JOANNA BRAITHWAITE

JOANNA BRAITHWAITE Hen’s Teeth

April 30th - May 25th, 2011

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street

(03) 477 7727

info@milfordhouse.co.nz

1. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Decoy (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 702 x 21 mm

2. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Touch Wood (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 700 x 21 mm

2. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Touch Wood (2011)

3. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Going South (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 602 x 700 x 21 mm

4. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Shackled (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 702 x 21 mm

4. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Shackled (2011)

5. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Beauty Trap (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 702 x 21 mm

6. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Old Timer (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 602 x 702 x 21 mm

5. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Beauty Trap (2011)

7. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Returning Point (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 602 x 700 x 21 mm

8. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Hen's Teeth (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 702 x 21 mm

8. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Hen's Teeth (2011)

9. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Charmed Life (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 703 x 21 mm

10. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Lost Time (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 702 x 21 mm

9. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Charmed Life (2011)

11. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Fight Night (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 602 x 702 x 21 mm

12. JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Bad Rap (2011) oil on canvas, stretcher (v x h x d): 600 x 700 x 21 mm

11. DETAIL VIEW JOANNA BRAITHWAITE, Fight Night (2011)

In the exhibition “Hen’s Teeth” Joanna Braithwaite presents portraits of birds and links them to human attributes and preoccupations in her characteristic anthropomorphic manner.

Her works, as always, are visual riddles. She uses paradox, contradiction, irony and the narrative power of parable to engage the viewer directly. Her paintings use the power of gaze to arrest, ask and question. A conversation begins, which is a mix of dream, political, social, religious and environmental discourse. Braithwaite invents and amends, alters and applies an essential strangeness to what’s going on. What at first might seem simple or deliberately underdone, is revealed as imbued with content beyond appearance. Complexity arises.

In “Touch Wood” a necklace hangs, rosary-like, in front of a kereru’s breast and there sits a crucifix. Is this a story of love, hope or death? All these things? In “Beauty Trap” a peacock is chained by its beauty. In “Bad Rap” a kea dolefully looks back, its neck adorned with rap jewellery and its reputation as a thief. From a penguin hangs a compass (“Going South”), an albatross is adorned with a shark’s tooth, a studded collar completes the punk-like persona of a crowned hen.

Braithwaite explores tensions between fact and fiction, between traditional portraiture and humour, between the unique and endangered and ubiquitous. Cultural dynamics, social mores and values enter each painting. A gap between a collective subconscious and daily behaviour is revealed. A paradise duck sports a bullet necklace, a pukeko a chain watch, a morepork has the heavy metal references of a skull, a dagger, a padlock and a small animal hanging down.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Decoy (2011)

4,750

2

Touch Wood (2011)

4,750

3

Going South (2011)

4,750

4

Shackled (2011)

4,750

5

Beauty Trap (2011)

4,750

6

Old Timer (2011)

4,750

7

Returning Point (2011)

4,750

8

Hen's Teeth (2011)

4,750

9

Charmed Life (2011)

4,750

10

Lost Time (2011)

4,750

11

Fight Night (2011)

4,750

12

Bad Rap (2011)

