Spirit Rooms is an ensemble exhibition of painting and sculpture presenting layered conversations about New Zealand culture and identity.
Dick Frizzell’s acclaimed career-long investigation of the tiki form through the annals of international art is counterpointed by Chris Heaphy’s still-life parables where time is shifted by talismanic native birds.
Graham Fletcher’s architecture and inhabited rooms brim with conversations about place, what we prize and value. Similarly, traversing what is collected or left behind, Michael Hight’s wondrous bookshelves present assorted objects, all with profoundly pertinent tales to tell, memories to be unpicked.
Amanda Gruenwald’s colour-field abstractions and suggestive presences develop humanist dialogues about what is valued and how we look. Elizabeth Thomson’s rare command and depiction of the natural world is as much profoundly felt as emphatically seen.
Terry Stringer’s celebrated three-sided sculptures mix the discipline of portraiture with symbol and motif, where the internal thoughts and moods of the subject become significant components. Ben Pearce’s Corten steel and bronze multi-faceted, figurative sculptures morph and alter from every viewing position. Sensations develop about who is looking at whom?