Two diverse artists show at Milford Galleries

Detail from John Nicol.

The fact that Paul Maseyk and John Nicol are showing their work together seems a matter of happenstance. Who says group shows have to appear to have clearcut cohesion and complementary flow?

Primarily known as a ceramicist, Maseyk spent a successful creative stint at Barry Brickell's Driving Creek. He is a former finalist in the Wallace Trust Awards and the Waikato National Art Award.

Maseyk has been covering his walls with painting since 1998. This exhibition is his first major, comprehensive solo show. Two distinctive, playful styles are evident.

The red, black, and white linear and geometric forms of the first group of paintings reflect the labour-intensive process that mirrors the hours that can be spent on clay.

"I enjoy drawing shapes in pencil and filling them in. I can sit for hours. I try not to stand back and see what's going to happen. Only after, do I take a full look at it."

Headwrecker I is an apt title. Minuscule black boxes against a white canvas create an illusory effect. The others in this series are compressed, maze-like figures, in which Maseyk makes creative use of negative space.

In the second strand of Maseyk's exhibition, geometry remains but is turned on its head into a creature that drips blood.

Maseyk sees little difference between ceramics and painting. "I work at both things at the same time. Drawings I do on clay I have used on my paintings. If I have an idea for a piece, I use them for both."

This probably explains why he prefers ceramic tools and rarely picks up a brush. "I only use a brush for the background of the canvas. I do mostly everything by hand, using rulers and other tools."

Nicol's exhibition continues his "dialogue between nature and culture". The image of an endless horizon of the beach he visited as a child is etched on his memory and has led to this show's focus on the sea.

Philosophical concerns are a big part of Nicol's work. "Some say nature only exists because we are conscious of it. Once you are dead, they say it disappears. The only existence of it is when you are alive.

"But I do believe nature exists outside me. We are in a situation where we, as humanity, are in a powerful and dangerous position, capable of destroying nature. I find it worrying and exciting."

Fabrications 04/05 consists of painting on board, to which the title of this show is a pun of sorts. "Fabrications of your own mind; fabricated out of plywood; and fabrications, as in lies."

The fact that Nicol doesn't quite know what image he will paint once he has completed an object further reflects the play on words.

"The images that go into the work are often in response to the objects I make. More often the objects are made before. I don't know what I'm going to paint on them."

He admits this can be stressful, but it's a challenging creative task.

Nicol's figures hang on the walls as if portals to the sea. In A Life to Live, the boat figure frames the image of blue-green water.

Nicol made another version that matches the size of his grandson when he was born. The one showing fitted his dimensions.

Nicol wanted to illustrate how they can both inhabit the same space in nature.

Exhibition

* What: Anonymous Amongst Millions, by Paul Maseyk; Fabrications, by John Nicol
* Where & when: Milford Galleries, 26 Kitchener St, to May 14