Sue Hawker announced as Ranamok Glass Award Winner
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Sue Hawker was announced as the recipient of the 2010 Ranamok Glass Prize for her entry titled 'Too Much Is Never Enough'.

Reuben Paterson - Artist in Residence Rarotonga
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Beachcomber Contemporary Art (BCA) Rarotonga is pleased to announce Reuben Paterson as 'Artist in Residence' from July 29 – September 09.

Artists at Hastings City Art Gallery exhibition
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Many of our artists are exhibiting selected works in a exhibition at the Hastings City Art Gallery open from 10 July – 26 September called 'PUTIPUTI : The Flower in Contemporary New Zealand Art'.

The exhibition includes works by Evelyn Dunstan, Niki Hastings-McFall, Richard Orjis, Neal Palmer, Reuben Paterson, Emily Siddell and Layla Walter.

2010 Ranamok Glass Finalists
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Sue Hawker and Evelyn Dunstan are both finalists in this year's Ranamok Glass Prize.

Hannah Kidd and Mike Petre in art book
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Hannah Kidd and Mike Petre both feature significantly in a new Australasian teaching resource "Animals in Contemporary Art" volume 3, issue 2.

This informative and colourful book features six pages on both Petre and Kidd.

Reuben Paterson at Tauranga Art Gallery
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Reuben Paterson's glittering, painted on canvas installation comes direct from the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) in Brisbane, Australia to show at the Tauranga Art Gallery in his exhibition 'Whakapapa: Get Down Apon Your Knees'
open from 12 Jun until the 31 Oct 2010.

Wayne Barrar 'An Expanding Subterra' book launch
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
On 14th July, The Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the School of Fine Arts at Massey University and Wayne Barrar will launch a major monograph on Wayne Barrar's photographs titled 'Wayne Barrar: An Expanding Subterra.

This comprehensive publication covers over seven years of photography depicting commodified mined spaces and architecture of the underground.

It accompanies Wayne Barrar's touring exhibition 'Wayne Barrar: An Expanding Subterra' which is currently showing at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Reuben Paterson at the 17th Sydney Biennale
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
I room at Cockatoo Island has been installed with major works by Reuben Paterson as part of the 17th Sydney Biennale- The Beauty of Distance; Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age.

The Sydney Biennale runs from the 12th May until 1st August 2010.

Wayne Barrar 'An Expanding Subterra' at DPAG
Friday, 23 April 2010
A major exhibition of Wayne Barrar's photographs 'An Expanding Subterra'is currently on at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery until the 27th June.

As part of this exhibition, Wayne will present an artist talk at the DPAG on the 25th April at 3pm. On May 30th Gavin Hipkins talks about the exhibition and a book is to be published for the show.

Reviews and articles of the show can be read in the Listener, April 24-30, 2010 pg45 and the Art News, Autumn 2010, pg12.

Neil Dawson the Star of the Sunday Star Times
Monday, 12 April 2010
"Sculptor Neil Dawson is known for creating large public art works charged with his keen sense of socila responsibility, but a new exhibition shows he's just as at home producing smaller fun 'card tricks'."

Kim Knight writes about Neil Dawson's recent works in a full page article in the Arts section of the Sunday Star Times, April 4, 2010.

Joanna Braithwaite in Art New Zealand, Autumn 2010
Monday, 12 April 2010
"Notions of progress and evolution, of sexual and natural selection, are seldom far from the surface of Braithwaite's paintings, whether they reference science lab or dog park." (Gregory O'brien, 2010)

A four page article titled 'Upwards and Onwards; The Evolution of Joanna Braithwaite'by Gregory O'Brien features in Autumn's Art New Zealand.

Anito DeSoto residency in Germany
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Anita has gained a residency in Germany at the LIA Leipzig International Art Programme. Her work will be exhibited at Spinnerie, Germany in mid July as part of a group show.

Hannah Kidd wins Montalto Sculpture Award
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Hannah Kidd has won the Montalto Sculpture Award in Australia for her work 'Artist to Antarctica' (2009).

Ann Robinson in Neues Glas, Spring 2010
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
An eight page full-colour article written by Dr D Wood graces the pages of the most recent Neues Glass magazine.

Art News Summer 2009
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Neil Dawson and JS Parker both feature in the summer edition of Art News.

Dawson talks of his return to public sculpture as well his new direction in a smaller scale body of work.

Liz Caughey talks of her experience of JS Parker's paintings from his beginnings until now.

JS Parker: Plain Song
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Hot off the press 'JS Parker: Plain Song' by Damien Skinner. This book accompanies JS Parker's retrospective exhibition at the Millennium Gallery in Blenheim on now until February 2010.

Reuben Paterson On Show
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Reuben Paterson is exhibiting at the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT6)(2009)
at the Queensland Art Gallery, and Brisbane - Gallery of Modern Art.

Watch out for the current cover of Art and Australia that features Reuben's work.

Portage Ceramic Awards 2009
Friday, 23 October 2009
Emily Siddell recieved a Merit Award and John Parker the John Green Waitakere Aritist Award.

Finalists in the Ranamok Award
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Glass artists Sue Hawker, Dominic Burrell and Viki Fanning were finalalists in the Ranamok Awards 2009.

