North Auckland sculpture makers at Remuera Gallery

The title of the show could be "untitled"; the theme "anything goes". Eight artists join forces to exhibit - simply because they live in the same area.

"Some artists have a structured method of getting together with other artists, to find mutual support and share ideas," says one of the artists, Terry Stringer.

"This is just another way of keeping in touch with others in the community."

All eight - Stringer, Jeff Thomson, Fatu Feu'u, Barry Lett, Peter Oxborough, Lauren Lysaght, Allan Preston and Bryan Jones - live north of Auckland.

Perhaps rural-based artists are more inclined to make an effort to meet.

They not only work alone, but are prone to the extra isolation that comes with living out of town.

"Artists in cities are maybe more naturally in cliques," says Stringer.

Most exhibit at various city galleries - Jeff Thomson has a show at Letham Gallery; Barry Lett shows at Warwick Henderson Gallery and Lauren Lysaght is planning a show at Whitespace in Newmarket soon.

FhE represents Terry Stringer. Allan Preston is a regular at Fingers, and Masterworks gallery shows some of the others' work.

For the Remuera Gallery show, the artists have come up with two or three pieces each.

It makes for an eclectic assortment, from Feu'u's smooth-bellied ceramic female torso, to Lysaght's model installations - clever, funny little messages in miniature.

Funny, too, are Barry Lett's cutout wall works of dogs, their skeletons reminiscent of stick dogs from past series.

But Peter Oxborough's work is quietly serious, carrying his passion for things nautical.

Green bronze sails are taut, roughed-up, and weathered flags and signals flap in the gallery's breeze.

Jeweller Allan Preston appears to have taken pieces from the winter sky for his shell breastplates and brooches, the latter shadows of the former, taken as shapes from one to create holes in the other. Can we force a theme here, a shared interest in open spaces?

Or perhaps there is sensitivity to the human condition, thanks to some distance from urban clutter.

Bryan Jones' two figures - Immigrants - pose in unpretentious honesty. They appear metal, like tin toy figures but are painted terracotta.

A typically tricky Stringer bronze plays games with the viewer if they are willing, its architectural frame posing questions, its faces and figures making suggestions.

Jeff Thomson created several pieces. "Group shows give me the opportunity to experiment, without the stress of having to produce a whole body of work.

"I can play a bit and that's where new things come from," he says.

A knitted wire panel, torso-shaped and ghostly, hangs alongside a rigid chain and a game he has played with champagne cork wires.

Kelp-like scribbles of iron are shaped into a sea anemone-like O and a big crinkly E is made from a bread mould. Playful, indeed.

So let's say that is what this is all about. They have been enjoying themselves.

They are demonstrating what all city dwellers understand about fringe dwellers: with less time spent in traffic, there is more time to play.

Exhibition

*What: North Auckland Sculpture Makers
*Where and when: Remuera Gallery, 360 Remuera Rd, to Sunday