Driven to Abstraction is a group show of contemporary artists who together represent a diverse range of entry points into abstraction.
Simon Morris: Blue Water Colour, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Simon Morris, Daily Painting #19, 2011 June 18 – September 18, 2011 Wellington artist Simon Morris is well known at The Dowse for his permanent commission Rainscreen, which welcomes visitors to the gallery and was the inspiration for The Dowse logo. In this exhibition, Morris creates a site-specific wall painting that explores the structures and boundaries of abstraction, considering the possibilities of paint within an architectural space. Blue Water Colour comprises a series of 50 [...]
Julian Dashper, This is not writing, a book published by Michael Lett and Clouds, New Zealand
Book Launch: June 14, Auckland, New Zealand This is not writing brings together for the first time the writings of the great New Zealand artist Julian Dashper (1960-2009). As an artist and writer he was deliberate as nature, and this body of work represents a parallel to his ongoing consideration of painting practice in the aftermath of modernism. Throughout his career as artist and educator, Dashper wrote, assiduously, in a range of forms as particular [...]
The Weight of Jupiter, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Installation view Lisa Benson (wall) & Rossana Martinez (floor) May 18 – June 11, 2011 Consisting primarily of gaseous and liquid matter, the atmospheric composition of Jupiter renders the gas giant without a solid surface; seemingly appropriate, considering it was named after the Roman God of Sky and Thunder. To navigate the landscape of Jupiter’s surface, would require a submarine type vessel – one that could withstand the sheer mass of Jupiter’s gravitational force, without [...]
Simon Ingram: Radio Paintings, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Simon Ingram, Untitled, 2009 Oil on canvas 77 x 77 inches April 27 – May 14, 2011 As an artist Simon Ingram is known for his collaborations with machines. Unlike most painters, Ingram takes up a position distanced from the direct act of painting and is interested in ideas of self-making painting. Through this distance Ingram opens up painting to other forces and interpretations and, as the maker of his painting machines, is able to [...]
Kyle Jenkins: Sunken Treasure
February 5 - March 12, 2011
MINUS SPACE is delighted to announce the exhibition Kyle Jenkins: Sunken Treasure. This is the Australian artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States and it will feature a new site-specific painting installation.
Monique Jansen: Slit, Dot, Mark – New Drawings, Antoinette Godkin Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Installation view September 12 – 9 October 9, 2010 Description: In this solo exhibition, ‘slit, dot, mark – new drawings’, Jansen explores abstraction in relation to creation, labour and loss. With this work, there is an emphasis placed on the hand and making: engaging with the modes and conventions of both drawing and print, emphasising the making or crafting of an artwork. Humble materials and simple processes transform a single modest gesture or mark through [...]
Noel Ivanoff: Skin Cradles, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand
Noel Ivanoff, Cut block (crate) painting 1 Acrylic paint on polystyrene form mounted within a crate construction 795 x 345 x 435mm August 14 – September 4, 2010 Noel Ivanoff’s formalistic painting practice has been marked by a sheer determination to innovate new possibilities in the language of painting’s surfaces and supports. His explorations into painting as sculptural constructions were first seen in the crate-like works in his exhibition Fabrication (Vavasour-Godkin Gallery, 2007) and the [...]
My Space: A Film by Simone Horrocks & Richard Flynn with Julian Dashper
Film still with Julian Dashper Starting August 26, 2010, on YouTube, you can view the film My Space, by Simone Horrocks & Richard Flynn with Julian Dashper. Early in 2008, Dashper approached film makers Simone Horrocks and Richard Flynn, with the idea of collaborating on a film project. It was important to Dashper that we remain open to where the filming might take us, but together we agreed that the film in some way would be : ‘A [...]
Richard van der Aa, Factory 49, Sydney, Australia
Richard van der Aa, Reasons to be cheerful: Paris winter series no.13, 2009 Acrylic on paper, 19 x 24 cm August 12-21, 2010 One of the streams in Richard van der Aas work of recent years is an ongoing series of paintings entitled Reasons to be cheerful. The Reasons to be cheerful paintings have been realised in a variety of forms and scales. From the tiny aluminium tablets which were shown throughout the Christchurch Art [...]