New Artland television series
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Dick Frizzell, Niki Hastings-McFall, Karl Maughan
and Reuben Paterson will all feature in a new series 'New Artland' screening at 9:35pm Saturdays and Tuesdays on TVNZ 7.

Wallace Art Awards 2009 Finalists
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Rebecca Harris, Niki Hastings-McFall, Alexis Neal and PJ Smith are finalists in the 2009 Wallace Art Awards.

Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams win glass award
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
The winner of the 2009 MMC 3D Award was announced by judge Philip Clarke on Friday 21st August. The winner was a work entitled 'Quill' an impressive pressed glass chandelier by 'Crystal Chain Gang' makers Jim Dennison & Leanne Williams of Martinborough.

Galia Amsel on book cover
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Galia Amsel's work features on the cover of a new book by Keith Cummings, 'Contemporary Kiln-formed Glass', published by A&C Black, UK.

Hannah Kidd exhibiting in Denmark
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Hannah Kidd's work "The Land Of Milk And Honey" is being exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Denmark.

Peata Larkin in Art News
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Artnews, Winter 2009 features a four page spread on Peata Larkin titled “Stairway to Heaven” by Virgina Were. “In Peata Larkin’s ancient systems of knowledge transmission are equally as valid as contemporary codes of computer language and DNA sequences”.1

1. “Stairway to Heaven” by Virginia Were, Artnews, Winter 2009.

John Tootill Awarded
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Jon Tootill’s work 'Kuaka' was highly commended by Hamish Keith in the 2009 COCA Anthony Harper Award for Contemporary Art.

Luke Jacomb Catalogue
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
An exhibition catalogue has been published for Luke Jacomb’s exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, USA. The exhibition is titled "Seeking the Light" and is coming to milford galleries queenstown 29th August.

Antartica New Zealand announces Invited Artists
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Peter James Smith is one of two recipients of the 2009/10 Antatica New Zealand Arts Fellowships. Smith will travel to Scott Base, Antartica in January next year.

NZ String Quartet with images by Nigel Brown
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Nigel Brown has produced a limited edition of seven lithographic icons to accompany the music of Haydn: The Seven Last Words from the Cross Opus 51. Event details: Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, 92 - 100 Devon St West, New Plymouth, Friday 17 Apr 2009, 7:30pm

Lorraine Rastorfer features in Art News
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
In the Autumn 2009 edition of Art News, Katy Corner reviews Lorraine Rastorfer's recent exhibition. Rastorfer's paintings combine "formal elegance with an uplifting sense of motion rooted in human dynamics... Rastorfer is interested in creating a psychological atmosphere involving space and time and there's immense depth and solidity to such light, effortless apparitions. Like a conjurer, she places her forces in motion, manipulating them until it's all there, complete and working beautifully - so effortless we don't realise what a tremendous balancing act these paintings are."

Hannah Kidd's Public Sculptures
Monday, 16 March 2009
Hannah Kidd's latest sculpture "Cow Cocky" (2009) has been installed within the Novotel Lakeside Hotel gardens in Queenstown (opposite milford galleries queenstown). The sculpture created from flattened corrugated iron and steel rods comments on the dairy boom in the South Island. One of Hannah Kidd's sculptures also features in the "Flora and Fauna: sculptures in the Botanic Gardens" exhibition in Christchurch.

Mike Petre
Monday, 16 March 2009
Mike Petre's latest exhibition at milford galleries auckland was reviewed by TJ McNamara of the New Zealand Herald. "He (Mike Petre) paints black and white cows with a broad brush which conveys the outward appearance and the bone structure beneath the skin. To the decisive strokes of his brush, he adds a touch of detail such as the feathering hair on the cows ears... A ghostliness of atmosphere reminds us that they all end up in the meat works...As well as the familiar work, Petre is showing a new departure in his style. The black and white animals appear now in a field of dark green with a hint of horizon at the top. The paint is laid on as a thick surface, applied with a palette knife, and cattle merge into their green background. Yet the rhythm of the white areas still gives them a startling immediacy."

Glass Invitational NZ Review
Monday, 16 March 2009
James Dignan of the Otago Daily Times reviews the Glass Invitational NZ as "a remarkable display of glass sculpture at its finest"...(Luke Jacomb's)"astonishing glass canoe paddles and patu, so clearly influenced by traditional Maori designs, have a grace and aesthetic beauty which is a delight, and the tension created fronm the simultaneous strength and fragility of the material adds an extra dimension to these fine pieces".

Glass Invitational NZ (2008-2010) Curator Talk
Monday, 16 March 2009
Milford Galleries Dunedin Director, Stephen Higginson will be presenting a curators talk on Saturday 21 March from 2pm at the gallery. This informative talk will cover the featured artists’ glass methods & developments and a guided tour of the exhibition.

Niki Hastings-McFall
Monday, 16 March 2009
Niki Hastings-McFall has her intallation work "Te-Puna-o-Wai-Whetu - The Spring that Mirrors the Stars" displayed in the foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery From 8 March. Her work also features in the international exhibition "Le Folauga: Contemporary Pacific Art from Aotearoa New Zealand" at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (until 5 April 2009).

