Tag Archives: kerikeri

Mark Graver- Undertow

MARK GRAVER

UNDERTOW

Art at Wharepuke

Jan 7 – Feb 2015

Mark Graver at Art at Wharepuke Gallery NZ

Undertow is a linked series of HD videos, shot from under water looking up towards the sky during rainfall, and photopolymer metal salt etchings.

The concern is to capture the effects of light, shadow and sound at a particular place and point in time. There is no editing other than changing the speed and setting the duration.

The photopolymer etchings are isolated video stills, manipulated in Photoshop then etched into aluminium plates.

The intention is to create a fluid installation using elements of the different mediums to explore connections, similarities and differences between the moving, temporal and the still images and between photographic and traditional printmaking processes.
The series was first shown in the exhibition ‘Combinations’ curated by Mark at the Centre for Contemporary Printmaking, Seacourt, Bangor, Northern Ireland in 2014.

Mark Graver is an award winning artist printmaker, founder of the Wharepuke Print Studio and co-director of Art at Wharepuke.  He is author of the A&C Black printmaking handbook, ‘Non-Toxic Printmaking’ (2011, London) and his work is held in many public collections around the world including the V&A Museum, London, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford UK, the National Gallery of Taiwan and in China, Mexico, Portugal, Malaysia and NZ.

www.markgraver.com

Undertow Series Mark Graver

Undertow Series as part of the exhibition ‘Combinations’ at Centre for Contemporary Art, Bangor, Northern Ireland, July 2014

Undertow series 2014 from Mark Graver on Vimeo.

 

Mark Graver Umbra Sumas in Wellington

Mark Graver – Umbra Sumus
Solander Gallery Wellington
24 Jan – 21 Feb
Mark Graver will present an artists talk at the opening 1.00pm Saturday 24th January followed by opening reception 1.30 to 3.00pm.

Taken from a quote by Horace, ‘Pulvis et umbra sumus’ (we are but dust and shadow) Umbra Sumus is an ongoing project containing photopolymer and acrylic resist etchings, video and sound works.

The work is partly a response to the death, in January 2011, of my father and to the wider human condition. The use of shadows alludes to the movement of light, the passing of time and, ultimately, to mortality. Still images are used for the etchings while the video works allow for an actual temporal experience using the same or similar source material.

Solander Gallery 218 Willis Street, Wellington

Irena Keckes – Woodcuts

Irena Keckes – Woodcuts

Art at Wharepuke

190 Kerikeri road

Exhibition
15th Dec – 4th Jan
open 7 days 9.00am – 5.00pm

Irena Keckes

Irena Keckes is an artist and arts educator, currently based in Auckland, New Zealand. She was born in Croatia, where she gained BA in Art Education and Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb (2000). Irena earned Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Tokyo University of the Arts (2005). Currently, she is completing PhD with Creative Practice at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (2011- present).

As part of her doctoral research project integrating theory and practice, Irena Keckes has created large-scale woodcut prints, and researched the links among ecologically informed Buddhism, and non-toxic and expanded forms of print.

Her artwork has been exhibited internationally at eighteen independent, and numerous group exhibitions; these included the Tallinn Triennial of Drawing (2012), Kyoto Art Festival (2012, 2014) and International Mokuhanga Exhibition at Tokyo University of the Arts (2014).

She has been an artist in residence in Japan (2000) and Korea (2005), and an active member of several art associations including Croatian Association of Artists (since 2001) and Print Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (since 2014).

Irena Keckes presented an academic poster and portfolio at the Impact 8 International Printmaking Conference in Dundee (2013) and an academic paper at the 2nd International Mokuhanga Conference in Tokyo (2014).

As a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, Irena Keckes has been teaching Printmaking and Drawing academic projects to undergraduate students, since 2011.

Art at Wharepuke - Irena Keckes

 

ARTIST STATEMENT | IRENA KECKES

My art has been informed by a strong desire to work in the media of print in particular within the field of contemporary, ecologically responsive printmaking. Over the past twelve years I have lived and worked in diverse scholastic, artistic and intellectual environments. Moving through the myriad of cultural worlds made an impact on my practice.
My recent research has been exploring if and how some of central Buddhist notions, such as interconnectedness or causality, may inform ecologically mindful printmaking. The interest in this topic and approach to print practice grew from my previous training in traditional Japanese water-based woodcut that originally involves non-toxic methodologies. Taking mokuhanga (Japanese woodcut) as a starting point, merging apparently disparate theories, philosophies, methodologies and processes, one of the main sequels of my work has been to represent one example of expanded printmaking.

