New and rare exhibitions prove art in good hands

By T.J. McNAMARA

While the big shows continue at the public galleries there is the usual varied activity at the dealer galleries.

This week a special feature is the number of new or seldom-seen artists that are being introduced to the public.

The standard of this new work is generally very high and, as usual in Auckland, there is an astonishing amount of it. Typically, three galleries are each offering three artists.

At Chiaroscuro Gallery, Linga Krishnasamy is showing Tantric Vision, a painting that endeavours to confront life's major issues.

A feature of the work is lettering on the paintings and explanatory labels alongside. When painting needs this sort of explication it is often a danger sign that the image itself will not bear the weight of meaning intended.

This is the case in a painting such as Minnows where the image of a single, lone figure does little to extend the short fable emphasising the individuality of experience inscribed on the work.

On the other hand, the huge portal and depth of Shiva Saki does offer insight into the work of cosmic forces. Doorway and Creation share this quality whereas Numbers - India's Gift to the World is like McCahon without conveying spiritual significance.

Anita Berman, whose work is in the adjacent gallery, is something of a veteran although her work is seldom seen gathered in such quantity.

She improvises attractive compositions from details of landscape and city. The paintings are energetically brushed with vivid colour and thick textures. When she hangs her lively patches of paint in a field of colour, the work is less effective than when the painting is grounded and its intricacies fill the picture space.

The Sea, Sand and Sky Improvisations come nowhere near the effect of the highly romantic Cityscape Improvisations based on Ponsonby.

The third artist at Chiaroscuro is photographer Christopher Ryan, whose work is neatly in the best academic, black and white manner.

Further uptown at the Peters Muir Petford Gallery we again have another painter who uses lettering on his work.

The paintings of Paul Judd, who is not quite a newcomer but not yet a leading light, manage to combine a strongly autobiographical element with references to ancient history, especially to post and lintel construction methods of the sort practised by the ancient Cretans and Egyptians.

Alongside little boats and biplanes that symbolise voyages both real and emotional, are massive pillars and isolated trains of stones that suggest ruins and stressed relationships. A series of envelopes metamorphose into stones and riveted plates.

Writing on the paintings such as, "What can you tell us?" "They broke the silence" and "Let's fly," give a key to the interaction between the past and the present supported by the emotional colour of individual paintings.

The tone of the work of Paul Judd is a complete contrast with the spare but highly accomplished abstract work by Kathryn Stevens next door. The show is called Square Dance. In it, fields of colour are crossed by lines which, although there are no angles exactly at 90 degrees, are squares seen in perspective.

The paintings have a remarkable lyric energy notably in the divided panels of Split and the rich blue tones of Pivot.

The third artist is Gabriel Warren whose work is sculpture more than painting, and uses buffed cast and ground aluminium as its material.

It conveys the natural forces of ice grinding against rock. Strata in high relief force their way into a surface of waves marked in the metal.

It is a highly polished exhibition in more ways than one and is supported by some fascinating small prints of icebergs.

The Lane Gallery calls its show Introductions, and they have the most interesting find of the lot in the young artist Josephine Do.

Her works are created by an elaborate process of screen-printing, mono-printing and drawing in ink and pencil on special, handmade paper. The result is a layering effect that is like the workings of memory and chronicles of the past.

Women and the many roles of women are the subject, and the works incorporate images that range from a softly classic nude, like a drawing by Prudhon, to an image of an heroic worker with a sickle.

Sharp details fade into hints and suggestions, most notably Sitting Woman which pivots around a chair. The effects are both decorative and profoundly thoughtful.

Julia Ellery is showing a group of mezzotints whose moody images are drama played out in arenas and on the sea.

The male principle, represented by a rooster, both oppresses and is conquered by female figures. Gleams of light on a horizon and gloomy details of a gallows add tension to the drama.

The show is completed by the bright abstract work of Sara Hughes, where areas of combed, thick colour sport with circles and delicately painted areas of dense pattern.

Art in Auckland is in good hands.