Otago Sculpture Trust
Friday, 20 February 2009
This charitable trust was established in 2002 by a group of practicing sculptors with a general aim to foster and develop sculptural practice across Otago. www.ost-sculpture.org.nz

John Edgar receives ONZM
Monday, 12 January 2009
Sculptor John Edgar is an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in the New Year honours list for services to art, in particular sculpture. Read about John Edgar on our artist page.

Gallery opening hours for our Summer Shows
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
We apologise if you have been trying to access our website over the past week. We experienced some technical issues outside of our control over this period but these have been attended to and our website is again functioning normally.

Our annual ‘Summer Show’ exhibitions feature some of the highlights of New Zealand contemporary art. We look forward to seeing you at the exhibitions over the summer season and our opening hours are as follows... Milford Galleries Dunedin is open 5-10 January from 10am – 4pm, normal hours resume from Monday 12 January. milford galleries auckland is open 12-17 January from 10am – 4pm, normal hours resume from Monday 19 January. milford galleries queenstown is open everyday except 25 & 26 Dec, open 10am – 6pm.

Best wishes for 2009 from all of the staff at milford galleries queenstown, Milford Galleries Dunedin and milford galleries auckland.

Karl Maughan interview on National Radio
Monday, 8 December 2008
Karl Maughan was interviewed by Kim Hill on Saturday 6th December. You can listen to the interview online by clicking here:
www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/20081206

Art Till Eight evening 4 December
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
milford galleries auckland invites you to the Art till Eight December evening! This is expected to be an even bigger event than the opening celebrations last month. Supported by the Auckland Heart of the City, the Auckland City Art Gallery and featuring music and tango dancers in Khartoum Place. Be a part of the Art Till Eight evening and enjoy a superb evening of wine, strolling, mingling, art, culture, music and dancing.

When: Thursday evening, 4 December 2008
Where: Art Galleries in Kitchener and Lorne Streets, Auckland Central
Time: 5:00pm - 8:00pm

This is a wonderful opportunity to view our current exhibition ‘Liquorland’ by Geoffrey Notman.

Karl Maughan discussion
Wednesday, 3 December 2008

As part of the Auckland Art Gallery's latest exhibition "The Enchanted Garden" Karl Maughan will be holding a discussion on how his interest in painting gardens began. The talk will take place at the public art gallery's New Gallery at 1pm on Sunday 25 January.

Glass Invitational NZ opens at Canterbury
Thursday, 20 November 2008
The Glass Invitational NZ surveys the major achievements and innovations of New Zealand glass art in the preceding three years.

This significant exhibition features artists that have made substantial developments in glass art. This, the third Invitational, includes works by Luke Jacomb, Jim Dennison and Leanne Williams, Ruth Allen, Lyndsay Patterson, Elizabeth Thomson, Galia Amsel, Stephen Bradbourne, Evelyn Dunstan, John Edgar, Sue Hawker, Elizabeth McClure and Emily Siddell.

Curated by Stephen Higginson and toured by Milford House Ltd, Glass Invitational NZ is showing at Canterbury Museum’s Robert McDougall Annex until 8th February 2009.

For full details please see the Glass Invitational NZ exhibition page.

Niki Hastings-McFall
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Niki Hastings-McFall has her latest work "Sailors Delight" (2008) installed in the rear window display at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Bob Kerr paintings at David Grant Book Launch
Thursday, 20 November 2008
David Grant's latest book "Number One Field Punishment" featuring artwork by Bob Kerr launches at Turnbull House, Bowen St. Wellington at 6pm on Monday 25th November.

Bob Kerr's paintings will be exhibited at the book launch. Kerr held his powerful, narrative exhibition “Number One Field Punishment: Archibald Baxter's Opposition to Military Conscription" at Milford Galleries Dunedin in mid 2007.

The book describes the courage of the conscientious objectors sent overseas during World War One in a brutal attempt to force them to renounce their convictions and join the war effort. David Grant is the foremost authority of conscientious objection in New Zealand. He re-appraises Mark Briggs and Archibald Baxter's stand in the context of a New Zealand which has come to value it's place as an independent, anti-militarist nation.

Garry Currin Awarded
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Garry Currin was awarded the grand prize at the BMW Awards ceremony on Wednesday 15th October.

There were two separate categories, Emerging Artists 2008 and the BMW Bonnet artists, the latter being where 11 artists were invited to paint on the surface of a BMW bonnet. The bonnet award was judged by Chris Saines, the Director of the Auckland City Art Gallery. Chris hailed Garry Currin’s work as being true to Garry’s stylistic hand yet ever so strongly a considered and successful painting on a very challenging surface.

The artworks are now available for viewing at Team McMillan BMW, 7 Great South Road, Auckland until October 19th and the bonnets will be auctioned at the charity auction for Mercy Hospice.

Richard Dunlop shortlisted for awards
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
In September and October 2008, Richard Dunlop was shortlisted in a range of prestigious national art prizes in Australia, including the Blake Prize for Religious Art (Sydney), the Tattersall's Art Prize (Brisbane), the John Leslie Art Prize (Gippsland Regional Gallery, Victoria), the Fleurieu Art Prize - Vistas (South Australia) for his oil on board work "Monk by the Sea" and the Fleurieu Art Prize - Food & Wine (South Australia) for his Oil on Canvas work titled "Italy".

