New exhibitions at gallery
Three new exhibitions at New Plymouth District Council’s Govett-brewster Art Gallery are set to explore realms and relationships beyond the physical world.
From March 2, Fibrous Soul will show Aotearoa-based digital multi-media artist Sorawit Songsataya’s new works alongside an installation by Parihaka-based artist Maata Wharehoka (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Kuia), the gallery’s ringahāpai kaitakatū assistant curator for contemporary art and collections Simon Gennard said.
“In Fibrous Soul, Sorawit Songsataya’s material investigations into states of transition, relationships to place, and the many forms of life and knowledge we live among sit alongside Maata Wharehoka’s poetic evocation of the philosophy of Kahu Whakatere – a process within tikanga Māori and in rhythm with Papatūānuku,” Gennard said.
In the exhibition Set Dressing, three generations of artists explore photography’s capacity to harness, distill and complicate desire.
It features photographs of New Plymouth-born artist Christine Hellyar’s Apron sculptures, taken by Gary Cocker in 1985, alongside works by emerging Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based photographer Cao Xun.
“Reading the work of Hellyar, Cocker and Cao together invites us to consider that the gendered, sexualised body remains as much a site of contestation as it was 40 years ago,” Gennard said.
The gallery’s streetfront open window exhibition space will also showcase Energtopia, by Ngāmotu-based artist Sean Hill. The exhibitions open on Saturday, with the artists in attendance, and will run until June 16.