Bay of Islands artist among 10 in Wellington exhibition

The top part of the Matawai artwork Bay of Islands artist James Ormsby will have in the prestigious Strange Friends exhibition from this weekend.

A Bay of Islands artist is among 10 nationally who will have works featured in the Strange Friends exhibition which is on show at the Dowse Art Museum, Wellington, from Saturday until January 28, next year.

James Ormsby’s Matawai artwork will be among those featured in Strange Friends, along with works from Alan Ibell, Andrew McLeod, Hannah Ireland, John Ward Knox, Kate Small, Lorene Taurerewa, Nephi Tupaea, Sam Mitchell and Ursula Bradley. He is the only Northlander among those exhibiting.

Strange Friends is an exploration of figurative painting seen through 10 unique artists’ perspectives. Each has captured their own cast of characters and the environments they inhabit through a range of media.

The centrepiece of the Matawai artwork by Bay of Islands artist James Ormsby.

Some are based on actual spaces and faces while others are an amalgam of impressions either sampled from real life or plucked out of the imagination. There are towering cowboys, women inventors and sad flowers inhabiting miniature landscapes, windowpanes, and shadowy stages. This is not an exhibition of formal portraits but a diverse celebration of ourselves reflected back at us in extraordinary ways.

“Whether it’s the neighbours you’ve never met, the cast of characters in old family photographs or the people you pass on the street; we come across the familiar faces of strangers every day. This sense of unknowing recognition is one of the reasons we are drawn to paintings of people even if we don’t know them,” Karl Chitman, director of the Dowse Art Museum, said.

Ormsby (Ngati Maniapoto, Waikato Tainui, Te Arawa, Indian Tamil and Clan Ferguson) has exhibited his drawings and paintings for many years both nationally and internationally, being represented by the dealer galleries - Whitespace and Paul Nache.

The bottom work from Bay of Islands artist James Ormsby’s Matawai artwork in the Strange Friends exhibition along with nine other artists.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Education in 1990 (University of Melbourne), and Masters of Fine Art in 2001 (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University). Ormsby has been a finalist in both the Art Waikato National and Wallace Art Awards as well as the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Awards. His three-metre tall graphite work on paper, Whenua, is part of Te Papa Tongarewa’s permanent collection.

His work is held in many of the major New Zealand and Australian collections including the Waikato Museum of Art and History, the Wallace Arts Trust and The University of Melbourne. He works from his studio at Ōpua.

Ormsby said drawing is a passion he describes as his first language and his skill is evident as is his response to the images, motifs and marks in his work. As a contemporary artist, he questions what his ancestors (both Tangata Whenua and Scottish), would have used to make their marks - what to depict, and whatever was the significance of the visual symbols they chose to make.

“Ka heke iho ra I nga tipuna, kaa tahi ka tika – ākuni”. If it is passed down from our ancestors it must be right – perhaps.