Elizabeth Rees Review
Friday, 26 September 2008
Elizabeth Rees' latest exhibition "Rapture" is reviewed by Arts Writer, John Daly-Peoples in the National Business Review. 'The new paintings in Elizabeth Rees’s new show Rapture at Milford Gallery continue her interest in the landscape. They are nonspecific places and could be views of the South Island or North Island but all have winter or autumnal tones about them. The works have a similar feel to them as the 18th century landscape artist Alexander Cozens who created imaginary landscapes often from random gestural marks but who also paid close attention to the detail of clouds and light.'

Robert Ellis feature article
Friday, 26 September 2008
Robert Ellis is interviewed in the October edition of MindFood by editor Michael McHugh. 'Ellis' work often plays on symbolic messages of Maori and Pakeha culture and community; he takes the viewer into a world that is both narrative and cultural. His use of bright, lively colours is technically brilliant and his images have dual meaning. Ellis manipulates the Maori origins of the metaphors in his work so that they become his own, and often something else again, as the context changes. "The enjoyment never goes away. I just enjoy creating art", he says.'

Art in Auckland CBD Booth
Thursday, 21 August 2008
If you are in the centre of Auckland you may be keen to see Niki Hastings-McFall's work, "Bloom", which has been installed inside the back of a telecom phone booth. "Bloom" consists of 400 synthetic lei woven onto an acrylic sheet. At night, the art work is back-lit in an alternating array of vibrant colours. The phone booth artwork is part of a collaboration between Auckland City Council, Telecom New Zealand and selected artists, aiming to refresh the CBD and reduce graffiti vandalism through art.

Wallace Art Awards finalists named
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Garry Currin, Callum Arnold, Bill Riley and Scott McFarlane have been selected as finalists in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards.
The Wallace Art Award prize winners receive valuable residencies at prestigious international studios. The Awards will be presented on Monday, 1 September, 6:00pm, at the Aotea Gallery, Auckland and Exhibition of Winners and Selected Finalists will be open to the public from 2-28 September at the Aotea Gallery, and at the New Dowse, Wellington from October until March.

Luke Jacomb exhibition in New Orleans, USA
Thursday, 14 August 2008
New Zealand glass artist Luke Jacomb has received considerable critical attention is holding a significant exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, USA. The exhibition is titled "Seeking the Light" and runs from September 13 - March 1, 2009. For full details please see www.noma.org.

Niki Hastings-McFall at Ashburton Art Gallery
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Niki Hastings-McFall exhibits "Polynisation" at Ashburton Public Art Gallery, The exhibition runs from 23 August until 28 September. Niki Hastings-McFall will also be presenting an artists talk on Saturday 23 August at 1:30pm. Niki Hastings-McFall states that "I make work which speaks of the liminal spaces occupied by people of mixed heritage such as myself." All are welcome to the exhibition at Ashburton Art Gallery which is located at Baring Street East, Ashburton.

Lou Pendergrast-Mathieson
Monday, 14 July 2008
Glass artist Lou Pendergrast who is currently exhibiting in the Glass '08 exhibition, has had one of her works selected for the finals of the prestigious Ranamok Glass Prize.

Ruth Allen artist talk
Monday, 14 July 2008
Glass artist Ruth Allen will be presenting an artist talk at AUT University on Wednesday the 23rd July at 3pm.
Address: AUT University, 24 St Paul St. Room WS101 (inside the Science & Engineering building next door to the new Art & Design building).

Ruth Allen will be in Auckland for her latest glass art exhibition "Parallel Lives - Synergetic Series" at milford galleries auckland.

Sarah Guppy artist residence
Friday, 6 June 2008
Sarah Guppy is undertaking a short artist residence this year at Andersons Ranch Arts Centre, Snowmass, Colorado.

Mike Petre and Vicki Fanning
Monday, 26 May 2008
Artist Mike Petre and glass artist Vicki Fanning provide Claire McCall an insight into their artwork and lifestyle in the June edition of NZ Life and Leisure. "Only when we view art as part of the everyday will it have obtained its true status: there's divinity in the domestic. That's what artists Mike Petre and Vicki Fanning believe."

Joanna Braithwaite
Monday, 19 May 2008
Michael McHugh interviews artist Joanna Braithwaite on her latest series of works in the June edition of MindFood magazine.
"Joanna Braithwaite deftly plays with animal forms and habitats, incorporating a human viewpoint or environment for us to engage with, question and enjoy....Braithwaite works against the grain of contemporary art. As a leading figurative painter, she brings to her work elements of caricature, however, there is also a deeply serious, intense level of craft. Somehow these two aspects come together and you find you're in a place that's totally unique."

Within the article Joanna Braithwaite speaks of her 'Sea Legs' series of paintings. "The world we live in is in a constant state of ecological and environmental change. Will animals be able to adapt and survive?...The fish in the 'Sea Legs' paintings return to a form from which they may have evolved, inspired by discoveries of fossillised fish with the remains of limbs. My hope is they appear tentative but brave, emerging from the ocean and looking to the future."