Julian Dashper (1960-2009): It Is Life
August 7 - September 4, 2010
MINUS SPACE is honored to announce the memorial exhibition Julian Dashper (1960-2009): It Is Life. The exhibition marks the one-year anniversary of the New Zealand artist's death and it will feature a single work by Julian entitled Future Call, as well as written tributes to him by more than 70 artists internationally.
Julian Dashper: Professional Practice, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Julian Dashper, Untitled (The Painter’s Mistake), 2007 (detail) Hamish McKay stand, Auckland Art Fair, 2007 Photo: Patrick Pound July 23 – August 28, 2010 Julian Dashper (1960-2009) once commented that it takes courage to write ‘artist’ as one’s occupation on forms when travelling. It was a statement of encouragement to the generation of students that he taught, but also a statement of his own position. Over nearly 30 years as an exhibiting artist Dashper built [...]
John Nixon: Two New Films, Elam Lecture Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand
John Nixon, Nine Colour Flag 2009 Enamel on MDF 45 x 60 cm Friday, June 25, 2010, 1pm At this screening John Nixon will introduce Colour-Rhythm Films 2006-2008 and The Donkey’s Tail: Ad Hoc Blues (Seven Short Silver Films) 2008, both of which are extensions of his polychrome and silver paintings. There will be a brief introduction in which the artist will discuss both films in the context of his broader ideas of art, his [...]
John Nixon: EPW Polychrome, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Installation view June 22 – July 17, 2010 A new solo exhibition by Australian artist John Nixon.
Escape from New York, Curated by Matthew Deleget, The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
April 22 - May 8, 2010
MINUS SPACE is delighted to announce the group exhibition Escape from New York at The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand, from April 22 - May 8, 2010. Curated by Matthew Deleget, the exhibition surveys reductive strategies by 29 artists living in and around New York City. Each artist will present a single small work, as well as an open letter to the local community of artists.
Jan van der Ploeg: Wall Painting No. 277, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Jan van der Ploeg, Wall Painting No. 277 Untitled (Dignity), 2010 Acrylic on wall 714 x 2304 cm A regular visitor to this part of the world, it is more than a decade since Jan van der Ploeg’s paintings have appeared at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. As a component of the Open Hang exhibition (1997), van der Ploeg was invited to select an artwork from this Gallery’s collection to go alongside a series of [...]
Simon Ingram & James Cousins: TAG, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Simon Ingram, Riser, 2009 Oil on linen, 38 x 38 cm January 9-23, 2010 TAG is the first exhibition in the INITIATIVE series, a program established to offer gallery artists an opportunity to exhibit more experimental or project based works, and to add diversity to the gallery exhibition schedule. In TAG painters Simon Ingram and James Cousins present an exhibition of new paintings that sit outside their regular exhibiting practice. As the title suggests their [...]
Easy Pieces: Interview with Richard van der Aa, by Brent Hallard, Visual Discrepancies blog, September 15, 2009
Brent: Finding. You come out of a bit of a painting history; gesture; hints of constructive; a kind of record keeping; painting that pays attention to relationship more than heroics, though the mark and scale suggests that’s where you were initially coming from? Richard: Yes, I do feel that what I do comes out of, and actually continues within, a history of painting. I trained as a painter initially during the early 80s in Christchurch, [...]
Concrete Now! Introducing PS, Highland Institute for Contemporary Art, Inverness-shire, United Kingdom
Installation view with works by Tilman, John Nixon & Julian Dashper (left to right) August 23 – September 27, 2009 HICA, The Highland Institute for Contemporary Art, is to host an exhibition of artists’ work from PS gallery, Amsterdam, opening on Sunday 23rd August, 2009. Concrete Now! Introducing PS will present work from artists who have exhibited with PS, including Julian Dashper, Michelle Grabner, Gerold Miller, John Nixon, Jan van der Ploeg, and Tilman. A [...]
Helen Calder: Yellow, Orange, Red, Black, City Art Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand
Helen Calder, Yellow Skin (125 fl.oz), 2009 Acrylic, enamel & stainless steel, 770 x 1400mm September 2-26, 2009 In Helen Calder’s most recent works, she has been partially or completely removing the traditional planar support and exploiting the plastic potential of the paint medium and the real space, rather than illusory space, paint and colour can occupy. The materiality of the medium of paint, particularly its plasticity and weight and its ability to define surface [...]
