paints “all sorts of animals in strange or unusual situations.” 

The artist exhibited several works in this year’s Royal Easter Show in Auckland, and was subsequently profiled in the Youth Page of The New Zealand Artist Magazine (May/June 2016). 

This month’s show at ZIMMERMAN is Paige’s first solo exhibition. 

The show sports a cast of quirky characters; from the charming young “Bat”, standing stiffly upright for his portrait, to the matronly “Hen”, primly wrapped in a high-necked tartan shawl. 

Also featured are several paintings in which predator meets prey. The largest of these is the unsettling “Truce”, in which wolf and rabbit meet amongst the charred remains of a still smouldering forest. 

More playful works portray fish, floating in bubbles, unexpectedly coming eye to eye with beady-eyed birds; a delightful dream or a paralysing nightmare, depending whose perspective you choose ... 

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For the month of September 2016, ZIMMERMAN is featuring a new series of oil paintings on vintage ware by Nelson-based artist, Lee-Ann Dixon.

Birds, moths, crockery and animal skulls all feature in Lee-Ann’s works - precious studies that portray moments in time, paying tribute to transience. 

A regular art show participant, in 2016 Lee-Ann’s works were featured in exhibitions in Auckland, Taranaki, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Queenstown.

 Lee-Ann holds a Visual Arts Diploma (1998), and Bachelor of Visual Arts (2005) from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. 

 

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For the month of August 2016, ZIMMERMAN is featuring selected works from A Beautiful Destruction - your last opportunity to view the stunning sculptural installation and paintings that first featured in Fran Dibble’s 2016 exhibition at Te Manawa. 

 

Artist’s commentary … on the inspiration for this exhibition: 

“Two artists from entirely different realms were part of the springboard for this exhibition. The first is WM Turner (1775-1851), a painter who emphasised the destructive power of nature as a way of playing up human vulnerability. His depictions of natural catastrophes emphasised this – the violent power of the sea, shipwrecks and fires. And the spectacular sunset paintings, many produced in 1816, the “year without a summer” when high levels of ash were released into the atmosphere from the eruption of Mount Tambora. In Turner’s highly romanticized world nature triumphed with its beauty and the power it exerted. 

The other influence is a contemporary artist, Adrian Villar Rojas (1980-) from Argentina, whose work I viewed at an exhibition in Stockholm. Rojas intentionally selects media for its temporary qualities, relishing the way the materials break down while being exhibited. 

On this same trip through Scandinavia I visited the Råbjerg Mile, northern Europe’s biggest migratory sand dune that travels about 15 metres a year, several kilometres from the coast, a peculiar phenomenon, like a strange desert in the middle of farmland which it moves around destroying. 

This exhibition, A Beautiful Destruction, seeks to convey a sense of the awe and beauty of nature, nature that may destroy but which creates a moving aesthetic spectacle, one that is dynamic and changing.” 

Artist's commentary … on the central sculptural installation 

“The installation, as the centrepiece of the exhibition and sharing its title, uses plaster structures, poured in roughly constructed boxing and sometimes layered with dye, with bronze shapes to create playful combinations. They are fragmented and eroded, or with vague striations as if the result of geographical sedimentations. 

The bronze features are of an intended disparity; some look as if they could be seaweeds clinging to rocks or washed up, spiky urchins, ferns that grow out of rubble and elliptical plates, reminiscent of red blood cells, our bodies’ great repairers, scattered. 

The installation describes not just the beauty of the barren, but a belief in regeneration and regrowth.” 

Artist's commentary ... on recurrence of water, drops and dots 

“Water has been a recurrent theme in the paintings. The interest is partly how it takes such diverse forms, making up oceans and rivers, clouds in skies. 

Water is often illustrated as a logo, not how water looks when it falls (Edgerton’s famous photographs of milk drops proved this), but a stylised droplet we use as abbreviation. 

In several of the paintings small dots are applied, in sections, or positioned as random forms above the horizon. 

Floating dots have been a personal icon for over a decade. They create an aesthetic surface, and vaguely symbolise giant planets in space or small electrons within particles. 

In some sense, the floating dots imply a world apart from the world we encounter - forms that we sense as solid are still actually full of space and movement.” 

The exhibition of Fran Dibble’s sculptural installation and paintings runs at ZIMMERMAN from 1 to 31 August 2016  

Fran Dibble - brief artist bio 

Born in Connecticut (USA) in 1962, Fran immigrated to New Zealand with her family as a teenager. 

Fran holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Botany, a M.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry and a BA in Philosophy. The artist’s interest in these disciplines informs her artistic practice, encompassing both painting and bronze casting. 

Fran draws inspiration from the natural environment, as well as shapes observed under a microscope, and scientific theories such as principles of gravity and the diffusion of particles. 

In 2007, Fran was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to art, and in 2012 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Universal College of Learning, Palmerston North.  

Fran lives and works in Palmerston North with her husband, bronze sculptor Dr Paul Dibble

 

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For the month of July 2016, ZIMMERMAN is featuring a selection of mixed media sculptures by French-born artist, Sebastien Jaunas. 

