ADVANCE SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS AT THE ROBERT McDOUGALL ART GALLERY & ANNEX

Media Statement 11 May, 1998

Media Only: Amanda Gregan Tel. (03) 372-2981 Fax. (03) 365-3942

Public Only: Tel. (03) 365-0915

ADVANCE SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS AT THE ROBERT McDOUGALL ART GALLERY & ANNEX

The Robert McDougall is Christchurch’s public art gallery which features regularly changing exhibitions of international and New Zealand historical and contemporary art. The McDougall Contemporary Art Annex is one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary art venues. The Robert McDougall Art Gallery is located behind the Canterbury Museum in the Botanic Gardens off Rolleston Avenue. The McDougall Contemporary Art Annex is situated across the road in the Arts Centre, Worcester Boulevard, Christchurch. Hours are 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. every day from Labour weekend to Easter inclusive. Winter hours are 10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. Closed Christmas Day and Good Friday. Admission is free.

Nb. Italicised text indicates shows which are on in the McDougall Contemporary Art Annex, in the Christchurch Arts Centre.

Exhibitions:

PreMillenial - Signs of the Soon Coming Storm

24 April-31 May, 1998

Christchurch artist Ronnie van Hout has collaborated with Auckland artist Mike Stevenson to develop this installation which resonates with and plays with the anxieties of a paranoid and future-obsessed society which is rapidly approaching the dawn of a new millennium.

Recent Acquisitions

25 April -14 June 1998

This superb selection of work is just a sample of some of the purchases made by the McDougall during 1996 and 1997. Artists featured in this installation include Peter Robinson, Saskia Leek, Rudof Boelee, Will Cumming, Grant Takle, Margaret Dawson, Christine Webster and Philip Trusttum.

Ria Bancroft - Three Decades of Sculpture

6 May-21 June 1998

Sculptor Ria Bancroft exhibited with The Group until 1977. Her sculptures have been commissioned for particular sites and are also found in private collections throughout the country. This exhibition surveys Bancroft’s sculptural works from the early 1960s to the early 1990s.

Seraphine Pick

5 June-12 July

Having built up a substantial body of work since her graduation in 1987, this exhibition brings together representative pieces from each phase in Pick’s development from the early ‘dreamscapes’ of childhood memories and the sensual images in her post-European painting to the newest style fusing these past approaches together.

Revisioning the Real

20 June-23 August, 1998

Organised and toured by Lopdell House Gallery Auckland, this show features New Zealand contemporary artists working in a figurative or representational vein. “But what can it mean to be a realist, or more appropriately, to be concerned with representation in the late twentieth century. It is this question which underpins Revisioning the Real.” (Brett Levine, Curator)

Drawings from the Collection by Twentieth Century Artists

27 June-30 August

Eighteen major Canterbury artists (from circa 1905 to 1995) are represented in this selection of drawings from the Gallery’s collection.

Reckoning with the Past

1 July-6 September 1998

An exhibition of contemporary Chinese painting initiated by the Fruitmarket Gallery for the Edinburgh Festival of the Arts. Features 66 works by 15 artists. Supported by Asia 2000 in association with New Zealand Museums Company and Creative New Zealand.

Earthwalk: Judy Wilson

17 July-23 August 1998

Highlights selected from a major survey exhibition of one of New Zealand’s most internationally acclaimed sculptural artists. Based in North Canterbury, this artist’s work will be familiar to many visitors to the McDougall. Her exhibition, Tall Poppies was seen at the main Gallery in 1994, and her basalt stone circles were featured in the Gallery’s ‘Sculpture in the Gardens’ exhibition in the Summer of 1995/96 . -

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John Edgar: Lie of the Land

29 August-25 October, 1998

A nationally-touring exhibition of stone sculptures exploring how real and imaginary concepts of “the land” have become embedded into our culture and have taken on the power of icons, influencing our behaviour, our identity, and the very way that we present ourselves to the world.

Benjamin Mountfort

17 September-22 November, 1998

A collection of Gothic Revival drawings and photographs from this well-known architect whose designs include Canterbury Museum, Provincial Council Chambers and what is now the Christchurch Arts Centre. This show will be part of a city-wide celebration of Mountfort’s life and work marking the centennary of his death. -more-

Visa Gold Art Award

28 August - 4 October, 1998

This national art competition was established seven years ago to encourage and support contemporary artists in New Zealand. The prize winners and selected finalists will be shown at the Auckland Art Gallery, City Gallery in Wellington and we are delighted to announce that the McDougall Contemporary Art Annex will be the first ever South Island venue for this exciting exhibition.

Canterbury Prints

5 September 1998 - 24 January 1999

Forty Years of Canterbury Painting

31 October 1998 - 24 January 1999

Goldie

12 December 1998 - 7 March 1999

This touring exhibition initiated by the Auckland Art Gallery, features the outstanding work of artist Charles Frederick Goldie, whose Maori portraits have made him a household name., most of which are watercolours of the South Island back country, this exhibition looks at the artists’ works largely from 1880 to 1896. Temple left Britain in 1880 with his wife and family and settled in the South Island where he painted until the early 1900s.

NOTE TO EDITORS: All exhibitions in italics are those being shown in the McDougall’s contemporary space, the Art Annex. The information listed is subject to change; dates and titles should be confirmed with the Robert McDougall’s Publicity and Marketing Officer, Amanda Gregan (03) 372-2981. Images available on request.

6 May, 1998

Media Only: Amanda Gregan Tel. (03) 372-2981 Fax. (03) 365-3942

Bookings & Enquiries: Tel. (03) 941 6973 or 365-0915

PUBLIC PROGRAMME June 1998.

Floortalks and Lectures

5 pm, Friday, 5 June Teachers’ Preview - Seraphine Pick

Contemporay Art Annex, Arts Centre Tickets: $5. Teachers’s packs available on night. Bookings essential. Tel. 941 6973.

11 am, Sunday, 7 June Artist’s Floortalk - Seraphine Pick

Contemporary Art Annex, Arts Centre

Free admission.

1 pm, Thursday, 11 June Lunchtime Curator’s Floortalk

Elizabeth Caldwell, Curator of Contemporary Art will give a floortalk on this selection of Seraphine Pick’s work currently on show at the Annex.

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