Open House for Butterflies
July 31 - August 29, 2009
MINUS SPACE is pleased to announce our summer group exhibition Open House for Butterflies featuring work by seven international reductive artists.
In Memoriam: Julian Dashper (1960-2009)
Dear friends, It is with tremendous sadness that we post the passing of our dear friend and collaborator, New Zealand artist Julian Dashper (1960-2009). Julian was one of the kindest, most generous, and optimistic individuals we’ve ever met. MINUS SPACE brought him into our lives and we are proud to have had the opportunity to get to know and work with him, ever so briefly. Julian is survived by his partner Marie and son [...]
Victoria Munro: Going Bush, Show Gallery, Staten Island, NY
June 20 – August 1, 2009 Opening: June 20, 2009, 2pm New sculpture by New York-based, New Zealand artist Victoria Munro. In the New Zealand English to U.S. English dictionary, ‘going bush’ is translated as “to drop out of society or become reclusive”. The expression is widely used not only when referring to a reclusive period but also to a notion that Kiwis and Aussies hold onto, that they, at any time may be able [...]
As If We Never Met: Helen Calder, Julian Dashper, Lee Szu-Hui, Paintlust Project Space, Christchurch, New Zealand
Installation view May 30 – June 13, 2009 Curated by Andre Hemer, ‘As if we never met’ pulls together three painters of distinct yet interconnected practices. These painters are not a peer group, being based in Taipei, Auckland, and Christchurch respectively- however their work each responds to painting process as a vehicle for exchange and discourse. Like a long-distance relationship, points of understanding and difference between the works come in equal measure- dislocation and [...]
Simon Ingram: Boing Boom Tschak, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
February 3-25, 2009 In Boing Boom Tschak, Simon Ingram draws together two parallel lines of inquiry with the resulting works exhibiting an intriguing painterly dialogue. The exhibition includes paintings that the artist has created by hand according to simple sets of machine like rules i.e. the ‘artist as machine’. Juxtaposed alongside these are self-making painting machines, developed and constructed by Ingram i.e. the ‘machine as artist’. Both procedures generate exquisite painterly monochromatic compositions, whether machine [...]
Works on Paper, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand
Work by Joachim Bandau January 30 – February 28, 2009 Featuring artists Kevin Appel (LA), Joachim Bandau (GER), Frank Gerritz (GER), Jane Harris (UK), Noel Ivanoff (NZ), Simon Morris (NZ) & Jeena Shin (NZ).
My Eyes Keep Me in Trouble, The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand
August 20 — September 13, 2008 Organized by CCNOA and curated by Tilman, the exhibition includes artists Justin Andrews (AUS), John Beech (UK/USA), Kjell Bjorgeengen (N), Helen Calder (NZ), Julian Dashper (NZ), Matthew Deleget (USA), Alexandra Dementieva (RUS/B) & Aernoudt Jacobs (B), Ward Denys (B), Billy Gruner (AUS), Andre Hemer (NZ), Clemens Hollerer (A), Andrew Huston (UK/USA), Simon Ingram (NZ), Kyle Jenkins (AUS), Klaas Kloosterboer (Nl), Pippa Makgill (NZ), Rossana Martinez (USA), Simon Morris [...]
Leon van den Eijkel: The Next Big Religion, Bath Street Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Leon van den Eijkel, Crusade 01, 2008 March 19 — April 12, 2008
Don Driver & Julian Dashper, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
Julian Dashper, Untitled, 2007 September 14 — October 6, 2007
Julian Dashper: Much More Minimal, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Installation view August 21— September 15, 2007
Julian Dashper: To the Unknown New Zealander, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
Installation view August 10 — October 14, 2007 A new exhibition by MINUS SPACE artist Julian Dashper.
Milan Mrkusich & John Nixon, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Installation view July 24 — August 18, 2007
Simon Morris, Roger Williams Contemporary, Auckland, New Zealand
Installation view July 24 — August 16, 2007
Leon van den Eijkel: Wellington Urban Forest, Wellington Sculpture Trust 2007, New Zealand
Installation view “At five years of age the war was ending for me in Holland. All the trees in my city had been cut down for heating, so we children didn’t know what a tree actually was. We only had the black and white images of them. So we made urban trees from all sorts of wood, strips of cloth, broken pieces of glass and iron we found in the street. The positive thing [...]
