New Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition showcases work by young artists
Uncanny Valley, a new exhibition featuring contemporary works by seven talented young New Zealand artists, will open at the Christchurch Art Gallery on 19 November.
The young artists, who are all current students or recent graduates, explore the uncanny and grotesque in the exhibition, which is the fifth in the Gallery’s emerging artists series.
Cat Auburn Rest Cure 2009. Mixed media. Reproduced courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ken Stewart.
The ‘uncanny’ refers to the experience of encountering something that is both familiar and uncomfortably strange. The young artists – Cat Auburn, Marie-Claire Brehaut, ZhongHao Chen, Arie Hellendoorn, Rosa Scott, Roberta Thornley and Shannon Williamson - use everyday subject matter to create imagery that is edged with melancholy and strangeness. Their works also challenge their viewers to overcome any preconceptions.
The exhibition includes two works by Cat Auburn, who is this year’s Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation artist-in-residence, based at The Arts Centre in Christchurch. A graduate of Auckland University, Cat employs carving and casting techniques to create hybrid animals such as the horse in a four-poster bed in Rest Cure.
Gallery director Jenny Harper says it is a great pleasure to host works by some of the country’s finest emerging artists for the fifth time. “This Gallery is one of the only major art galleries in the country to support young, fresh talent in this way. We have a happy programming co-incidence at present and we hope that visitors will enjoy exploring both Ron Mueck’s uncannily lifelike sculptures downstairs as well as the uncanny and strange works by these gifted young artists upstairs.”