4,750

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

JOANNA BRAITHWAITE b. 1962, lives Sydney

Joanna Braithwaite juxtaposes objects, animals, humans and insects onto lavish painterly surfaces in unexpected and imaginative ways. She characteristically works in series and her immediate environment often prompts her subject matter. “Braithwaite’s work always contains figurative and realist elements but seldom without a twist which wrenches the work away from simple realism towards the surreal.” (1) "Notions of progress and evolution, of sexual and natural selection, are seldom far from the surface of Braithwaite's paintings, whether they reference science lab or dog park." (2) “Joanna Braithwaite’s fascination with the inversion of hierarchies and power structures and her preoccupation with testing the limits of what is considered human, raises wider issues of identity and authority. Her paintings prompt physical responses by means of psychological narratives, while projecting the spectator into realms where they must question the nature of their existence and their relationship with those around them. By these means her work also serves to make visible the processes by which power structures and hierarchies operate in contemporary society.” (3) She has long been concerned with the interrelationship between humans and animals. Of her recent ‘Hover’ series she states “I decided to push this idea of an imbalance between man and beast further by considering the attributes of each. What if the balance was altered, and what if one species acquired some attribute of the other? I chose to paint a series of works where the human form was completely covered in creatures that could fly.” (4) “The placement of humans and creatures in midair, ascending, floating, or falling, deliberately deprives the viewer of reference points.” (5) The 2003 ‘Wild Things’ and 2006 ‘All Sorts’ and ‘Avian Suite’ works continue the use of both the symbolic and metaphoric and Braithwaite adds explicit anthropomorphic characteristics to her creatures and animals. These animals have become performers – “a trapped consciousness” is implied. (6)

Braithwaite was born in Halifax, England in 1962 and came to New Zealand in 1965. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury in 1985 and was awarded the Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship in 1983, and the Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award in 1990. She was awarded merit prizes in the 1997 and 1998 Visa Gold Art Awards. Since 1999 she has lived and worked in Sydney and has held many solo exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia. She has work in many private and public collections in New Zealand, Australia and London including the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Brisbane Public Art Gallery and the Dunmoochin Foundation in Melbourne. In 2005, her work was the subject of a major survey exhibition under the curation of Justin Paton (Dunedin Public Art Gallery) and Felicity Milburn (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu). A survey catalogue of , ‘Wonderland – Joanna Braithwaite’ was published by Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery to accompany the survey exhibition.

1. Peter Simpson, ‘Pleasure Seeking and Surrealism’, Sunday Star Times, 19 August, 2001.

2. Gregory O'brien, 'Upwards and Onwards', Art New Zealand, Autumn, 2010 3. Lisa Beaven, ‘Taking Flight: The Airborne and Hybrid Images of Joanna Braithwaite’ Art New Zealand 102, Spring 2002.

4. Joanna Braithwaite quoted in Beaven, ibid 5. Beaven, ibid 6. Bridie Lonie, ‘The island of Dr Braithwaite’, NZ Listener, 23 April, 2005.

Joanna Braithwaite 2011 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

JOANNA BRAITHWAITE b. 1962, lives Sydney EDUCATION 1984 1999-2000

BFA, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts, New Zealand MFA at College of Fine Arts, Sydney

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 2010 2008 2007

2006 2005 2005 2004 2003 2003 2002 2001

2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1986 1984

Hen’s Teeth, Milford Galleries Dunedin Walk My Way, Bowen Galleries, Wellington Born To Be Free, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Sealegs, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Animalia, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney, Australia Animalia, La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo, Australia Paintings 1995 – 2006, milford galleries auckland All Sorts, milford galleries auckland Selected Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Relative Moments, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Wonderland, touring exhibition; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery Little Wonder, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Wild Things, milford galleries auckland Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Paintings 2002, Bowen Galleries, Wellington Hover, milford galleries auckland Menagerie Series, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Spaces, milford galleries auckland Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Paintings, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Phenomena, Milford Galleries Dunedin Vicarious Relations, Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney Nature of Beings, Brooker Gallery, Wellington Ways of Being, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Darren Knight DKW, Melbourne Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Brooker Gallery, Wellington Off Shore, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Darren Knight DKW, Melbourne Brooker Gallery, Wellington New Paintings, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Paintings, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Paintings, Brooker Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Paintings and Drawings, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Paintings, Brooker Gallery, Wellington Beasts and Birds, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Twelve Paintings, Six Drawings and Five Collages, C.S.A. Gallery Christchurch

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009 2008

Darren Knight Gallery at Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, New Zealand Wish you were here, Tweed River Art Gallery, New South Wales, Australia The Year of the bird, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South Wales, Australia Who let the dogs out - the dog in contemporary Australian art, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery and Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, New South Wales, Australia

