New exhibition at home gallery

Full-time Raumati Beach artist Collin Hope is back with another much-anticipated exhibition at his architecturally renowned home gallery this weekend.

In his 10th year exhibiting at his Rosetta Rd-based home turned gallery space, Collin invites the public to explore the sights of a range of his latest indoor and outdoor metal sculpture works, acrylic paintings and drawings.

Made from steel and aluminium, Collin's unique sculptural works are recognised for their kinetic elements, designed with parts that move in the wind to add a further dimension.

"The metal sculptures also reference the human body and are biomorphic," said Collin, founder of Hope Gallery.

"They are tall standing figures, some brightly coloured, and are proud sentinel type figures and guardians, and I use koru and etching on the surfaces to reference Aotearoa.

"Along with koru motif there's reference to the heart in a three dimensional way.

"Some sculptures incorporate textured natural wood and are designed to be enhanced by weathering to gain further depth."

His framed acrylic paintings on board and unframed drawing works on Fabriano paper also reference the human body in abstracted forms, combining landscape, strong colour and movement in the body of the work.

Having studied Fine Art in New Zealand and completed a Masters degree in art from Melbourne University, Collin also studied public art at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.

With exhibits in New Zealand and Europe, Collin accepted several artist residencies over the years including residencies at the International Ceramic Studio in Hungary and the Scottish National Sculptural Workshop.

The recipient of various New Zealand national and regional art awards and prizes, Collin has also gained much media exposure for his home, which was purposely designed to become a gallery space for his works.

"My house was inspired by Anton Gaudi, the Spanish architect and artist.

"It has a minimal of internal walls with lots of open voids to display and hang paintings and sculpture, and I move the furniture out for each exhibition.

"The walls are not painted but are coated in natural plaster and the stairwells feature mosaic tiling in keeping with the Gaudi aesthetics."

After rupturing his achilles tendon in 2015, which halted much of his planned travel and artwork time, Collin suffered a second blow after falling from a ladder in November last year, right before an exhibition.

Having fractured his leg and foot in multiple places, he had to cancel the show but this year, according to Collin, he is back and ready to finally show off his latest innovative collection.

"This May show is going to be exciting for me."

¦Collin Hope's New Works exhibition is running from this Saturday May 13 and Sunday, May 14 from 10.am to 4pm at 344 Rosetta Rd, Raumati Beach.