CoCA at the heart of Contemporary Art

Three School of Fine Arts lecturers feature in a significant new exhibition of contemporary art opening at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Thursday 9 June.

The exhibition, Collecting Contemporary, presents a changing selection of work over the next 12 months, beginning with work by senior lecturers Maddie Leach, Simon Morris and Ann Shelton, alongside a range of multi-media art acquired by the national museum since 2006. This is a great opportunity to gain insight into how and why Te Papa’s contemporary art and craft/object collections have been developed.

A selection of images and video from Maddie Leach’s The Ice Rink and the Lilac Ship (2002) will be on view. Maddie is also realising two ambitious sculptural projects during 2011 - one in Tasmania as part of Iteration: Again, (curated by Associate Professor David Cross) and the other with the National Sculpture Factory in Cork City, Ireland.

Also in the exhibition will be two works by Simon Morris from his Pause series of paintings. These were first shown at the Dowse Art Museum at the launch of Rain Screen, his 2006 architectural collaboration with Athfield Architects and Fraser Engineering. Simon will continue his response to the spaces of the Dowse Art Museum through a new site-specific wall painting, which will be on show from 18-28 June.

Ann Shelton’s diptych from 2001, Doublet (after Heavenly Creatures), Parker/Hulme crime scene, Port Hills, Christchurch, New Zealand, will also be part of the first Collecting Contemporary hang. Ann has recently completed a residency in Berlin as well as travel through Germany and the UK, during which she developed a large-scale new series of works in a forest (2011). These will be exhibited in Berlin, London and Melbourne during 2011.

Collecting Contemporary includes work by Nick Austin, Stella Brennan, L. Budd, Ben Cauchi, Octavia Cook, Shane Cotton, Bill Culbert, Julian Dashper, Simon Denny, Warwick Freeman, Gavin Hipkins, Richard Lewer, Daniel Malone, Paratene Matchitt, Paul Maseyk, Michael Parekowhai, John Parker, Reuben Paterson, Martin Poppelwell, Séraphine Pick, Peter Robinson, Sriwhana Spong, Geoff Thornley, and Lisa Walker.

The exhibition will be refreshed for the 2012 New Zealand Arts Festival, when additional contemporary artists will be profiled.

Collecting Contemporary from 9 June 2011. Level 5, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, admission free. Open daily.