Mike Petre
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Jane Warwick interviews Mike Petre's on his criticaly acclaimed indian ink portraits of cattle. "When most of us look at cattle we interpret their returning gaze as gentle curiosity. Petre sees the eye contact as more of a challenge, an awareness of their fate and a "bring it on" belligerent bravado by animals that inherently know they are born already defeated." (BMW Magazine, Autumn 2008.)

Karl Maughan in ArtWorld
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Art World magazine Issue 2 features a four page spread where Jane Somerville interviews Karl Maughan on his artwork, his influences and his inclusion in the Saatchi collection. "...In the '90s Karl Maughan left New Zealand for London where he lived for 10 years. Charles Saatchi became an early collector of his work, and Maughan's paintings were subsequently ioncluded in a number of Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, including Neurotic Realism in 1998 and I am camera in 2001. A survey show, Karl Maughan: A Clear Day, was recently held at te Manawa Museum in Palmerston North..." (Jane Sommerville, Art World April May, 2008)

Peter James Smith features in Gippsland exhibition
Monday, 28 April 2008
In the Gippsland Art Gallery exhibition "Truth and Beauty" Peter James Smith's "paintings of natural beauty are inscribed with mathematical equations reflecting the artist’s reverence for truth and beauty and are juxtaposed with objects that speak of history."

Karl Maughan and Neil Frazer in MindFood Magazine
Monday, 28 April 2008
Mindfood, a new NZ magazine has a real focus on NZ artists and has featured both an article on Neil Frazer's paintings titled 'White Out' in the April edition and an article on Karl Maughan's paintings in the May edition. In the 'White Out' article, Donna Duggan quotes Martin Browne speaking of Frazer's work. “Although in his recent paintings the landscape is clearly the source and impetus for his imagery,” Browne says, “the muscularity and painterliness of his surfaces clearly show that he has brought to these works the lessons and disciplines of abstract painting." (Martin Browne quoted by Donna Duggan, MindFood April 2008). You can read the Neil Frazer article 'White Out' written by Donna Duggan at the MindFood website

Reuben Paterson feature interview on Radio NZ
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Lynn Freeman from Radio NZ Arts on Sunday interviewed Reuben Paterson about his new exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin. You can listen to the interview at the Arts On Sunday Radio NZ website.
For further details please see "The Painter's Lot" exhibition page on our website.

Claudia Borella features in USA exhibitions
Monday, 14 April 2008
Claudia Borella's glass works are featuring in the following USA exhibitions:

Singular Forms: Trans-minimalist Sculpture, 5 April - May 24, Prism Contemporary Glass, Chicago, USA

Succession - Curated by Klaus Moje, May 27 - August 2, 2008, Bullseye Gallery. Portland, Oregon, USA (Coinciding with GAS 2008, Portland, Oregon, USA)

Jon Tootill in Adam Award Exhibition 2008
Monday, 14 April 2008
Jon Tootill's Pepeha for Lily (2008) portrait was chosen from the Adam Award Exhibition 2008 were chosen to exhibit at Lopdell House in Auckland between 17 April and 8 June 2008. For further details see the portrait gallery website

Peter James Smith features in 'Visual Animal'
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The Contemporary Visual Art Project SA 2007 Project 4: “Visual Animals” featured Peter James Smith as a speaker.

The aim of the “Visual Animals” project: is "To bring together some key researchers in disciplines usually working at a tangent to each other -notably including art history, analytic philosophy and bio-aesthetics-to discuss new or revised concepts of art that may influence current approaches to the writing of world art history... Recent art-historical writing has been obsessed with problematic postcolonial concerns about power, gate-keeping and national identities generally. It would do well, arguably, to acknowledge as well the persistent qualities of common humanity, and consequently the similarly enduring aesthetic power of art."

There has also been a book of essays launched from this project titled “Visual Animals: Crossovers, Evolution And New Aesthetics” edited by Ian North and this features an essay written by Peter James Smith. For more information on the project visit: http://www.cacsa.org.au

Mary Mulholland local interview
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Mary Mulholland's "Stations" exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin featured on Channel 9 local news on March 10. In “Stations” focusing on the 14 Catholic stations of the cross she has developed secular metaphors as meditative tools. Mulholland uses the language of colour and the dominant placement of the flower as key devices in her work. View the interview online at the channel 9 website.

Sarah Guppy
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Sarah Guppy's "Corrugated Colour" exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin featured on Channel 9 local news. Sarah Guppy has found a way of working that has become entirely her own. Her use of fluted glass and enamel paints is pioneering and the results are compelling achievements, and remarkable.View the interview online by clicking here.

Niki Hastings-McFall interview
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Niki Hastings-McFall's "Seeing the Light" exhibition featured on Channel 9 local news. Niki's exhibition explored the influence of Missionaries, Colonialism and western culture on the Pacific way of life. View the interview online by clicking here.

Wayne Barrar talk at National Library Gallery
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
On Thursday 6 March, photographer Wayne Barrar will discuss his work in the National Library exhibition Manapouri: Art, Power, Protest within the context of his ongoing investigation of the human-modified landscape. He will also consider the role of photography in articulating land-use issues.

