From reality comes the remarkable

Gregor Kregar, No.6 Liquid Geometry 2, showing at Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland. Photo / Natalie Slade.

Art in Auckland is always vibrant but some weeks there are no startling new departures in style or subject. Thousands of paintings have been done of Auckland's attractive harbour: its shores, launches and yachts, but few artists catch the reality of its bright light with the special intensity more than Justin Boroughs whose speciality is just such scenes.

He adds to the bright, clear light a special, individual palette of colour. Because his yachts are often gaff-rigged relics and his boats the straight-stemmed launches of the past century, there is an understated nostalgia that gives his work extra depth. Even when he comes on land to paint a scene in Mt Eden, he paints a shop in its old character of a wool shop rather than in its current role as a stylish, fashionable cafe.

There is even a strong whiff of documentary about the work. In Mt Hobson - Old Sewer Pipe the pipe is in the process of demolition.

He is best working in or near Auckland. The reaches of shallow water and the ruggedness of Lion Rock give a new angle on the familiar. When Boroughs ventures away from the city to Taranaki and Hawkes Bay, the painting becomes a little dry and mechanical though the virtuosity is still evident.

Only in Mt Taranaki from Hawera, in the window of the gallery on Wellesley St, does distance and the mist of breaking waves give a special atmosphere to the scene. It adds to the quality of an unpretentious exhibition that has a welcome emphasis on the craft of painting rather than an explosive gesture.

The same could be said of the work of London-based Emily Wolfe at the Anna Bibby Gallery. In recent years her subject matter of faded curtains and stained wallpaper has become familiar yet it is still quietly impressive in the way these features become a mesmerising element of isolation and loneliness while retaining hints of charm and nostalgia.

The real tension comes from the contrast between the idyllic patterns on the semi-transparent curtains and the unidealised reality of the room. The curtains are painted with skill, giving a sense of the world outside the room which adds to the mood. The work is quiet but not serene, creating a feeling of isolation and exile. It recalls the mood of the famous early feminist story, The Yellow Wallpaper.

There are elements of surrealism in the paintings as in Tropic where a bar heater looks strange against curtains which show genuinely warm tropic motifs. The sense of this being a poor substitute is emphasised by a piece of sticky tape mending the wallpaper. Equally strange is Disembodied which is a table, covered and anonymous under a pink fitted cloth. The floorboards of the room are covered in a different way under roughly nailed sheets of plywood. Both suggest a hidden reality.

The strong, bold sculpture of Gregor Kregar at the Gow Lansford Gallery is abstract and modular. The modules are simple: triangles or pentagons assembled into three-dimensional shapes. Masses of these symmetrical shapes are arranged as floor-standing sculpture or wall relief.

These sculptures are far from symmetrical. The modules branch out in unexpected ways and add a spiky energy to the work. In some the stainless steel or aluminium of their construction is left bright and polished but most have been sprayed with car paint in rich colours.

Most impressive of all is a sculpture that hangs from the ceiling called Liquid Geometry where the reflective aluminium surfaces are energised by dozens of tubes of blue light. The interaction between the solid forms and the floating blue light is very effective.

What is striking about these works is their size and the vigour conferred on them by the assurance of their construction. They are effective on the wall like Nuclear Cloud 4 or poised on the floor as in the largely green Cultural Nature.

Among these successful works is a group that could be labelled "work in progress". These follow much the same patterns but are rough and made from glazed stoneware. They sit awkwardly on bare wooden stands which suit neither their weight nor their rather clumsy energy. Rather more successful are clusters of open modules threaded through with neon light, which gives their white forms decorative shades of colour.

Kregar is an artist who has great command over material. He takes simple ideas and carries them through in unexpected ways to great effect.

The work of Peter Bromhead is familiar to a wide public as a forceful cartoonist whose deceptively simple line is effective and full of wit. The same command of line is also apparent in a series of drawings at the Parnell Gallery. These works are all inspired by an elegant 15th-century Florentine sculpture.

Against transparent washes of colour, which set the tone for each work, he draws a potent linear outline of a face in a variety of moods evoked by the bust. The face can be patrician, pensive, charming, withdrawn or thoughtful. There are 15 works and 15 distinct variations, all defined by vigorous line but tender, rather than the fine savagery of his political comment.

Much less familiar are four works by Matt Molloy at the City Art Rooms. Sadly, there are only a couple of days before this gallery, so supportive of young rising artists, closes. The title of the show is Levitation of the Cryptoid. The works show a startling imagination most notably in the title work, a big sculpture made of cotton mop fibre lying on the floor and looking like a teddy bear with menace. The wit and peculiarity continues in Big Feet, which are exactly that, two big concrete feet wrinkled and adorned with a bit of gold leaf. When you match this with a rubber crocodile mirrored in a box with glass you have an exhibition by a young artist in search of a mission and travelling along the way with energy and invention.


AT THE GALLERIES

What: Auckland-Taranaki-Lake Dunstan, by Justin Boroughs

Where and when: John Leech Gallery, cnr Kitchener & Wellesley Sts, to July 10

TJ says: Conventional landscapes done with skill and intensity.

What: Recent Paintings, by Emily Wolfe

Where and when: Anna Bibby Gallery, 226 Jervois Rd, to July 3

TJ says: Rooms with delicately painted curtains and enigmatic objects create a subtle atmosphere.

What: Cultural Nature, by Gregor Kregar

Where and when: Gow Langsford Gallery, 26 Lorne St, to July 15

TJ says: Big, inventive modular sculpture on wall and floor enlivened by colour, lights and neon tubes.

What: Buste de Femme, by Peter Bromhead

Where and when: Variations of mood inspired by a female face done in wiry, expressive line.

What: Levitation of the Cryptoid, by Matt Molloy

Where and when: City Art Rooms, 28 Lorne St, to June 26

TJ says: Bright young artist mixes ideas and materials to make lively, if grotesque sculpture.

gallery listings