Opening Shows for 2017

26 January, 2017

 
We're gearing up for another year at JSG with an impressive programme of exhibitions. Opening tomorrow evening are two shows: Ummm by Judy Darragh and Blue Sleeps Faster Than Tuesday by Pete Wheeler. We'd love to see you here at 52 Buchan St, Sydenham, to celebrate our first event for 2017. Both artists will be present; Judy is down from Auckland and Pete has come all the way from Berlin!

Judy Darragh Ummm
Pete Wheeler Blue Sleeps Faster Than Tuesday
Opening 5.30pm Friday 27 January
Until 3pm Saturday 18 February

Jonathan Smart and Judy Darragh installing her works

Fiona Pardington receives prestigous French Honour

2 May, 2016

 

In a rare honour, Fiona Pardington was named a Knight (Chevalier) in the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, in a ceremony at Auckland War Memorial Museum yesterday evening. Fiona is the first New Zealand photographer to receive this honour. Sir Peter Jackson was the one other recipient of the award at Sunday’s ceremony.

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is a French honour established in 1975 that recognises significant contributions to the arts and literature, and is given to both French citizens and those throughout the world whom the French government deem worthy of the award.

Past recipients include George Clooney, Olafur Eliasson, Cate Blanchett, Uma Thurman, Tim Burton, Rudolf Nureyev and William S. Burroughs.

It is Fiona’s extraordinary photographic work and research of collections in the French Museums that secured her this award. She was a Moet et Chandon Fellow in 1991-92, and in 2009 received the Musee du Quai Branly Laureate award: La Residence de Photoquai. During her Laureate, Fiona created several bodies of work from the various museum collections, including The Pressure of Sunlight Falling, where she photographed the casts taken by eminent French phrenologist Dumoutier who was on board Dumont d’Urville’s voyage through the Pacific in 1837–1840.

Well done, Fiona! We are very proud to represent you at JSG.

Group Shows By Guest Curators

14 April, 2016

 
We're currently installing two exhibitions by guest curators Sophie Bannan & Jamie Hanton. Sophie - artist, writer, and a founder of North Projects artist-run iniative - is occupying the front gallery with a show entitled House Studies. Aritsts include Daegan Wells, Emma Fitts, Keir Leslie, Kim Pieters, Louise Menzies and Nina Oberg Humphries. Jamie - writer, curator, former Director of the Blue Oyster in Dunedin and currently Art Collections Curator at Canterbury University - is presenting a show entitled Laissez-Faire. Artists include Nicola Hansby, Philip Madill, Justin Spiers and Charlotte Watson.

Sophie Bannan installing House Studies

Jamie Hanton and Justin Spiers installing Laissez-Faire

HOUSE STUDIES and LAISSEZ-FAIRE
Opening 5.30pm Friday 15 April
Until 3pm Saturday 7 May

We look forward to seeing you at the opening tomorrow night!

Julia Morison's Omnium Gatherum

31 March, 2016

 
From 19 Feb to 12 March this year, visitors to the gallery were wowed by an awe-inspiring and significant body of works by Christchurch artist Julia Morison. If you didn't get the chance to come in and see the show, please follow the link:
http://jonathansmartgallery.com/content/view/246/38/ and enjoy!

Seductive Straka's

16 October, 2015

Soft, sexy & seductive are but a few of the words ascribed to Heather Straka's latest portraits at our gallery. Fourteen cameo-like, back-viewed 'Honeys' adorn the space. With attitudes both demure and suggestive, and finely painted in tones of warm fleshpinks and cool grey-greens, these are works that truly deserves to be seen in person. We look forward to your visit!

http://jonathansmartgallery.com/content/view/234/38/

The Honeytrap
7 - 31 October, 2015

 
The artist and her italian greyhounds

Miranda Parkes is the 2016 Frances Hodgkins Fellow

10 September, 2015

Congratulations Miranda!

We are delighted to announce Miranda Parkes as the Frances Hodgkins Fellow in Dunedin for 2016. She has presented three solo shows at JSGallery in the last six years, as well as exhibiting in London, Shanghai and Sydney.

 “I feel honoured and thrilled to receive the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship. I'm very much looking forward to moving to beautiful Dunedin and spending the year developing some exciting new aspects of my painting practice,” says Miranda.

We look forward very much to showing the fruits of her Fellowship research late in spring next year.

Miranda Parkes next to her work 'Trailblazer' at JSG in November last year

Dick Frizzell Exhibition - September 2015

3 September, 2015

 

The Dance of the Hooligans - panel 1 (detail)

We're excited about our upcoming exhibition The Dance of the Hooligans by Dick Frizzell. It's been at least ten years since the artist graced us with his presence. The title work is a large, 7 metre wide & 2.5 metre high, four-panel painting. Frizzell describes this work as an accumulation of ideas and images from over 50 years of painting; images which conceptually & aesthetically never found a home in any previous context. Alongside this painting, we'll be hanging more than 20 diverse works of all shapes & sizes. Make sure you don't miss out on seeing this terrific collection of work!

http://jonathansmartgallery.com/content/view/233/38/

The Dance of the Hooligans
Opening 5.30pm Tuesday 8 September
Until Saturday 3 October

From the Stockroom - May 2015

8 May, 2015

Peter Peryer - Mcrae's Flat Gold Mine

This stunning Peter Peryer colour photograph from 1977 depicts a very different Central Otago landscape. The image shows a massive pit being dug at Mcrae's Flat, as part of the process of extracting gold. These trucks are colossal - each can carry 190 tons of rock - yet through Peryer's lens they look like mere toys against the sheer magnitude of the rock face.

This 920 x 1100mm work is #4 of an edition of 10, and is handsomely presented in a wide silver-grey frame. It was hung as part of a group show at our High St gallery in 2009.