Arts+Culture

First Thursdays August – Join Queenstown’s favourite late night art crawl

For close to two years First Thursdays Queenstown has brought a monthly free and family-friendly event celebrating the diversity of arts and culture to Queenstown. We’ve created new art lovers, brought lots of great artists to town, collaborated with local organisations, and had a lot of fun. After the 3rd of August, First Thursdays will become a quarterly event roughly aligned with the seasons and we look forward to welcoming you back in November.

August’s offering includes two new solo shows at Milford Galleries. Painter Amanda Gruenwald’s large canvases are rich in colour with a visceral solidity, in part informed by her making process. Pouring initial shapes onto a flat canvas the artist creates shapes that form the basis for her intuitive process of repeated addition and removal of paint.

Also opening at Milford is sculptor Hannah Kidd who creates lifesized animals formed from the most rustic of metal materials –thick steel wire and flattened corrugated iron – that simultaneously lovingly acknowledge and subvert concepts and forms of Kiwiana. Join Hannah at 5.30pm at Milford Galleries for an artist talk about this new exhibition.

Starkwhite Queenstown continues its exhibition Surface Tension featuring the work of high-profile Australian painters Sally Gabori, Michael Zavros, and Jonny Niesche alongside leading NZ and international artists. New to the gallery are works by Australian painter Paul Davies. Davies’ Mid-Century aesthetic joins an exhibition that explores the medium of painting in an expanded sense, including several works also trouble the traditional understanding of painting. Paul Davies will be speaking about his practice at 6.30pm at Starkwhite during First Thursdays.

Artbay is showing work by artists Michael Moore and Ilya Volykhine. Moore continuously draws on the land for his practice, painting its trees and forms across works on canvas and board. “I am passionately connected to the New Zealand landscape and my life as a painter allows me to continually express its effect upon me,” he says. Figurative artist Ilya Volykhine creates works that are darkly comic, the characters within his paintings battling their way through the anxieties and joy of life. The artist’s intuitive process, alongside a willingness and confidence to allow the story to unfold creates a space for his characters to breathe and take on a life yet unexplored.

Lightworx offers work by Max Patté and Tim Christie. Patté’s light sculptures explore the qualities of liminal spaces between light and colour. The artist intends his work to be “pivotal in uplifting your mood, your feelings and the space in which it is hung.” Tim Christie’s desire to explore light as a medium was a natural progression from earlier digital works and paintings. He draws upon high contrast in his work, using an oscillating effect of black and white lines in close proximity to create a rhythm, energy, and a vibrational quality. Head to Romer Gallery for large format landscape photographs by Stephan Romer that capture wild places and remote locations. Stephan recently took home several wins at the 2023 London Photography Awards, a competition recognising photographers across a range of categories. His work Maniototo, won Platinum in both the Natural Art and Long Exposure categories and is currently on display at Romer Gallery to admire in-person.

Please join us for the last monthly First Thursdays on the 3rd of August. Bringing together Starkwhite, Milford Galleries, Romer, Artbay, and Lightworx, First Thursdays Queenstown connects people with creativity. Based around Earl Street and Marine Parade, six spaces offer exhibitions, talks, and opportunities to engage with the creative community during a special late-night opening. Thanks to Akarua, join us for a glass of some of this region’s finest wine as you take in the exhibitions. Maps are available at participating galleries and on the First Thursdays Queenstown instagram –@firstthursdaysqt – and facebook page.

First Thursdays Queenstown from 5–7pm on Thursday 3 August

Artist Talks:

5.30pm – Hannah Kidd at Milford Galleries, 9a Earl Street

6.30pm – Paul Davies at Starkwhite Queenstown, 1 – 7 Earl Street

New art initiative in town

By Jess Allen

Taste of Art, or TART, is a new group of artists that seek to innovate the cultural field in Queenstown. Their aim is to create new events that don’t currently exist in the local art scene and to connect with the community through their artistic activities in public and inclusive spaces.

Since forming, the group have hit the ground running and have already hosted one workshop, with more planned as well as a street performance. Community is at the heart of what they do –group members come from all over the world and their upcoming performance will revolve around the deep and often overlooked of experience and loneliness among immigrants.

Lucas Rodriguez is one of the founding group members and shares that the group emerged as a response to the need for new cultural spaces that are currently lacking in Queenstown. Their idea is not necessarily to make a big group, but a strong group.

“It started two years ago as a group of immigrants from everywhere – we ran it in houses, living rooms and gardens, and we made a small exhibition, which was mostly paintings and music paired together,” says Lucas. “Then it started to grow and there was 70 – 80 people inside and we started thinking ‘this is getting too big, now we can make something more serious, how do we take the next steps?’ So we created this group and called it TART – Taste of Art.”

As it started to grow the group started to integrate all different forms of art and now includes dancers, musicians, painters, poets, writers,

Arts+Culture News

The positive impact of local events has been recognised through the latest local council grants. Councillors have approved QLDCs latest events funding at the end of June. A total of $492,835 will go towards attracting and supporting sports, arts, cultural and community events in the district. QLDC’s Event Funding Panel have approved funding for a number of events including Challenge Wanaka, LUMA Southern Lights Project, Arrowton Autumn Festival, Wanaka A&P Show, Winter Pride and Queenstown Multicultural Festival. Councillor Craig Ferguson, chair of the panel said it was fantastic to see the sector regrowing. “These events lift our local economy, entertain and enlighten, and have a positive impact on our community’s wellbeing — whether it’s via residents enjoying what’s on offer or taking part as a volunteer.” and more. Moving forward they hope to continue to put on workshops, put on exhibitions and create street performances.

“My goal with the workshops is to show everyone that they can paint. I make it as easy as possible and a lot of fun. I also want to create some workshops with different types of painting exercises – so you wouldn’t come and just paint a mountain, but I would ask people what they have in their mind and what they want to paint, and we can see how we can create it. Also, if we make an ugly scene, we can have fun anyway. I want to try and make it a fresh, open space – not like academic art.”

They’re working on an upcoming street performance called Loneliness, which will be the first major event for the group. It will include a range of different performers, encompassing sound and visual artistic expressions. It’s aim is to connect artists, art enthusiasts, and even those who have had limited exposure to their art forms, allowing everyone to actively participate in the performance of unique artistic identity.

“I love Queenstown and I really want to give the community something else and not just keep this for my friends and myself. It’s super important.”

Lucas also wanted to thank all the sponsors that have helped to bring TART to life, “Te Hautoka and Creative Communities. Also, mentors like Silvia Dancose from QLDC and Eric Lim from Multicultural Festival and Tāhuna Kollektif, who help us and accompany us in every step we take.”

Keep your eyes peeled for TARTs first exhibition. The group is continuing to grow and always welcoming new members. You can find them by searching Taste of Art on Facebook, and get in touch if you’d like to get involved.