Dunedin artist travelling in a different direction

Dunedin artist Sam Foley will unveil more than his latest exhibition at the Temple Gallery tomorrow night.

[slideshow] ‘‘Passage of a Shadow'' heralds a new direction and media transition for the artist - although Foley is reluctant to give much away about the exhibition.

‘‘I don't want to say too much about it, because I want it to be a surprise,'' he says, while fiddling with a projector aimed at one of his large oil paintings in the Temple Gallery.

‘‘It's not necessarily all beautiful scenery, but it has an interest,'' he allows. ‘‘It's taken a week to install this show, because it's got to be right, you know.''

The new direction follows a 10-week research trip of British and European art galleries last year and will be Foley's first exhibition in Dunedin for three years.

‘‘I saw heaps of projection art when I was overseas. But I wanted to do something a bit different and show digital work still with that detail, but with a much greater saturation of colour and texture,'' he says.

‘‘This stuff is different, but still in the same vein, as what I've been doing. They're all recent works about Dunedin and surrounds, but it's a definite change of direction for me. It's been a big extension and I'm looking forward to gauging reaction to my shift in medium,'' he says.

‘‘I think there will be some surprise, but what I'm doing feels like it makes sense. It feels like a natural progression.''

The juxtaposed images and imagery bring Foley's paintings alive and reveal his intimacy with the area. ‘‘I've lived in this area a lot and often still jog or walk around here.

When I was at art school, I flatted near here and used to walk through it every day on the way to my studio. It's a nice escape from the city.''

I first met Foley last June, when he returned to his Logan Park High School alma mater with his brother, actor Tim Foley (28), who played Dr Weston in Shortland Street.

The two brothers couldn't have been more different. While Tim was in his element behind a microphone addressing the school assembly, Sam was more comfortable sitting back in the shadows.

He's more observer than orator.

‘‘I find it hard to put what my work is about in succinct sentences on the spot,'' Foley admits. ‘‘I guess that's to do with the fact that I express myself visually, rather than verbally.'' Foley recruited his brother to help with his ‘‘Passage of a Shadow'' series.

A large oil painting projection, Intersection Lachlan Ave and Queens Drive, shows the younger Foley driving a car in a scene reminiscent of a Ken Russell film.

‘‘I got Tim to help me with some of the filming when he was last down here,'' Foley says. ‘‘He loved it. He thought it was great fun.''

While Foley's recent works are Dunedin-centric, they have universal appeal, as evidenced by sellout shows in Auckland last year and Sydney in 2006.

The seemingly innocent scenes have been painted as if through narrowed eyes. Phantoms lie hidden in the canvases, whispering secrets about people past and present.

There is a post-apocalyptic feeling of being the last person in the building and everyone else has scarpered. The work transcends surrealism as Foley plants his easel firmly in the Twilight Zone.

‘‘But, it's easy to relate to,'' he says disarmingly. ‘‘It's a realistic work that's not too challenging, as opposed to abstract work.'' Foley (30) was born in Wellington and moved to Dunedin when he was four.

He attended Logan Park High School, receiving prizes for painting, printmaking, graphics, design and art history, before studying realist portraiture under artist Pat Altman at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.

In 1998, armed with a fresh bachelor of fine arts degree, he was ready to take on the art world. ‘‘I usually work from 9 to 5 or 6 every day. Some days longer,'' Foley says. ‘‘You've got to take art seriously if you want it to take you seriously.''

After graduating, Foley moved to Auckland, where he held solo shows at Chiaroscuro Gallery in 1999, 2000 and 2001.

He became a foundation member and co-director of the CITE artist collective, before moving to Wanaka in 2001 to become artist in residence at Puzzling World, where he completed a diorama mural.

In 2003, he moved to Sydney to produce a series of works based on the Sydney coastline, which was exhibited at Soho Gallery the following year.

Foley returned to Dunedin in 2005 and is now living and breathing art above his Dowling St studio.

‘‘It's really handy and it means I don't have to drive to work any more,'' he grins. ‘‘I can just make a cup of tea and go down to the studio. But, it also means that it can be a little bit hard to get away from it [painting] sometimes.''

His latest works are already being critically acclaimed.

‘‘The works are technically innovative in their combination of media, their skilful intermingling of the static and dynamic,'' Dunedin art commentator Peter Entwisle observes.

‘‘Despite these resonances, it would be wrong to see Foley only as a master of the sinister; an artist who cleverly sends chills up our spines. The subliminal menace and violence of his imagery is balanced by its conjuring of quiet and peace in a precise simulacrum of experience.''

Foley's star is undoubtedly rising.

His work is now held in a cluster of major public collections, including the University of Otago, Wallace Trust and Historic Places Trust of New South Wales, as well as private collections in New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

He won the people's choice award at the 2003 and 2005 Cleveland Art Awards for Sonata at Sandfly Bay and Natural History Unit Building Facade, respectively.

His Pathway at Night painting was highly commended at the 2006 Parklane Art Awards in Auckland and he followed that last year with the top merit prize for Corner of Duchess and Queens Drive.

‘‘Passage of a Shadow'' opens at the Temple Gallery tomorrow and runs until Saturday, March 8.