Catherine Manchester
Enquiries [email protected]
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Rita Angus award 1987 Wellington
New artist grant 1986 Adam portrait finalist 2006 Wellington regional arts review 2018,2022. EDUCATION BA DFA I have from from the 1990s onwards had a focus on human activity on the landscape eg Land Crucifixion series where the land is chopped up into demarcations.It has been "crucified" for human use.It has been fought over and scarred and fenced. Dislocation Dislocation references the Location location TV programme. My fence palings reference the dislocation and displacement of populations through conflict. Air and water is a painting that references the need of clean water and air in order for all species survival and to keep the balance of natural ecosystems. The helpless gaping fish proportionately larger than the humans it is alongside is very much part of the conversation that must be had . Model habitats series where humans have imposed structures and shaped the land displacing communities and animals such as in the painting Us or them is a painting that references the human dominant habitation over the natural world .From the pre human era the tuatara looks out at us.The habitats are far from being model and human made structures display the humans. .My series Figuring the Anthroscene is also commentating on the human epoche , a world which has seen the rise of humans.The anthropocene,This is the "scene" for the humans as in popular music terminology. The quest /dream of a perfectly balanced world was striven for but often resulted in chaos especially for the environment .In one painting an owl overlooks a motorway that has destroyed it's habitat. The painting Honeymoon stranding focuses on a short but dramatic rise of Homo Sapiens no more than 100,000 years ago. What was meant to be the honeymoon of our existence instead points to refugee crises, where political turmoil creates desperate measures and a refugee is rolled into the ocean and stranded upon the shores. Piece of peace was painted at the height of the invasion by Western forces into the Middle East in the decades war since 9/11. Happenstance series began my endeavour to explore chance and accident inherit in abstract expressionism and involved in quantum physics. When painting my most recent series Visitation pixallation series I drew on a malfunctioning TV during bad weather , reminding me of the the dramatic recent floods from a heated climate .The pixallations of the images broadcast intrigued me so I photographed the rapid changing pixallation sequences. The distortions reminded me of rivulets, and channels. Some shapes the outlines of buildings , figures from a cafe or the street. The colours were watery and dreamlike , shapes reminded me of colonial monuments ,disparate and meaningless. Faces forged out of the pixallations are distorted and disrupted.An elongated arm stretches across the length of the canvas caught in the midst of what action? Reconciliation and hope. Gatecrashing galaxies a painting suggesting overlapping images and worlds has the unlikely scenario of us joining another world unless we are part of a multiverse already ie the parallel worlds theory being debated by quantum physicists. |
Catherine Manchester
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Private and public collections.eg Christchurch Law society,Power Co,and the Aigantighe gallery.Galleries exhibited in include Ferner Gallery,JanneLand, Brooke Gifford, Christchurch, Aratoi, Christchurch public art gallery, The Loft Barbara Markwick, Aigantighe, Forrester public art gallery,Black Asterisk Auckland, Suter friends guest artist, Chambers Christchurch,..Solo In the International festival of the arts ChCh at the Art House Christchurch.Tours with schools.ChCh public art gallery,Williams gallery Wellington and Morgan st Gallery with the Auckland art fair.
Paintings available.at. Chambers gallery Christchurch.Art by the sea Takapuna , Auckland,The artist's room ,Dunedin. |
Christchurch based.Enquire about studio visit
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Selected reviews
Catherine Manchester recent exhibitions
2015 Survey show NZFA curated by Greg Chaston Wellington.
2016 Potocki Paterson. Solo exhibition Model Habitats Wellington.
2018 Chambers art gallery solo.View as.Christchurch
2019 Black Asterisk .Figuring the Anthroscene .solo.Auckland.
2021 Grey Gallery.Solo.Walk on the Wild.Auckland.
2022 Summer show Diversion Gallery Picton
2022 Visitation Pixallation Thistle hall gallery.Wellington
2022 Whirinaki Whare Taonga Wellington Wellington arts review Finalists exhibition
2023 Craigs aspiring art prize exhibition of finalists
2023 Arts Canterbury Open studio programme event.Studio was open for 7 days