In some instances I have extended my practice by detaching print off the walls and moving into the space, and in others I exhibited carved plates and wooden shavings as sculptural objects alongside the prints. I have shifted the main focus away from controlling the final outlook of the print to the processes of making itself. Expanding the scale of my plates also created a platform for a more intense exploration of the phenomenological aspects of my work, reconciling intellectual and physical actions of printmaking processes. Through an idea that making is thinking, and thinking is making, my work also has been investigating art/craft as an indivisible concept, as evident in three of my independent presentations in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Woodcut print installation the Unlimited Resonance of Repetition (2012), consisted of ten three meters long woodcut prints suspended from the ceiling. These large prints were created in Japanese water-based woodblock printmaking method, and explored the notion of repetition embodied in the process or carving as well as in printing. Some of the wooden matrices were installed on the floor of the gallery in juxtaposition with prints. The Presence of Absence installation (2013) consisted of carved wooden plates and wooden shaves arranged on the walls and floors of the gallery. By creating a “carpet” of wooden chips the works in this show unveiled the idea of impermanence: the wooden shaves were once the plates. In my doctoral exhibition, Mindful Repetitions (2014), I presented 14.5 meters long print that surrounded the space of the gallery. As part of this installation, the 240x480cm large print was installed on the floor of the gallery.

Irenas Website

Artist in Residence- Michelle Mayn

Artist in Residence – Michelle Mayn

Artist in Residence - Michelle May

 

Michelle Mayn is part way through a 3 month Artist in Residence program here at Wharepuke in Kerikeri NZ . Michelle is a New Zealand fibre artist using both natural and modern fibres.

  • Artist in Residence

Michelle Mayn uses traditional Maori weaving techniques often mixing materials to produce new and exciting textures and colour combinations on modern bags or highlights on more traditional kete (basketry).

 

In her latest works the subtle hues and textures of plant fibres such as tree fern, Kapok, rush and lichen are highlighted in a simple little rourou(food container) made of Harakeke/New Zealand Flax from fibres harvested here at Wharepuke. 

 

Michelle’s blog can be found at Michelle Mayn

More about our Artist Residence options here at Wharepuke Kerikeri NZ

Silvereye

Silvereye

 

  • Wax-eyes

The Silvereye or Wax-eye here in the garden at Wharepuke in Kerikeri New Zealand are very cute. It took just a few days for the mother and young chicks to start feeding from our hand. They love banana and cherimoyas. There are so many young birds around here at our Kerikeri Accommodation. We have to close the curtains in a couple of the cottages as the Kingfishers attack their own reflection in the big sliding windows!

 

Waxeye chicks Kerikeri NZ

Silvereye

NZ Woodpigeon

Happy Kereru, a native NZ Woodpigeon chowing down on the White Mulberry leaves here at Wharepuke. We have a resident pair here and another which I think is an offspring from a previous year

They are very passive and many times you might walk underneath one here at the gardens and not realise it.

My photo of the Kereru has become famous as the NZ Forest and Bird Newsletter published it when writing about the Great Kereru Count 

Kerikeri Accommodation at Wharepuke
2 very passive native Woodpigeons here in the gardens at Wharepuke near our Kerikeri Accommodation

This is a photo of my mother photographing the NZ Woodpigeon in the garden near our Cottages.

The photo she took is…….

NZ Woodpigeon

and another NZ Woodpigeon…….Kereru. Kerikeri Accommodation at Wharepuke

NZ Native Birds at Wharepuke

Following on the Birds at Wharepuke theme my mother took these beautiful photos here yesterday.

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NZ Native Birds at Wharepuke. The Fantail, Tui and Kereru are the 3 most common here

2 great photos of fantails! Anyone who has tried to take photos of fantails will know that they won’t stay still and you end up with lots of photos of blurry bits of feather disappearing off the edge. The Tui , a NZ Honeyeater,  has 2 voice boxes and produce extraordinary song. Many notes are beyond what the human ear can hear.

All photos © Jill Lancaster

 

Northland Storm in Kerikeri

Northland storm – 4 continuous days of heavy rain and strong winds here in  Kerikeri.

Click on a photos to enlarge

We got off lightly here at Wharepuke in Kerikeri Northland. A beautiful Fishtail Palm came down, a few big branches and lots of leaf litter, and the new driveway washed away but nothing compared to many who are still doing the big cleanup or waiting for the waters to recede.

A stunning sunrise as the storm passed then blue skies and sunshine.

Nature recovering.