Wayne Barrar is one of four contemporary New Zealand photographers in this exhibition. His documentation of the spaces of the Manapouri power station works very differently from that of earlier photographers, who romanticised Lake Manapouri as distant, splendid and untouched by development. But unlike the photographers that documented the construction of the power station 40 years ago, Barrar stops well short of suggesting any kind of achievement of industry over nature.

Venue: National Library Gallery, Molesworth St, Wellington, 6 March at 12.10pm

You can also view the online exhibition at www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/online-exhibitions/manapouri

Wayne Barrar's Manapouri images

Wayne Barrar's artist profile webpage

Peata Larkin
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Peata Larkin's work features in a review in New Zealand Art Monthly of LIGHTBOX.
"Peata Larkin's Patikitiki 4 and Patikitiki 6 ... directly reference tuku tuku panels (traditionally found in wharenui as a medium in the telling of legends) they also have a distinctly retro feel, and from a distance resemble squares of fabric redolent of a 1960s furniture aesthetic. This impression is derived from the formal elements - geometric style, sequence of pattern, the muted colours and surface texture. Within an overall repetitive pattern, and contiguous with the minute ellipses of white and black paint in shallow relief, Larkin combines negative spaces of the same forms through which light projects. From a distance the light appears as an "impression of colour" different from the material texture, but responsible for the unique glow and power of the aesthetic." (1)

(1) 'LIGHTBOX @ Italy and Kitchens' by Kim Atherfold, NZ Art Monthly, February 2008.

Read more about Peata Larkin who will be exhibiting at Milford Galleries Dunedin in June.

Tony Bishop TV interview
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Tony Bishop was interviewed on Dunedin's Channel 9 TV regarding his "Southern Gothic" art exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin. To view the interview online please visit:
Tony Bishop Interview

Juliette Milne exhibition interview
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Juliette Milne was interviewed on Channel 9 TV regarding her sculptural exhibition "Presence" at Milford Galleries Dunedin. To view the interview online please visit:
Juliette Milne Interview

Robert Ellis and Neil Dawson
Monday, 19 November 2007
Making Worlds at the Auckland Art Gallery features work by Robert Ellis and Neil Dawson. This exhibition runs until 21 January 2008.

Karl Maughan Survey Exhibition
Monday, 15 October 2007
Karl Maughan's first survey exhibition A CLEAR DAY opens at Te Manawa in Palmerston North on Friday 9 November and runs through till March 30, 2008

Lorraine Rastorfer at The New Dowse gallery
Friday, 14 September 2007
Lorraine Rastorfer will be showing at The New Dowse public gallery in Lower Hutt from 7 December 2007 - 30 March 2008.

Also showing at the same time is Elizabeth McClure.

View Lorraine Rastorfer's exhibited artist page.

James Robinson wins Wallace Art Award residency
Thursday, 6 September 2007
Dunedin artist, James Robinson, was awarded the Paramont prize in the prestigious Wallace Art Awards for his mixed media work "Taniwha/Dragon. The Wallace Art Award is the longest running art residency award in Australasia with the Paramont winner being awarded a six month residency in New York along with $35,000.

James Robinison is currently the McCahon artist in residence for six months at McCahon House in Titirangi.

View James Robinson's exhibited artist page.

Charlotte Handy article in Art New Zealand
Monday, 3 September 2007
Anna Smith reviews Charlotte Handy's work in her article "Aqualung Blues - The Art Of Charlotte Handy".

"Handy's seas display natural phenomena used transgressively. Playing off the geographical inventory, the artist maps oceans, aquifiers, cloud shapes and land mass with a meticulous attention to the point where they cross over into the space of the imaginary sea lung, alive and breathing, that the inner continents of the mind are naturalised. Inland Seas are places and not places; points where the painter's brush intersects the surface of the canvas' finds there rivers, springs, waterfalls, and vanishing horizons of waves. Seemingly porous stretches of land accompany the marine, emerging dripping from the sea bed, or following the contours of the underlying water table. Over and over the artist revisits the tension between abstract and literal, land and sea, surface and depth."

Charlotte Handy exhibited artist page

Nigel Brown article in Art New Zealand 124
Monday, 3 September 2007
Denys Trussel reviews Nigel Brown's latest works in his article "Will To Meaning - A Painters Language in the Fabric of History" in Art New Zealand 124 Spring 2007.

Trussel writes that "His paintings combine elements of our past in constantly changing assemblages. These deploy not chronological, but dramatic time - time as it is in theatre or poetry."

"The past is not another country. It is active now, a grotesque arcadian myth, symbolised in these paintings by the figures of the pioneer male and female, often balck singleted or long-dressed, at times naked as in Eden. They cut down the forests of original sin to build the materialist Utopia."

Anita DeSoto review in Listener
Wednesday, 22 August 2007
David Eggleton of The New Zealand Listener (August 25 2007) reviews the Anita DeSoto "Away, Away" exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin.
"Her paintings, as in her recent exhibition Away, Away at Milford Galleries Dunedin, reveal her to be an enchanter, wielding her paintbrush like a wand and casting somewhat shocking spells."
"With all that skin raked by thorns, or cut by claws, or stitched up with string or pearls, DeSoto's paintings are defiant, transgressive images; yet doing violence to the surface of things, such ruptures and rents both reinstall mystery in painting and reassert feeling. her bodies are sentient beings, and we sense what they feel."

