Milford Galleries Queenstown - The Royal Queenstown Easter Show

current exhibition

Christine Cathie


		The inaugural Royal Queenstown Easter Show features many new works by leading artists. In paintings full of humour, historical irony, pathos and Christian imagery Nigel Brown places Captain Cook in the entangling arms of Maori angels. Mike Petre’s new After Stubbs works references both that acclaimed British artist’s naturalistic tradition whilst acknowledging his own iconic Field Studies Series. Reuben Paterson’s (featured so prominently in the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane and on the cover of the recent Art in Australia) three kowhaiwhai glitter paintings are visual poems of repeated rhythms, demonstrating his remarkable skill, restraint and mastery of a most difficult medium. Elizabeth Rees capacity to present motion and allow the viewer into the mind of her figures is as always wonderfully delivered. Neal Palmer’s detailed botanical paintings of flax leaves, craddies and flowers present repeated form and make us conscious of that which is everywhere in NZ. Michael Hight’s beehive paintings have become one of the most sustained and an important body of work in recent NZ art, and as such the artist has altered the way many people look at our landscape and what they come to see. Garry Currin’s “Journey to the Beekeepers Cottage” is a narrative sequence, delivered with characteristic painterly skill and narrative complexity. Elizabeth Thomson uses glass in a manner few can or do. She creates – as in invents – unique worlds, combining elements of what might be seen down a microscope with upholstery design devices and tonal colour studies. Luke Jacomb’s mastery of glass is such that recently he was honoured with a major survey exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The Murrine Pacifica patu works traverse the cultural dynamics of a Maori club and the European (primarily Venetian) glass making tradition.

Nigel Brown

Cook Wrestling with a Maori Angel

Enlighten Me (2010)

Angel to Cook (2009)

Garry Currin

Journey to the Bee Keeper's Cottage I (2010)

Journey to the Bee Keeper's Cottage III (2010)

Journey to the Bee Keeper's Cottage V (2010)

Michael Hight

Ashley Gorge (2010)

Awatere Valley (2010)

Taylor's Pass 2 (2010)

Luke Jacomb

Murrine Pacifica [12396] (2008)

Murrine Pacifica [12397] (2008)

Murrine Pacifica [12398] (2008)

Neal Palmer

Fire Light (2008)

Sweetner (2010)

Warp & Weft (2010)

Reuben Paterson

Untitled (Blue Kowhaiwhai) (2009)

Untitled (Large Red Kowhaiwhai) (2009)

Untitled (Small Red Kowhaiwhai) (2009)

Mike Petre

After Stubbs: Field Study 134 (2010)

After Stubbs: Field Study 135 (2010)

After Stubbs: Field Study 136 (2010)

Elizabeth Rees

Meditation (2009)

In Motion (2009)

In the Red (2009)

Doc Ross

Pacific #2 (2009)

Greenstone Valley (2003)

Pacific #10 (2009)

Tim Royall

Bud (Black Chevrons) (2008-09)

Lithops (2009)

Separation / Entanglement (2008)

Terry Stringer

Figure in a Landscape (2009)

Sleeping Muse (2008)

Still Life Head (2009)

Elizabeth Thomson

Another Green World II (2008)

Another Green World V (2008)

Another Green World VI (2008)