Nigel Brown Exhibitions

Nigel Brown

Concerning Nurture

2 Feb - 19 May 2018

Exhibition takes place at Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi

Exhibition Works

Fall of Water
Fall of Water (2017)
Ponga I
Ponga I (2017)
Ponga II
Ponga II (2017)
Ethics Nature
Ethics Nature (2016)
Water Woman
Water Woman (2017)
Ponga Man
Ponga Man (2017)
Concerning Our Earth Nurturing
Concerning Our Earth Nurturing (2017)
Arcadia with Kiwis
Arcadia with Kiwis (2015-17)
Three Kiwis
Three Kiwis (2015/16)
Tīeke
Tīeke (2016)
Kea Just Curious
Kea Just Curious (2016)
Pūkeko
Pūkeko (2016/17)
Pipi
Pipi (2016)
Mangrove
Mangrove (2016)
Pāua Kina
Pāua Kina (2016)
Pātiki
Pātiki (2016)
Biosphere Crisis
Biosphere Crisis (2015)
Tūī
Tūī (2015)
Pīwakawaka
Pīwakawaka (2016)
Toutouwai Confiding
Toutouwai Confiding (2015/17)
Kawaupaka
Kawaupaka (2016/17)
Poaka
Poaka (2016)
Whio
Whio (2015)
Kōtuku
Kōtuku (2015)
NZ Little Bittern
NZ Little Bittern (2016/17)
Huia
Huia (2016)
Environment
Environment (2016)
Incantation for Kākāriki
Incantation for Kākāriki (2016/17)
Taylor's Dactylanthus
Taylor's Dactylanthus (2016/17)
Kauri
Kauri (2016)
Huhu
Huhu (2015)
Uncertain Weather
Uncertain Weather (2016)

important information

 
EXHIBITION DATES
2 February - 19 May, 2018
 
EXHIBITION VENUE
Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi
Waitangi Treaty Grounds
1 Tau Henare Drive, Waitangi, Bay of Islands
 
VISITOR INFORMATION
www.waitangi.org.nz
 

artist interview

 
 Nigel Brown talks to Vanessa Jones about the works in his exhibition Concerning Nurture. Video production: Ross Wilson
 

exhibition catalogue

 

brief exhibition text

Concerning Nurture embodies one of the enduring themes of Nigel Brown’s art practice, the place of humankind within the natural environment. The artist presents an holistic vision of the land where each living organism is part of and contributes to the wairua of a larger whole. While the kiwi, kauri, and tui  - the ‘stars’ of New Zealand’s flora and fauna – all feature in Brown’s paintings, the painter also elevates less famous inhabitants of bush, mountain and sea: the pipi, huhu beetle, and the pua o Te Rēinga (Dactylanthus taylorii or wood rose). Men and women are portrayed as kaitiaki, a role that needs to be embraced, suggests Brown, if environmental degradation is to be addressed.

Those familiar with Nigel Brown’s style will recognise the recurring visual motifs of waterfall and ponga, frame and text, wharenui and ark. These are the glyphs Brown uses to give form to his Aotearoa, a country of people who consider themselves deeply bound to nature but which paradoxically has an environmental history full of bush-felling, swamp-draining, and extinctions. In the New Zealand psyche, the black singlet and gumboot-wearing man is most often associated with good farming stock; he turns land into profitable wool, meat, and milk; he is the backbone of the economy and the salt of the earth. Brown reconfigures this ‘hard man’ myth, suggesting that real men nurture, feel, and reflect as well as act. In Incantation For Kākāriki Brown casts the men (and women) in the role of poets; Huia is a lamentation for mankind’s irreversible actions of the past.

Concerning Nurture bears witness to the wrongs of history and protests the ongoing deterioration of our environment in the present. Nigel Brown’s show is also a call to action; he asks us to reconsider our effect on the world we live in and advocates engagement in a way that recognises and values that not only are we part of nature, nature is part of us.

exhibition walkthrough