Art seen

"Back in Black" (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)

[1] Ngamotu, by Stephen Bambury.
A certain major sporting event has given the Dunedin Public Art Gallery a chance to present an exhibition of modern works around the theme of black - black as an absence of colour, black as a too-solid presence, black in blocks and in subtle shifting depths.

Many of the works explore black's significance in both religion and Maori tradition.

Many of New Zealand's best-known artists are represented in the exhibition, which is bookended by two large series by Ralph Hotere and Colin McCahon.

These two series delimit the display, the former hard minimalist abstraction, the latter soft expressionist landscape, but both held together by deep symbolic content.

Between these two extremes lie works ranging from Milan Mrkusich's large delicately nuanced canvas Painting Dark III and large-scale photographic works by Lisa Reihana to two experimental abstract films by pioneering artist Len Lye.

The exhibition features numerous standout pieces, though their very nature makes some of them difficult works, contemplative and deep rather than easily grasped.

Luise Fong's Dredge and Shane Cotton's cloudy Proverbs are appealing, as is the geographically and spiritually symbolic Ngamotu by Stephen Bambury, its shimmering liquid surfaces of oil and rusty water reflecting and redefining the gallery space.

"The Mountains to the Sea", Norman Sinclair (Green Island Gallery)

[2] Dogs on Toyota, by Norman Sinclair.
Norman Sinclair is a man of the country, and his love of the land shines through in his scenes. These high-country images are strongly yet sympathetically worked in that most difficult of media, watercolour.

The medium works well in rendering the dustiness of the light, drenching the pieces in the region's dry hazy atmosphere. From this, the works gain a gentleness that the richness of oil or harshness of acrylic would not as effectively capture.

This in turn provides the pictures with a wistfulness that is simultaneously timeless and redolent of a passing era. In works such as Coleridge Station and Heading up the Cameron Valley, the musterer almost seems to be heading away not just from the viewer but also from reality, passing into legend.

The former of these pieces is perhaps one of the strongest in the selection. The landscape and its forms have been nicely composed and captured in a reduced palette of earthy tones.

The only bright colour is the red of a corrugated iron roof, placed within the picture in such a way as to nicely balance the group of man and dogs in the foreground. The sweep of the road and the distant trees provide both depth and a strong frame to the image.

"Magnolia Fever", Jacque Ruston (Port Royale Cafe)
[3] Magnolia 11, by Jacque Ruston.
Jacquie Rushton's day job as a gardener puts her in contact with a wealth of beautiful spring blooms.

Each year, she is captivated by these plants, most notably the burgeoning of the magnolia. These flowers have long held deep symbolic meaning, both in China - their country of origin - and also in other regions throughout Asia and Europe.

The artist has attempted to capture the energy and sensuality of these blooms by working up her surfaces with thick paint in bold colours, the pinks of the flowers placed against strong blues, reds and greens.

Other flowers also gain the artist's attention, most notably lavender. The stems of these plants are used to form a rigorous geometry that turn the backdrops into shards of colour similar to stained-glass windows.

Rhododendron and datura are also subjects of Ruston's work, the latter's sinister blooms glistening from a sombre background.

Ruston has used numerous surfaces for her work, with several of the pieces being painted over old mirrors.

This has doubly provided extra interest to the pieces, with the unusual shapes creating an interplay with the forms of the plants, and with occasional flashes of reflected light adding highlights to the works.

- James Dignan