Anita DeSoto

Channel 9 TV coverage of exhibition
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
An interview with Wellington artist, Bob Kerr and Archibald Baxter's Grand-daughter, Kathy Baxter covering the series of paintings in the "Number One Field Punishment' exhibition. Kerr's exhibition explores the way the New Zealand army treated conscientious objectors in World War One.

You can view the Bob Kerr interview online
(please note this will open in a new page).

Bob Kerr Impressions Feature in Otago Daily Times
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Nigel Benson interviewed Bob Kerr covering his latest exhibition 'Number One Field Punishment: Archibald Baxter's Opposition to Military Conscription' which is a "harrowing account of one man's war" investigating the mistreatment of Conscientious Objectors in World War One.

Bob Kerr interview on National Radio
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Bob Kerr was interviewed by Lynn Freeman on National Radio's Arts On Sunday program. The interview covered his latest exhibition 'Number One Field Punishment: Archibald Baxter's Opposition to Military Conscription'.

Listen to the interview online

2007 Ranamok Glass Awards Finalists
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Claudia Borella and Jenny Smith are finalists in the 2007 Ranamok Glass Awards. The winner will be announced on August 25, 2007.

View Jenny Smith's artist page.

and view a selection of Claudia Borella's artworks.

Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award 2007
Friday, 3 August 2007
Jon Tootil is a finalist in the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award 2007 which runs from 11th August - 11th November 2007.
Jon Tootil's work 'Top Man' is "one of a series of art works about corporate behaviour done in the style of an advertisement."
For more information about Jon Tootil visit his artist page.

AND:
Meredith Collins is also a finalist with her work 'Exotic native – Ta Moko Series No. 1', Oil on canvas. "The body of work that this painting belongs to explores questions of heritage and identity. I have two great-great-grandmothers who both wore moko as their expression of belonging to a people and a land. In contrast I lack a sense of belonging to New Zealand where I was born because I don’t relate to my Maori heritage and Mother England is equally, if not more so, distant."

For more information about the awards visit the art award webpage.

Dick Frizzell re-editioned screen-print
Friday, 3 August 2007
Dick Frizzell’s screen print “Mickey To Tiki” has recently been re-editioned and re-named to “It’s About Time”. We currently have just 25 framed prints available from Milford Galleries Dunedin and milford galleries queenstown.

Demands for this print has been considerable and long awaited, please contact us as soon as possible to reserve your print; they won’t be available for long.

Please contact Milford Galleries Dunedin (03) 477 7727 or
milford galleries queenstown on (03) 442-6896

For more information Dick Frizzell, visit his artist page.

Press Release: Artwork damage in freight delivery
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Milford House Ltd can confirm that on Tuesday 10 th July at approximately 7pm an accidental fire occurred on a delivery truck. The delivery contained thirty-five artworks being delivered to Milford House Ltd. These artworks were a significant part of a Milford Galleries Queenstown exhibition at the City Gallery in Invercargill but only a small part of the company's total artwork stock. The fire damage has been sighted and the artworks are not recoverable. Milford House Ltd can confirm that normal insurance systems are in process and the owners of artwork within this Milford House Ltd delivery have been notified.

Director of Milford House Ltd, Niki Stewart said that “We are saddened by the loss of these unique and irreplaceable works. The loss of thirty-five works is upsetting as each and every work had a significant aesthetic value, however the loss will not affect normal business activity and will not affect any of our planned art exhibitions in the future.”
Press contact: Niki Stewart, Director, Milford House Ltd.
niki@milfordhouse.co.nz

Anita DeSoto Review
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Anita DeSoto review in the OUSA Critic magazine.

Anita DeSoto Arts Feature
Monday, 16 July 2007
Anita DeSoto was interviewed by Nigel Benson of the Otago Daily Times on her latest exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin. DeSoto mixes her paints with myths drawn from the worlds of literature, opera and religion." "Her own work rewards close inspection, seducing and beguiling by blurring iconic fantasy figures with contemporary human beings". DeSoto states that "I like painting people I love. I like to think that comes out in the painting. I portray them in roles which either reflect my relationship with them or who they are."
Anita DeSoto

Anita DeSoto Interview on Channel 9 TV
Tuesday, 10 July 2007
Anita DeSoto was interviewed on Channel 9 TV regarding her first exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin. To view the interview online please visit:
Anita DeSoto Interview

Robert Ellis review in The Listener, June 2007
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
David Eggleton of The New Zealand Listener reviews the Robert Ellis "Selected Works" exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin.
"The longer you look at his paintings, the more you see. For a start, there's the land: all the cutaway vistas of strat, the tilted planes and blocks of geology, which offer the sensation of the landscape slipping and sliding in front of you. Or else as in "Maungawhau/Mt Eden 28 May 2002", the land seems like steps up towards the sky; but the terraced slopes don't just lead you up, they also seem to become a chart of the stars."
Robert Ellis

Lorraine Rastorfer
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Lorraine Rastorfer has just won the People’s Choice Award at the recent New Zealand Norsewear Art Award 2007.

Ruth Allen feature in LINO magazine
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Glass artist, Ruth Allen feature in LINO magazine.

