Art seen

<i>Fish curing, Port Chalmers, 1889</i>, by John Gibb

The Hocken Library's exhibition ''Place makers - Artists and Iconic Landscapes'' is a who's who of New Zealand landscape art.

The display charts the development of the genre from the romantic images of the late 19th century through expressionism to the semi-abstract.

We see New Zealand art come of age, as styles move firstly to the tune of overseas trends, before finally the art finds its own strong voice in the works of McCahon, Angus and Walters.

The exhibition, which focuses largely on the mid-20th century, is not generally divided by subject, style or chronology. At several points, however, works are grouped thematically, notably in the St Bathans images of Doris Lusk and Leo Bensemann.

Paintings by Jeffrey Harris and Rudi Gopas also form an attractive, appropriate pairing. At other times, subjects and themes echo across the gallery, as is the case with another Lusk work, its post-impressionist view of Dunedin's gasworks echoing and contrasting with Charles Tole's precisionist oil tanks.

The main room is dominated by a large multi-panelled work by Colin McCahon, but many of the smaller works in the room are equally fascinating. These include the balanced pair on either side of this large piece, a smaller work by the same artist (Manukau 3), and Helen Brown's pale colour-field Islands.

<i>Take care</i>, by Don Driver

Read any review of the work of noted New Zealand artist Don Driver and the word ''challenging'' is likely to come to the fore.

The artist's colourful and occasionally controversial collages use everyday objects and materials, layering and juxtaposing them to create strong abstracts reminiscent of the neo-Dadaist art of artists such as Rauschenberg.

When Driver died in 2011, New Zealand art lost one of its more inspired and individual voices.

Brett McDowell Gallery has managed to assemble a collection of six Driver works, covering a wide period of his career. Three distinct pairs of pieces are present.

The two oldest are stand-alone sculptures from 1966 and 1979. Two large flat wall-hangings featuring sacking include the most recent work (Ozone, from 2004).

Alongside these pieces hang two pieces skirting the border between flat wall-hanging and free-standing sculpture, assemblages featuring the repeated use of old workshop tools.

Ozone is the largest work, and fascinating for its self-referential nature. The piece is constructed largely from a banner for a Dunedin Public Art Gallery retrospective of Driver's work, which has been overlaid with sacking.

As with the smaller Take care, strong use of primary yellow creates a lively effect.

In striking contrast, the muted natural tones of Tied pocket create a more contemplative atmosphere.

<i>Untitled</i>, by Dylan Peat

In the aptly named ''Dissimilitude'', Dylan Peat and George Fraser examine the portrait, using two distinct mediums and two dramatically different approaches.

George Fraser's drawings are open, bright and seemingly facile examinations of the expression of his subjects. The five works are predominantly head and upper torso studies, drawn in charcoal with highlighted embellishment in coloured graphite pencil on untreated, unstretched canvas.

Each piece is simply titled with the name of the subject, and no subterfuge has been taken to present the people ''as is, where is''.

Any ambiguity in these works is left to the interpretation of the hidden meaning and reasons for the expression worn, be it the 1000-yard stare of the smoking Mildred, or the worried uncertainty of young Jack.

Dylan Peat's photographs approach the portrait from a completely different direction. The works are dark, obscured and - tellingly - presented in long landscape format.

The faces loom from the sepia-black gloom, disguised by everyday objects such as net, foam and string.

Where Fraser's portraits are open to the expressions of the sitters, here the emotions remain an enigma, and the closely cropped portraits become landscapes of unexplored souls, the dark backgrounds compounding the sense of the mysteries they contain.