Sumer gallery is pleased to announce Pouring Light, an exhibition featuring new paintings by Tāmaki-based artist Sandra Bushby. This exhibition, her third solo show with Sumer, marks the debut of her work at the gallery’s new location in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. The exhibition runs from 14 August to 14 September 2024.
In Pouring Light, Bushby draws inspiration from the late Joanna Margaret Paul (1945–2003), juxtaposing Paul’s love poem Blue Fleur with her Stations of the Cross (c. 1971), housed in St. Mary’s Star of the Sea Chapel in Kōputai Port Chalmers. Bushby’s works draw upon Paul’s vivid colours and her symbolic use of window armatures as metaphors of love and promise across both visual and verbal languages.
The exhibition comprises a series of oil paintings alongside works on paper in watercolour and gouache. Bushby views her paper works as visual diaries, documenting her experimental processes in paint. She states, “These works allow for spontaneity in concepts of colour, form, and open spaces.” And further explains that, “ processes are set in train by the act of listening to images;” exploring spaces between poetry and painting.
![8c28fc9647d4cb2cf3070450b4d277d4](https://i0.wp.com/www.vervemagazine.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/8c28fc9647d4cb2cf3070450b4d277d4.jpg?fit=750%2C1000&ssl=1)
Sandra Bushby
Pouring light, 2024
Oil and pencil on linen
90 x 120 cm
35 1/2 x 47 1/4 in
Both in her paintings and paper works, Bushby sublimates visual and verbal poetics. Her work is characterized by a rhythmic and sequential approach, where accents, stacking, and lines create a dynamic dialogue between form and meaning. And in speaking to her painterly approach, she states, “I am captivated by the way paintings acquire their distinctive qualities through processes of emergence, erasure and unpredictable renewal. I have in mind the process of something being birthed, which is then partially erased and hidden from view. It implies the adoption of painting processes that stem directly from the layering and dispersal of their own structures. As complex forms and patterns accumulate through temporal processes, pre-planned or ends-oriented methods become redundant.”
Sandra Bushby (b. 1965, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand) holds a Doctorate of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. She has exhibited widely across Aotearoa in recent years and her work is featured in notable collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and Auckland Museum.
Exhibition Details:
· Dates: 14 August – 14 September 2024
· Location: Sumer Fine Art, 27 Beach Road, Auckland Central, Tāmaki Makaurau
· Opening Hours: Wed-Fri 11 AM – 5 PM, Sat 11 AM – 3 PM, and by appointment
For more information, please visit Sumer gallery’s website.
Photographer credit for all images: Sam Hartnett