Robert Ellis Arts Feature
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Nigel Benson of the Otago Daily Times writes of acclaimed New Zealand painter, Robert Ellis' diverse background and inspirations for his work. "Auckland artist Robert Ellis developed an eye for the world as an aerial photographer in a World War 2 bomber. He later trained under luminaries such as painter Sir Francis Bacon and sculptor Henry Moore at the Royal College of Art in London. His first Dunedin exhibition paints a unique picture of life in New Zealand."
In the feature article, Robert Ellis states that "I use disparate images. I change the scale and, because they are juxtaposed, they assume a different kind of identity. They become something else."
Nigel Benson writes that "Ellis has long been considered a significant artist for the way he has explored abstraction while at the same time creating bicultural art through personal associations."
Robert Ellis

Anita DeSoto article in Art New Zealand
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Maari McCluskey reviews Anita DeSoto's paintings in the latest Art New Zealand (Number 123/Winter 2007).
"Among her most striking accomplishments is her masterful rendering of the human form, but this equisite talent is rarely employed for its own sake."
"In the staged worlds she creates, subjectivity and the labyrinths of the imagination take precedence over worldly ocncerns - a place where passions conflict and where icons are remade, blurring the boundaries between reverential imitation and powerful re-invention."
Anita De Soto's most recent paintings feature in her upcoming July exhibition 'Away, Away' at Milford Galleries Dunedin.

Christine Boswijk
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Jane Warwick of BMW magazine interviews ceramicist Christine Boswijk's in the 1/2007 edition. Boswijk's ceramic works are identified as "both tough and fragile. The edges are so delicate you instinctively reach out for the sheer pleasure of touching something so fine, belatedly realizing that's exactly what Boswijk wants you to understand - that it is possible to touch something fragile without destroying it."
The article discusses her recent ceramic works and her upcoming 'Kisses, Crosses and Flowers' exhibition at milford galleries queenstown. "It is hard to believe, after all this success, that she still feels her work to be experimental. However, perhaps her latest series backs this up. Much softer it focuses on the cross as a symbol of both faith and of written kisses and flowers as expressions of both joy and sadness."

Peata Larkin
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Peata Larkin was awarded a Merit prize at Norsewear Art Awards 2007 for her painting titled 'I Am Tuhourangi (Pink and White Terraces), (2006)'. Peata was the only artisit to have two works selected in th Norsewear Art Awards this year. "'I Am Tuhourangi' and 'Raranga Modified' were both created using a technique that involves paint but has elements in common with weaving."

Peata Larkin also featured in the May 2007 edition of Tu Mai Magazine. In the article 'Meshing the Cultivation of Identity', Peata Larkin says that her practice "revolves around ideas relating to self-identity cultivated by my European upbringing and loss of Maori heritage" Larkin also discusses her first solo exhibition at Milford Galleries Dunedin.
Peata Larkin

Success at Auckland Art Fair 2007
Wednesday, 23 May 2007
Milford Galleries Dunedin and milford galleries auckland were at two stands at the extremely successful Auckland Art Fair (18 - 20 May, 2007), New Zealand’s national showcase of quality, contemporary art.

milford galleries auckland represented artists Joanna Braithwaite, Robert Ellis, Neil Frazer, Jeffrey Harris and Geoffrey Notman.

Milford Galleries Dunedin represented artists Michael Hight, Karl Maughan, Reuben Paterson, Neil Dawson and Johnny Turner.

For full details see our Art Fair exhibition webpage

Jon Tootill
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Issue Number 5 of b-guided magazine includes a four page feature and interview with artist Jon Tootill, Victoria Moss writes:
"Jon Tootill's paintings explore the suburban Kiwi paradise that wrapped the 50's, 60's and 70's like a knitted cardigan.
"Clouds occasionaly appear as gigantic Koru curves. There are concrete steps and multi-coloured pebble paths and grey roads lined with power poles snaking off to an empty horizon. Residents are not revealed, although there are clues."
Jon uses the article to give an insight into his latest works which will be shown at milford galleries auckland from February 14 2007
"It will not be what you expect. It may offend. Art has to do that sometimes to show that culture evolves. Culture is not history."

Tim Main
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Andrew Paul Wood of 'The Listener' says in the end of year review - "It has been a bumper year for younger artists. Tim Main delighted and surprised at the CoCA gallery with large floral Gothic rose windows (very Christchurch) carved from wood."
Tim Main will be exhibiting at Milford Galleries Dunedin in September 2007

Christine Cathie
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
The Arts Foundation of New Zealand commissioned Auckland based artist Christine Cathie to design the trophies for the New Generation Artist Awards presented in Wellington on November 22.
The Arts Foundation magazine 'Applause' states in the December edition - " Christine Cathie is to be congragulated on her beautiful works"

Charlotte Handy
Friday, 22 December 2006
David Eggleton of 'The Listener' reviews Charlotte Handy's exhibition 'The Inland Sea' at Milford Galleries Dunedin.
“Her works map dreamscapes; they are the paintings of a self-exiled New Zealander whose eyes comb a phantasml body of water for evidence of something specific, something familiar. Built up in oil on canvas out of a kind of handwriting of dabs and dashes of chalky blues and greys with the occasional admixture of ochre, these are paintings that have been slapped down with the urgency of diary entries”