OPENING EVENT: Tuesday, 5 December, 5.30 - 7.30pm

A changing exhibition of new and recent work by selected gallery and guest artists.

KIRSTIN CARLIN presents a new series of still-life oils based around the nasturtium flower. These are a continuation of her exploration of colour and form and how they interact with familiar tropes of art history and image production.

A selection of new and earlier works by GAVIN HURLEY will include paintings and collages as well as his quirky moustache postcards. Hurley has long worked in collage creating his own unique visual language and style. In recent years this has included the addition of embroidered beards and moustaches to his rendered characters.

New ceramic works by SAM MITCHELL are featured as a wall based installation but are available individually. Mitchell began exploring this medium when based in Invercargill in 2014 as the William Hodges Fellow. New works are highly detailed and reflect both her painting and watercolour practice extending her oeuvre into object-making. Typically, subject matter ranges from the historical to contemporary politics and popular culture.  A selection of images are available online.  For a full image list with prices, please contact the gallery.

A new body of work by SHANNON NOVAK reflects research, experiments, and personal experiences in the use of various objects/artifacts prevalent in the lives of many. The work uses a technique where everyday objects are pulverised into dust and mixed with paint to augment and emotionally charge the paint, much like the artist augments the world using digital forms and mobile devices. Novak is the 2017 winner of the Kaipara Foundation Wallace Trust Award giving him a three month residency in Switzerland in 2018. This is his first time showing with Melanie Roger Gallery.

Master printmaker and painter STANLEY PALMER will show a selection of small oil paintings and monoprints of New Zealand landscapes ranging from Otago Peninsula in the South to Mercury Island off the Coromandel. His renderings are sensitive, considered and unique evocations of remarkable views that visually transport viewers to the places beyond the gallery.

A selection of new and earlier ceramic works by Hawkes Bay based artist MARTIN POPPELWELL will be featured. Poppelwell has been exhibiting ceramics in contemporary art spaces for over 20 years and has been using the medium as a way of inhabiting and manipulating the cultural and historical readings that the practice, by its nature, inherits. Both small and larger pieces will be available individually - a selection of which will be included on our website.

Image: MARTIN POPPELWELL (works are indicative only and may not be those included and available in exhibition)