Art seen: A glimpse into an individual's idiosyncrasies

Chanelle Carrick takes a look at the latest exhibitions around Dunedin.

New Works, by Michael Smither (Gallery De Novo)

Gallery de Novo has three new works by renowned contemporary artist Michael Smither on display.

The print Taranaki Springtime depicts Mt Taranaki, its snow-capped slopes rising boldly against the vivid cerulean-blue sky.

The pure whiteness defining the mountain's valleys almost shatters its surface.

Yet a softly advancing shadow rises up from the bottom of the image, contrasting with the sharply defined form of the mountain and suggesting the oncoming evening.

The peak of Mt Taranaki glows with the last light of a clear and crisp spring day.

Smither states that the print A Childhood Game With Leaves explores the "relationship of colours to shapes" and represents his enjoyment arranging leaves as a child.

Placed in a large grid, Smither's leaves have been stripped down to essential shapes, their colours heightened to jewel-like oranges, yellows, purples and greens.

They resemble giant pieces of confetti, but laid out in an orderly fashion rather than strewn about haphazardly.

Finally, in Massage Towels and Blankets Smither portrays a pile of carefully folded and stacked towels in his characteristic highly realist painting style.

Rather than just a mundane still-life from a masseuse's rooms, however, this work presents a glimpse into an individual's idiosyncrasies; a portrait of their habits.

"A Gathering of Quirk", (Artist's Room)

The work of four artists with peculiar and whimsical imagery is on display at the Artist's Room.

The large paintings of Tony Cribb seem like expressions of bizarre inner monologues and imagined conversations.

Glass Jungle, for example, combines a stylistic depiction of an elephant contained within a glass bowl surrounded by daisies with fragments of almost sarcastic text.

The phrase "I have no need for your fickle fragrance" belies the elephant's obvious frustration with his confinement.

Crispin Korschen's images are more light-hearted, creating fanciful and endearing chance encounters or moments of quiet contemplation.

In the triptych Making Friends a businessman lost at sea is befriended by a lone seagull; his plight is no less doomed yet at least he is no longer alone.

The ceramic works of Hayley Hamilton and Cheryl Oliver contain their own dream-like and odd characters.

Hamilton's Pets are mysterious creatures with oversized heads and distorted limbs, yet they are endearing rather than threatening.

In Oliver's Flotilla of Fools, small figures sail directly towards their own specific malady; Love's Fool, for example, has her common sense hindered by rose-coloured glasses.

These works all represent the peculiarities of individual consciousness.

The stuff of children's tales and daydream musings, they appeal to anyone who has ever engaged with their imagination.

"Summer Exhibition", Otago Art Society (Art Station)

This year's summer exhibition at the Art Station consists of works in a range of media and themes.

One of the major themes occurring throughout the exhibition is the local landscape.

Gillian Pope's screen-print Harbour Landscape I flattens a view of the hills and beach into overlapping planes of bright colour.

By laying one plane over another, Pope maintains a sense of depth in her work while also providing slight variations in surface texture.

Similarly, Erin Anson's painting Otago Peninsula Series II presents the landscape as a long vertical core, the landforms stacked on top of one another like stratigraphic layers.

Pauline Bellamy looks further south in her etching Queuing for Oysters.

In this work brave individuals battle a blustery Bluff squall as they patiently wait in line.

The medium of etching lends itself well to this subject, allowing for a sketchy, expressive treatment that emphasises the relentless gusts of wind and rain.

Dealing with the natural world in a more intimate way is Christeen Bates' jewellery.

Her large necklace, entitled My Garden From The Street, is made up of solid silver flowers nestled among pastel beads and buttons.

The piece invites close inspection, as small butterflies and dragonflies are seen amid the clusters of colour, the whole threaded through with copper vines.