The exhibition, titled Retrospective - Angus Walker, covers Angus’ 25 years of painting and exhibiting.
When Central Hawke’s Bay artist Angus Walker broke his leg in December he was left immobilised for three months.
Not only was he unable to go to work, but he also couldn’t stand up to paint the huge canvases he produces in his Pukeora Hill studio.
Instead, he found he had a lot of time to think.
“I realised I’d been painting for 25 years. That made me feel quite old quite quickly.”
Angus’ mother pointed out he had a lot of work in storage and suggested that as there wasn’t much else he could physically do, that they take a look at the paintings.
“I had about 60 works stored. Not bad considering the hundreds I have produced.”
There were more than enough works for an exhibition, and on hearing there was availability at the Hastings Community Arts Centre, Angus jumped at the chance to book the space.
“It’s where I had my first show, back in 2001. It’s an amazing space. There are no other galleries across New Zealand big enough for an exhibition like this,” Angus says.
The exhibition, which runs until noon, Saturday August 19, is titled Retrospective - Angus Walker and covers Angus’ 25 years of painting and exhibiting.
“When we hung the works they looked like they were meant to be there.”
Angus works on large, raw unstretched canvases he has sourced from Sloans in Waipukurau since the 1990s. Sloans also hem and eyelet the canvases, which has become Angus’ “unintentional trademark”.
“It was originally for ease of transport and storage, and because it lends itself to larger-scale works.”
The biggest painting in the exhibition - The Lotus - is 3.5m tall. Because of its size, it has not been exhibited before.
Angus produced the painting in the old Ford factory in Lower Hutt - he was living in Wellington and had been on an exhaustive search for a large studio space when he found the factory.
“I approached the landlord and he said it would be available for about six months. The rent was a dozen beers.
“There was limited electricity. I used a halogen light, so some of the work I produced there has aspects of road works. I was working for a surveyor so that makes an appearance as well in the use of pink surveying marker paint. My works often reflect where I am at the time.”
The Lotus took Angus more than three months to complete, working up to four hours a night after his day job.
“I’d work until I got too freaked out being in a huge empty factory in the dark,” he says.
While Angus admits to being nervous whenever he opens an exhibition, he says returning to his Hawke’s Bay roots shortly after the second Covid lockdown has grounded him and influenced his work.
He’s not only back in Central Hawke’s Bay now, where he grew up, but he’s also working at the freezing works in Takapau, which was his first job after high school.
“My family moved to Waipukurau from Hastings when I was about a year old. I went to Terrace School, then Hereworth, then Wanganui Collegiate.
“I was painting, as a teen, and when Electra Gallery opened in Waipukurau I took some in to show them.”
Angus sold his first painting at Electra Gallery in 1998. The second painting was sold that year to Peter Jackson.
The following year Angus produced his first solo show at Hastings Community Arts Centre, and in 2001 he applied for Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.
“I didn’t think I’d get in. There were about 300 applicants and some of them had mad skills. I think I got through by dogged determination.”
After art school Angus exhibited extensively: Thistle Hall, Emerge Gallery, LeSa, Visual Culture and Cecil Veda in Wellington, Black Barn, Wine Country Gallery in Havelock North. In Auckland his work was featured at Monterey 2 Gallery, Morgan Street Gallery and Foenander Galleries. Quay Gallery in Napier represented Walker for over a decade. In the Waikato he had three solo shows at Aesthete Gallery, and showed with Colin McCahon, Ralph Hotere, Alan Maddox and Max Gimblett in group shows.
But it was living in Auckland, he says, that “identified what didn’t work for me”.
“I was in a tiny apartment in the CBD when Covid struck. I went to spend lockdown with my family in Waipukurau, thinking it would be temporary.
“When I returned to Auckland I thought - ‘what am I doing here?’ Two weeks later I left.”
Back in Waipukurau, Angus found his work was changing.
“Painting on Pukeora Hill, it’s quiet and extremely relaxing. Being in a rural setting has changed my work. Being back at the freezing works, it’s the best workplace culture I’ve ever experienced. The crew out there, they chop the bullshit out of everything, I’ve become more decisive in my painting, gone back to basics.
“I’m also older now with the wisdom of many mistakes and the knowledge not to do them again.”
Angus says people are fascinated by his word paintings, because they provide a lot to talk about.
“My gestural work is the antithesis of my word paintings. It’s more about feeling, all my cards are on the table, it’s more dramatic.
“I’m putting out something that’s personal to me, but hoping it will be personal to someone else - make a connection with them.
“I’m attempting to produce something that someone I’ve never met will fall in love with at first sight.”
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