KEY POINTS:
Not so long ago, any display of art in New Zealand was a collection of little paintings of picturesque landscapes in the South Island.
All changed. It is energy, variety, assurance and invention that made the three days of the second Auckland Art Fair a huge success.
The venue at Viaduct Harbour was excellent, the display arrangements were well-designed, and on show was an extraordinary level of lively work from Auckland and other New Zealand centres, and from Australian dealer galleries.
The work was international and democratic and it made contemporary art available.
There were bonuses too, particularly the carefully curated show of sculpture that graced the entrance to the exhibition. To see the realisation of Len Lye's concept of a kinetic fountain of steel rods was an event in itself. Rather different was a garden gnome in bright chrome by Gregor Kregar. It belongs to a new ironic era.
A bonus for those who heard him was the presence of the lively British artist and critic Matthew Collings, author of This is Modern Art, a man who could find artistic meaning in a bus ticket.
He made the point first remarked on by the philosopher Georg Hegel in the 19th century, that art has drifted away from the centre of things to become a bright and fascinating variety of endeavours around the circumference of society. The enormous variety of styles at the fair abundantly exemplified this.
Collings also obviously thought that now is not the time for high seriousness in art.
In his witty, stylish talk on Friday night, the only work in the fair he specifically mentioned was the carefully arranged pile of cardboard rubbish by Eve Armstrong , shown by the Michael Lett Gallery. This was the gallery that last year staged a work by his friend Martin Creed, famous for winning the Turner Prize for a work with a light that continually switched on and off. Creed's work in Auckland had pink balloons escaping from the gallery.
Collings maintained that the work by Armstrong and Creed took something commonplace and re-educated our thinking, if not our eye.
The work he commented on was obviously chosen because it was the single piece most likely to baffle and irritate visitors.
But anybody who went to the fair would have found something to respond to, since there was a huge spectrum of styles, from a huge portrait of a neurotic nail-biter, through abstract art to an exquisite photograph of the immensity of Lake Eyre in Australia.
There were some very important works. On the stand of the Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne was the sculptural work of Callum Morton, who will represent Australia at the next Venice Biennale. His work stands at the intersection of architecture and sculpture and he can make a monument of a ruined concrete block wall.
There were surprises too.
Peter McLeavey from Wellington was showing work new to Auckland in the painting and drawings by William Dunning , who makes icons from our history. We should see more of him here.
Overall, the fair was a splendid summary of the variety of work an assiduous gallery-goer might have seen over the past two years in Auckland, and nearly 10,000 people attended the event.
It was grand to have it assembled in one place, making the event not just a commercial one, but also one of considerable cultural importance.
By contrast, away from the crowds and publicity, the gallery at 40 George St in Eden Tce goes quietly about its business. The artist showing there is at the end of a long historical line that Collings believes art has broken away from and is reacting against.
Michael Shepherd's art is quiet. It makes use of such Renaissance devices as perspective. It works with a created space and features landscape. His technique is absolutely traditional with a high degree of skill. The paintings have not just one bold meaning but levels of association and metaphor. The exhibition is called Depth of Level and addresses New Zealand history and archaeology.
The works are solidly formal compositions which show excavations on historic sites and have ancient associations, especially for Maori.
A typical work is Leg, which shows a pit with a bone revealed. Alongside is a pullout rule linking ancient and modern. A leg with a smart shoe pushing in from one corner emphasises the present, yet the river landscape in the background with a beautifully painted gleam of light on the water is unchanging.
A taut line of string marking an archaeological site gives perspective and tension to Via Appia, which is not the Roman road but a straight track in a local landscape. Midden shows a cut in the earth revealing the shells from a feast of seafood and tarnished brass cartridge cases: the tokens of celebration and conflict.
This is a subdued, softly coloured exhibition but one of considerable depth of feeling and association. It runs until June 2 and the hours of the gallery are Thursday and Friday 10am to 5pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm.
