In this week's Art Seen, Laura Elliott looks at exhibitions from Megan Huffadine, Rachael Errington, and Milford Galleries.
Megan Huffadine, ‘‘The Pleasure Garden’’, (Hullabaloo Art Space, Cromwell)
With her multifaceted, iconographic work Megan Huffadine seems to combine the roles of artist, storyteller and curator. Her paintings, which often contain sculptural inserts, bring together patterns and symbols to create a memory-box effect.
They intensely encourage the participation of the viewer, as if Huffadine collates the imagery and the completion of the piece occurs in the mind of its interpreter.
There is something very universal about her work; it will tug at individual memories and speak to everyone who looks at it in a different way. The Huffadine alphabet, a series of shapes that recur throughout her collections, looks like an ancient language, the remnants of a past culture and timeless themes.
''The Pleasure Garden'', her current exhibition, focuses on the natural botanical world, the plants that are so intrinsically bound to human existence. Plants sustain life, providing nourishment, emotional comfort, the very air we breathe.
We associate flowers with every milestone moment in a person's life: birth, success, celebration, love, grief, death. In times of strife and distress, there is often a cathartic joy to be found in a garden, a creative outlet in growing and tending to new life.
Using an earthy colour palette with a combination of warm and cool tones that reflect the changing seasons, Huffadine pays homage to mother nature, turning ephemeral emotions and ideas into a visual record.
Rachael Errington, ‘‘Wandering Through the Seasons’’, (Art Bay Gallery, Queenstown)
Light reigns supreme in Rachael Errington's latest solo exhibition. Walking into the gallery space, which draws in the natural sunlight that sparkles across the expanse of Lake Wakatipu, and being surrounded by Errington's almost mystically glowing forest scenes and fields of flowers has an effect comparable to being encircled by stained-glass windows.
The canvases seem to be lit from within and the colours are so intense and beautiful that it is difficult to look away. Errington often uses the depiction of light as the focal point in her works, drawing the eye through tree trunks and leaves to the source of the glow; if you were physically inhabiting the painted space, you would be irresistibly drawn to walk in that direction.
Most of the works are on a generous scale, which is pivotal to the impact they create. These are pieces that are intended to awe and inspire, and pull the viewer in. The golden-hued pieces, such as The Woodland Grove, are lovely, and Errington's handling of colour in
Red Beech at Dusk, where the titular tree is illuminated and softened by an orange-pink wash of sky, is particularly impressive. Errington is known for her woodland imagery, but one of the standout works in this collection is Dulcies Meadow, an expanse of flowers so richly textured that they seem to be moving in a faint breeze.
Again, a peek of light through a clearing in the distance captures the attention and makes you wonder what you would find if you could find a path towards it.
‘‘Earl Street Journal’’, (Milford Galleries, Queenstown)
The ''Earl Street Journal'' is always a brilliant opportunity to see a sampling of the collections at Milford Galleries Queenstown, a hint of what the year's solo shows will bring. With a mix of paintings, glass, ceramics and sculpture, and styles running the scale from abstraction to photo-realism, there is something to appeal to all tastes.
Reuben Paterson provides the glitz and more light-hearted fun with Opunake, a beautiful example of his floral glitter designs. Every small sparkling particle picks up the light, and the surface seems to shimmer with movement.
Bruce Hunt's Into Shadow - McPhies Ridge and the Dunstan Mountains is a star piece among the landscapes, a mastery of shadow and tone that gives the effect of looking through a windowpane at a three-dimensional view.
The thick impasto brushstrokes of Neil Frazer's Black Sand Valley, on the other hand, use texture to create such a kinetic sense of energy that waves seem to roll and you can almost hear the sounds from the bush, and the realism of the image is in the instinctive connection that the viewer forms to the scene.
The sculptural pieces tend to demand the spotlight; without exception, they're strikingly executed. Graham Bennett's steel Heavy Shadow 6 is a clever incorporation of the surrounding environment, with the shadow cast back on to the wall an intrinsic part of the design.
The sandblasted cast glass of Galia Amsel's Halcyon gives the impression of having been carved from toffee. Smooth, sleek and translucent, the golden curl is incredibly visually satisfying.
-By Laura Elliott