Art seen: March 3

Untitled, by Martin Thompson

‘‘Eight New Works'', Martin Thompson (Brett McDowell)

Brett McDowell Gallery has opened its 2016 programme with an exhibition of new work by Martin Thompson. The show is also Thompson's first show since his successful survey exhibition at Dunedin Public Art Gallery last year.

Thompson is well known locally and is increasingly gaining recognition throughout New Zealand. Since moving to Dunedin in 2008, he has been represented by Brett McDowell, and with the gallery's support has produced a steady stream of structural, mathematical drawings.

Thompson works on 1mm sq graph paper and colours the squares with fine-tipped ink pens to produce complex patterns. For each pattern he makes, he then redraws with the pattern inverted.

These new works include six of Thompson's large pieces, which are each composed of two matching side-by-side square patterns. Although they are made with a similar process, it is striking how varied the completed works are.

Each is a different colour but, more than that, the patterns are diverse: a pink work shows a grid of different-sized squares, an orange work has lines emerging from mottled coloured and uncoloured squares and a blue work looks like an oriental rug.

The two smaller works feature the same partnering of inverted patterns, but also show Thompson developing a small design into larger, more complex, versions. These works are fascinating and give a small clue to how the large complicated works are produced.

Abacus, by John Coley

Dunedin Public Art Gallery has redesigned its main collection exhibition. Opening last month, ‘‘Exploded Worlds'' promises to offer ‘‘an exploded view of an artwork'' by exploring contrasts, connection and subtleties between works from the DPAG's collection.

The first and most noticeable update to the gallery space is the repaint of the entranceway, which is now a bright royal blue. Although the rest of the space retains the white walls expected of a gallery, the blue walls serve as a visual proclamation of the exhibition's new approach to the gallery's collection. The variety of works on display are consequently imbued with a notion of playful exploration.

Michael Morley's Sadness Sings is installed on part of the blue walls and consists of a number of brightly painted vinyl records. The blue backdrop alters the experience of this work, exaggerating the interplay of colours across the circular discs.

At the other end of the exhibition is Shane Cotton's The Haymaker Series I-V, a 9m-long painting, made of five large panels, that brings together some of Cotton's signature images. The symbols emerge from a surreal grey background and include Cotton's bull's-eyes, which are markedly similar to Morley's painted vinyl discs.

The cohesion and invitation to comparison between these two works is repeated throughout the exhibition, creating a new way to view a familiar collection.

No title, by John Ward Knox

2015 Francis Hodgkins Fellow John Ward Knox's exhibition at the Hocken presents a series of small oil paintings in which the artist examines the fine details and subtleties of skin.

Each of the 11 exhibited works is a meticulously rendered snapshot of a female body. The compositions are cropped and ambiguous, with many showing unidentifiable body parts, and with all paintings labelled No Title, the focus lies solely on the aesthetic properties of flesh itself.

These diminutive paintings are astoundingly lifelike and rendered with the same precision as Ward Knox's earlier black paint and pen drawings. By introducing colour, however, Ward Knox now examines the depth and variety of hues found in flesh, and the paintings highlight the layered shades of yellow, green, blue and violet found in pale skin.

The works are displayed in heavy wooden frames that are wider than the paintings themselves. The scale of the frames makes them appear to be obstructing a larger image, which gives a sense of voyeurism to the works and further exaggerates the act of looking and examining the skin shown.

The exhibition is accompanied by a three-part publication titled Ashes. The publication reveals the varied projects that Ward Knox undertook during his year as the fellow, including drawings that developed into the present exhibition, and serves as an insightful companion to Ward Knox's fellowship work.