   

Sebastien Jaunas - background 

“At a young age I worked with and dismantled objects, to reshape them into different forms. In Paris, I recycled objects from the street and made furniture. 

After arriving in New Zealand 10 years ago, I was inspired by the landscape, driftwood, bones and shell, to sculpt wood into organic shapes.” 

Following recent studies in “Hot Arts” at The Learning Connexion, School of Creativity and Art, Sebastien now also enjoys working with forged steel, glass casting and bronze.    

The sculptor cites amongst his artistic influences the work of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore (for their organic inspiration), Albert Paley and Peter Mattila (for their steel work) and Giacometti (for the texture of his bronze sculpture. 

Brief artist bio

Born in France in 1975, Sebastien moved to New Zealand 10 years ago. 

A qualified electrician and gas fitter in France, Sebastien describes his current career as “a full time artist and parent”.  

After receiving the Learning Connexion’s Oriel Hoskins Scholarship from 2013-2015, Sebastien graduated in 2015 with a Diploma of Art and Creativity. 

Last month, one of Sebastien’s large sculptural works was selected as a finalist for the Signature Piece Art Award at the New Zealand Art Show 2016. 

Sebastien lives in Paekakariki with his wife and daughter.

 

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For the month of June 2016, Zimmerman Art Gallery is featuring selected paintings from Rebecca Wallis’ new Scratchings series. Among the works featured is armswipe, a touring finalist in the recent Wallace Art Awards.

 

 

 

Artist’s commentary: Scratchings series


“In constructing these works I’ve considered a formal equality where each and every part of the painting is visually acknowledged, where the unseen becomes seen. 

The works refer to ideas about the accident or incident from which stems their titles - an acknowledgement of the process of the making itself.
They can be seen as a documentation of accidents, those moments that are unaccounted for, those gaps between intention and purposefulness that happen naturally no matter how much control we attempt to maintain within the practice as an artist.

Unlike traditional paintings, the back, sides, stretcher bars, edges and front - as well as every point of the creative act from start to finish - are equally significant and integral to appreciating the work as a whole.

Everything is equal, nothing is prioritised, no moment is ignored.”

Rebecca Wallis – brief artist bio

Born in 1964, Auckland based artist Rebecca Wallis holds a Masters in Visual Arts from Goldsmiths College of Art in London.

A former winner of the Walker & Hall Art Award (2008), Rebecca’s work has also been selected for a number of other significant national art awards, including:

- Wallace Art Awards (2015, 2014, 2009, 2008)
- Painting and Printmaking Art Awards (2012, 2009)
- National Contemporary Art Awards (2011)

Rebecca’s works are held in a number of notable national art collections, including the James Wallace Arts Trust and the Walker & Hall collection.

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Fran Dibble – artist’s statement

“Three strands of art practice are represented at Zimmerman in the month of May 2016.

The book works sprang from not just a love of reading but from a love of the objects themselves – the bindings and typeface, linen covers, the pictures, even the thickness of the paper and their own particular smell – none of which is present in the poor substitute of electronic versions. Using vintage books with small bronze modelling added onto their tops I began to create these small tributes. This way of working had the added interest of being driven in direction by the ‘find’.

Later I began to make my own bronze books, some copies of real ones (eg; “A Short History of the English People Vol IV”), the inspired book deemed too beautiful to relinquish, or else I entirely make them up. This enables more complex narrative to be presented.

In Vanitas the odd collection of books shows how death has been an ongoing preoccupation, with books as different as catalogues on historic and contemporary artwork sharing the pile with one of the most famous of self-help books “On Death and Dying” by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Picasso Flowers uses a rough copy of one of Picasso’s vase and flower sculptures from the 1950s haphazardly placed on the artist’s biography. They are casually positioned the way things are stacked and muddled in domestic environments.

The paintings in this show are overspill from the Te Manawa exhibition “A Beautiful Destruction” - part of the same series, some are early examples in the development of the show. They depict moody skies over seas positioned against more abstract panels, enjoying the spectacle of nature in all its fury and splendour.

The last strand are watercolours that represent a more intimate leisurely artistic study, the works often painted in the evenings away from the artist’s studio – coffee table as working bench, the living room floor as viewing space.  Subjects chosen in these watercolour works are often an excuse to lay down brushstrokes and play with colour. Here they are examples that are not landscapes but pieces of gardens; cropped squares in what we imagine might be a never ending jungle, for these aren’t formal arrays but gardens grown in a more disorderly fashion. Likewise the paintwork is not overly particular about accuracy, but intentionally free and exploratory.”

Fran Dibble - brief artist's bio

Fran Dibble holds a BSc in Biochemistry and Botany, a MSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and a BA in Philosophy.

In 2007 Dibble was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to art, and in 2011 was awarded a fellowship at Palmerston North’s UCOL (Universal College of Education).

Fran Dibble lives and works in Palmerston North with her husband, bronze sculptor Dr Paul Dibble.

 

 

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