Joanna Braithwaite 2011 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

2007 2006

2005

2004 2003-04 2003

2002 2001 2000

1999 1998

1997

1996 1994

1993 1992

1991 1989 1988

1987 1986 1985

Devils in Paradise, Bett Galley, Hobart Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Braithwaite, Ellis and Harris, milford galleries auckland Object, Milford Galleries Duedin Portia Geach Memorial Award, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia Postcards from the Desert – Six artists on the Larapinta Trail, Damian Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia Portia Geach Memorial Award, S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, Australia Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Chosen, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Menagerie: Animals in Art, Northart Community Arts Centre, Northcote, Auckland Spiders & Flies, newcontempories, Sydney, Australia Home Sweet Home: Works from the Peter Fay Collection, touring National Gallery of Australia, Norsewear Art Awards, Guest Artist, Hastings, New Zealand Overview: Notions of the Figurative, Milford Galleries Dunedin, New Zealand The Cloak - milford galleries auckland Leaping Boundaries, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia PCL Exhibitionists, Sydney, Australia Canterbury Painting in the 1990’s, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Paintings, Bowen Galleries, Wellington, New Zealand Paintings, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, New Zealand Selected Works, Milford Galleries, New Zealand Group Show, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Bulge, Brian Queenin Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand Visa Gold Art Award, touring exhibition, New Zealand The Subject of Object, Milford House, Dunedin, New Zealand Christmas Show, Gow Langsford, Auckland, New Zealand Christmas Show, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Group Exhibition, Milford House, Dunedin, New Zealand Artists Eye IV, curated by Noel McKenna, Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney, New Zealand Ronnie, Barney, Shane, Jo and Mike, Darren Knight DKW, Melbourne, Australia Small Works, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand White Camelias, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Triplicate, Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand Prospect Canterbury, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Bermondsey Artist Summer Exhibition, London, England Vanities, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Festival Exhibition, Brooker Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand Brooke Gifford Gallery, New Zealand Here and Now – twelve Young Canterbury Artists, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand The Painted Zoo, Shed 11, Wellington, New Zealand Thirty Canterbury Artists, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Architecture Show, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru, New Zealand Women’s Exhibition, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Christmas Show, CSA Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand Christmas Show, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand

AWARDS 2001 1999 1998 1997 1991

Roche Prize, PCL Exhibitions, Sydney Australia Art Excellence Award, Christchurch Community Trust, New Zealand Merit, Visa Art Award, New Zealand Merit, Visa Art Award, New Zealand Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award, New Zealand

Joanna Braithwaite 2011 CV P a g e |3

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1990 1987 1985 1983 1983

Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award, New Zealand Major Project Grant, QE II Arts Council, New Zealand New Artists Promotion Grant, QE II Arts Council, New Zealand Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Sawtell Turner Painting Prize, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

COLLECTIONS Aignantighe Art Gallery, Timaru Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch Fletcher Challenge Collection, Auckland Lincoln University, Canterbury College House Collection, Christchurch James Wallace Collection, Auckland Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch Brisbane Public Art Gallery, Australia Dunmoochin Foundation, Melbourne University of Canterbury Library Collection, Christchurch

BIBLIOGRAPHY Agnew, Margaret, Brush with Oz, The Press, May 29, 2002 Amery, Mark, Disturbing calendar images, The Evening Post, 4 September 1997 Award puts gloss on artist’s career, Christchurch Star, 20 October 1989 Awards on show, The Press, 28 August 1998 Banbury, Grant, Joanna Braithwaite: interview with Grant Banbury, Takahe 33, Christchurch, August 1998 Barr, G, Intelligent offerings at art gallery, Christchurch Star, 27 July 2005 Barry, Clare, The Press, 31 October 1990 Beaven, Lisa, Taking Flight: The Airborne and Hybrid Images of Joanna Braithwaite, Art New Zealand, Issue Number 102, Spring 2002 Blundell, S. Arts Section front page, The Press, 20 July 2005.

Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings, Godwit Publishing Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand, 1995 Burgess, Malcolm, Running Wild Across Gene Pools, New Zealand Herald, 12 November 2003 Dunbar, Anna, Art that soars, The Press, 8 December 1999 Frazer, Neil, An Uncomfortable Empathy, Takahe 33, Christchurch, New Zealand, August 1998 Fortescue, E. Joanna Braithwaite, Artist Profile, Issue 9. 2009 Hart, Deborah Home Sweet Home: an artist-collector’s passion, Home Sweet Home: Works from thePeter Fay collection, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia Hawley, J. Welcome to my world, Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend p. 30 Hay, Jennifer, The Collections: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch, 2003 Hurrell, John Braithwaite paintings, The Press, 12 March 1996 Jackson, Penelope and Strongman, Lara, White Camellias: a century of Womens Art Making, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 1993 Levine, Brett, (Re)Visioning the Real, Lopdell House Gallery, Auckland 1998 Lonie, B. The island of Dr Braithwaite, New Zealand Listener, 23-29 April, 2005 Lorimer, Wayne Beyond Realism, The Press, 29 July 1998 Low, Lenny Ann, Wonderworld, Sydney Morning Herald, 10-11 May 2003 Critic's Picks, Sydney Morning Herald, 9-15 May, 2003 Lowe, Robert, What Kiwi Artists Saw in Australia, The Daily News, 18 June 2001 Milburn, F. and Pepperle, S. Wonderland – The beastly world of Joanna Braithwaite, Bulletin, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Runa O Waiwhetu, Winter June-August 2005 McDonald, J. Daydreams who bite back, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3-4 December 2005 McDonald, J. Reflections of us, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 22-23, 2005 McHugh, Michael, Opposites Attract, FQ Entertaining, Winter 1998 McNamara, T.J. Ritchie Enlivens Week of Basics, New Zealand Herald, 17 August 1989

Joanna Braithwaite 2011 CV P a g e |4

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Curious Imagery Creates Odd Puzzles, The Press, 12 November 2003 Moore, C. Visual Arts, The Press, 23 July 2005 O’Brien, G. Joanna Braithwaite’s “Wonderland” , Australian Art Review, September 2005.

O’Brien, G “Upwards and Onwards”, Art New Zealand, Autumn 2010, #133, p 24 – 27 Paton, Justin, Joanna Braithwaite, The Press, 18 November 1992 Paton, Justin, Magic realism at sea, The Press, 7 June 1995 Pauli, Dorothee, Bizarre whimsies, The Press, 12 September 2001 Rewi, Adrienne ‘Painter’s Ways of Being’, The Press, 9 July 1997 Simpson, Peter, Pleasure seeking and surrealism, Sunday Star-Times, 26 August 2001 Slade, Colin, Art for more than just art’s sake, The Press, 5 May 1997 3rd Major Survey: Modern Art in New Zealand, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, 1997 Taylor, Rob, Smith’s Half-painting in Fresco Style, The Dominion, 5 December 1990 Timms, P. Artnotes, Art Monthly Australia, September 2007 #203 p.50 Ussher, Robyn, Free and flighty, The Press, 8 December 1999 Commanding Impasto Links Humans, Animals, The Press, 9 July 1997 Unger, Pat, Paintings, Drawings, The Press, 26 October 1988 Group Show, The Press Exhibitions: Christchurch, Art New Zealand 59, Winter 1991 Exhibitions: Christchurch, Art New Zealand 65, Summer 1992 Were, Virginia, A Second Noah’s Ark, Art New New Zealand, Summer 2004 Weston, Tom, Passion and Responsibility: The Paintings of Joanna Braithwaite, Art New Zealand 56, 1989 The Ambiguous Companion, Hazard Press, 1996 (with illustrations by Joanna Braithwaite) Naming the Mind Like Trees, (paintings by Joanna Braithwaite), Steele Roberts Ltd. Wellington, New Zealand 2004 Wood, Andrew Paul, Unnatural history, New Zealand Listener, 16-22 October 2004, pp.42-3

Beauty Trap (2011)

Joanna Braithwaite 2011 CV P a g e |5

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz