Top tip for your August social activities – choose an exhibition from my selection below and pair it with a meal and a friend you’re getting to know. Perfect first date material, bound to impress.
Bergman Gallery
Tongpop Cornucopia
Telly Tuita
23 July – 20 August
For his exhibition Tongpop Cornucopia, artist Telly Tuita presents a suite of new work, amping up his trademark and unabashed use of colour, genre mutation and found materials.
The artist relishes the challenge and power found materials give him. He identifies with objects that have been thrown away, consequentially, in Tuita’s story, nothing is discarded – preloved, rescued and collected objects/materials are treated with reverence, giving his compositions a luxe finish.
The result is a Tongpop Cornucopia of over-abundance, presenting scenes where exchanges of ideas and materials create an engaging visual experience with a hint and wink of camp shenanigans. This is Tuita’s first solo show with Bergman Gallery Auckland.
Suite 3, 582 Karangahape Road, Newton (entrance on 2 Newton Road)
Fresh Gallery Ōtara
My Dream called Sike
Unfold Creative Block
6 August –17 September
A Dream called Sike is a collaborative exhibition supported by Unfold, a collective that unlocks the creative brilliance of the rangatahi (youth) in South Auckland and shares their untold stories. This exhibition is curated by the UCB (Unfold Creative Block), a subgroup of Unfold and is an exploration of the mutually influential relationship between us and our dreams. This encompasses the dreams we experience when we sleep, the dreams that guide our future, the dreams we have of rewriting our narratives, and the dreams that protect us. Using the expression ‘sike,’ playfully meaning ‘I tricked you’ to suggest that all personal eventualities being subject to change.
Shop 5, 46 Fair Mall, Ōtara.
Facebook: @FreshGalleryOtara
Two Rooms Gallery
Unknown Affinities
Dane Mitchell
12 August – 10 September
Objects, in particular those stored in the vaults of museums, are in constant movement – initially away from their points of origin. All things are migratory and transitory, conversely, mounts are momentarily arresting, freezing things in space and time for optimum gaze.
Unknown Affinities proposes a museum without artefacts – a museum of museums – a museum presenting itself to us, clearly. Unknown Affinities is the first wing of the Museum of Museums; the ornithological gallery of extinct birds of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Also exhibiting within Two Rooms this month is Anne Noble.
16 Putiki Street, Newton
Dane Mitchell, Mergus australis Courtesy of Two Rooms
Studio One Toi Tū
I’ve Made Up My Mind
Group show curated by Philip Tse.
28 July –25 August,
Opening Event Wed 27 July, 5pm
“Artists not only make things, they are thinkers too. When making art, their thoughts and beliefs, passion and emotions, loves and inclinations reflect their inner world ” – Curator Philip Tse
I’ve Made Up My Mind is an exhibition showcasing a group of 15 artists from a range of backgrounds. Through painting, photography, sculpture, music and poetry, viewers can experience different approaches and techniques in contemporary artmaking. Featuring the work of Deborah Crowe, Diane Scott, Fiona Newton, Haihui Wang, Kim Meredith, Kingsley Melhuish, Lea-Anne Sheather, Lion Yang, Lulu Fang, Nim Flora Chan Statham, Ong Onlie, Philip Tse, Qiuwang Wang, Selwyn Vercoe, and Shannon Novak.
Also exhibiting within Studio One Toi Tū this month are artists Harinder Rajpal, Glen Armstrong and Paul Darragh.
1 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby
Hauhui Wang Courtesy of Studio One Toi Tū
Sanderson Contemporary
Unfolding
Stephen Ellis
2 August – 28 August
The Unfolding project is a continuation of Ellis’ explored themes of environmental degradation and climate change, and our quest to find security and certainty amongst this. Previously the artist made three dimensional models in his studio, which he used as a starting point for his drawings. This recent body of work shows an exciting shift in the artist’s process where he has now begun using a text-to-image AI collaborator as part of his modelling process. The result is a group of dreamlike surreal landscapes that present a provocative discourse around our future and the future of our natural world.
2 Kent Street, Osborne Lane, Newmarket
Stephen Ellis, Unfolding 5 Courtesy of Sanderson
Trish Clark Gallery
Drawn In
Phil Dadson
17 August –24 September
Drawn In is a solo exhibition of Auckland artist Phil Dadson’s expressive drawings spanning five decades. Dadson foregrounds sound as a primary impetus for a diverse practice in which drawing has played a pivotal role. Rendering visible the connection between rhythm, body, time and space, the exhibition provokes an invitation for a nuanced understanding of the importance and coherence of Dadson’s drawings throughout his oeuvre. From the bold scores of the 1970s Play series to the Rock Records of Antarctica’s Dry Valley; Drawn In presents a lateral view of sound, a register of being human in the moment, becoming artefacts of time in a rich lyrical survey.
142 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn
Phil Dadson, Pacific 3,2,1,Zero Courtesy of Trish Clark Gallery. Photo by Wally Floyd.
Artwork: Glen Armstrong, A Small Conversation With Myself About Carpet Courtesy of Studio One Toi Tū
Glen Armstrong takes a piece of Axminster Summer Bouquet carpet with its distinctive symmetrical floral patterning as a reference point for this body of work. Armstrong sees the carpet as a metaphor for the prominence of pattern and repetition in the things and actions that make up our daily lives. During Covid 19 lockdown August 2021 in Auckland the daily patterns and his movement around the house inspired an intense and ongoing period of introspective mark making, embroidery and exploration. The exhibition reveals some of this conversation.
