''New Dunedin Painting'' (Brick Brothers Gallery)
Brick Brothers Gallery is hosting an exciting show of new work by an impressive array of a dozen or so young Dunedin artists.
Several of the artists involved are already making a name for themselves; others have a strong chance of following them.
The works on display cover a wide range of styles and subjects, from the soft and hypnotic minimalist colour field of Eliot Coates Quiet hours to the strong portraiture of Greg Lewis, and from Philip James Frost's expressionistic abstract to the depths of Anya Sinclair's forested Sleepwalker.
Many of the works are worthy of particular note, and all of them are worthy of their place in such a show.
Other than those paintings already mentioned, standouts include the magic realism of Jasmine Middlebrook's double portrait, Nicola Handsby's impressionistic still life, and Flynn Morris-Clarke's effective, muted Ilish.
The exhibition shows something of the vibrancy of the local art community and of the talent coming through among its younger artists.
In Brick Brothers Gallery, a space has been created in which such talent can be displayed to its full to the Dunedin public. If this exhibition is any indication, the future of new Dunedin painting looks to be a bright one.
''Pretty Dreams, Hard Work, Survival'', Pauline Bellamy (Bellamy Gallery)
Pauline Bellamy has been a mainstay of the Dunedin art scene for many years, and has finally, via the prompting of Emma Chalmers (who curates this exhibition), taken the opportunity to present a retrospective of 50 years of her art.
Chalmers has been given free range to pick a representative sample from throughout the artist's career, from her earliest sketches through to her current work.
The art is presented in a roughly chronological order, and occupies two separate rooms, the smaller of which is given over to more personal images.
The presentation of Bellamy's work in this manner allows the viewer to see the development and influences of the artist's style, from her early professional advertising designs through landscapes informed by the likes of McCahon and Woollaston.
Sketchbooks of travel across Asia show Bellamy's eye for detail, and lead on to a group of images clearly influenced by artists whose work Bellamy saw in Europe (such as the Van Gogh-influenced Portrait of Gaylene and Cross Country).
The second room includes images Bellamy created while undergoing treatment for cancer, and bringing up a young family.
The most charming of these is the double portrait of son and husband, Max and John.
''Considered Standing'', Patrick Hartigan (Brett McDowell Gallery)
Patrick Hatigan's latest exhibition, ''Considered Standing'', contains only five paintings, but is not without considerable interest.
The exhibition consists of a series of four, Standing Figures, and a fifth separate work, After Titian.
All show clearly the artist's influences and interests; three of the standing figures are sombre, semi-abstract pieces in muted, brutal shades of flesh, brown, and black painted over heavily reworked board.
The dimmed colours throw the stark, flat forms firmly into the spotlight.
The works have the mark of ethnological studies, and seem inspired by African tribal sculpture.
This may be a second-hand reference, modified through early 20th-century European art; the subject matter was a touchstone for Fauvist and early Expressionist artists such as Matisse and Kirchner, to whom Hartigan seems indebted.
With the last work, the artist deliberately underlines his influence with its title, yet this name perversely presents more questions than easy answers.
In After Titian, Hartigan's use of colour may bear some comparison to the Venetian master, but the blocky, unfinished figures owe far more to expressionism, and the composition, with its two mysterious crouching figures, draws to mind the 19th-century realism of Millet's The Gleaners.
The relationship between the image and title is presented as an odd paradox for the viewer.
