Critically acclaimed since 1996 in representing New Zealand at Australia’s Asia-Pacific Triennale, and with works in all major public Collections in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia's AGNSW, Marie Shannon's meticulous practice was the subject of a major touring survey exhibition in 2018 and following years. The current solo exhibition, her first in Auckland since 2022, elucidates her importance within contemporary New Zealand art history, bringing together vintage silver gelatin photographs, large digital photographs, and moving image works.

Extending the thinking behind the recent exhibition Three Angles, this exhibition re-positions a number of those works by Stephen Bambury and Alberto Garcia-Alvarez with significant works by artists Chris Corson-Scott, Alfredo Jaar, Marie Shannon and Christine Webster. The works, in their various materiality, propose ways of seeing and being a quarter way through the 21st Century. Foresight, or prescience, is a common feature of artworks through the ages, as is hindsight, or mining art historical precedents in contemporary works. Second sight lies somewhere between prescience and art history;  reflecting on the contemporary context together with the timeless themes of being human. This grouping by contemporary artists spanning many decades is germane to the contemporary global context whilst also proposing reflections on the  human condition.

Trish Clark Gallery is pleased to present a select exhibition of Heather Straka’s paintings, including a number of new works alongside important older works that further her long-time investigation of identity/cultural politics. Having devoted a number of years to her parallel photographic practice, and produced two significant bodies of work both exhibited at the gallery, Straka is once again deeply immersed in her painting practice. With qualifications in Sculpture and Film, Straka's unique cross-disciplinary approach delivers painterly cinematic photographs and paintings anchored in sculptural space.

Curator Judy Millar says: "Intersections. Points of meeting, exchange, divergence. There are people in our lives who seem bound to our own life travels. Drawn together by circumstance, interests, and an unspoken friendship arising from respect; we meet, go on our way and circle back together in a changed but shared commonality. Alberto Garcia-Alvarez arrived in Auckland from the United States in the early 1970’s as a Guest Lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts. Both Stephen and I had the fortune of encountering his lively presence and deep knowledge of artistic exploration, as students. We both share a gratitude for his influence on us as a mentor and fellow artist.

Widely acclaimed for her masterful control over glass, Galia Amsel works in dialogue with her natural environment to imbue her sculptures with dynamic energy, and these new pieces bring verve at scale, both very large and small, exploring the limits of her chosen medium. A graduate of the Royal College of Arts in London, her work is held in major museum collections including Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Corning Museum of Glass, USA; Crafts Council Collection, London; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Ulster Museum, Ireland; Montreal Museum, Canada; and Glassammlung Ernsting, Germany.

Heather Straka’s solo exhibition, Isolation Hotel, is the acclaimed photographic series’ first presentation in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Originally conceived as a SCAPE project and installed at the Canterbury Museum in 2022, Isolation Hotel navigates time and distance, of relatively short duration but severe implications, that populations endured in pandemic times. With her characteristic wit and piercing insight, Straka positions lone protagonists in her carefully constructed film sets to portray the emotionally freighted experience of alienation.

Working at scale, Hōhua Thompson's work reflects on intergenerational knowledge transmission, storytelling and kaitiakitanga. His practice combines traditional Māori art forms such as whakairo and tukutuku with modern materials and processes to communicate stories from his own whakapapa, and to examine how these stories may apply to wider Māori communities. His first dealer gallery exhibition in Tāmaki Makaurau will introduce local audiences to significant artworks previously exhibited in major public galleries in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington: The Dowse Art Museum and City Gallery Wellington.
Photo Credit: Cheska Brown for City Gallery Wellington

Amanda Gruenwald’s recent paintings represent a bold new direction – initially inspired by the markings found on her studio drop cloths, where drips, pools, wipes, splashes and sprays of excess paint have accumulated in the process of creating her earlier works. Her new paintings respond to the potential of this residue, navigating the liminal space between intention and concurrent attempts to harness the role of chance.

Unique in New Zealand's art history is Phil Dadson's durational performative 12-year visual music project, which he outlines as: "Soundlooking, hearseeing, seehearing lines of sonic shape and form – texture, melody, rhythm, harmonies, polyrhythms conjured from contours, shapes and colours of things observed – is both the essence and impetus behind the twelve year, one month per year, visual-music project I set in motion with January Music in 2014". Reflecting on the ambition of this project after 10 years, Dadson's range of performative practice is positioned within a compelling conceptual framework that addresses his long-standing environmental concerns.

Tracing the monochromatic sensibilities of nine of this country's noted artists, this is an exhibition of expansive and dynamic artistic practices. Working across a range of media: video, photography, painting, and sculpture, this curated selection of satisfying and perhaps unexpected works, newly made to vintage, speak to a singularity of focus on the power of a limited palette, testifying to the enduring allure of working within the constraints of a singular tone.

Stephen Bambury, Alfredo Jaar, Julia Morison, Kazu Nakagawa and Salome Tanuvasa, Heather Straka

Roger Ballen / Stella Brennan / Chris Corson-Scott / Jennifer French / Michael Ghent / Alan Miller / Marie Shannon / Ann Shelton / Vincent Ward / Christine Webster

Marina Abramovic, Billy Apple, Roger Ballen, Stephen Bambury, Bruce Connew, John Edgar, Michael Ghent, Shaun Gladwell, Alfredo Jaar, Eemyuen Kang, Kimsooja, Anthony McCall, Ann Robinson, Marie Shannon, Ann Shelton, Hiroshi Sugimoto, James Turrell.