NIGEL BROWN

NIGEL BROWN Mitre

25th June - 20th July 2011

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

1. NIGEL BROWN, Mitre Milford (2010) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1291 x 916 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 935 x 605 mm

1. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Mitre Milford (2010)

2. NIGEL BROWN, Peak Demand (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1222 x 912 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 863 x 605 mm

2. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Peak Demand (2011)

3. NIGEL BROWN, Global Positioning (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1211 x 907 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 855 x 585 mm

3. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Global Positioning (2011)

4. NIGEL BROWN, Tourist Earth (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1211 x 896 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 855 x 580 mm

4. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Tourist Earth (2011)

5. NIGEL BROWN, Might Collapse and Jittery (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1211 x 908 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 853 x 595 mm

5. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Might Collapse and Jittery (2011)

6. NIGEL BROWN, Sebastian Aotearoa (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1211 x 907 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 850 x 585 mm

6. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Sebastian Aotearoa (2011)

7. NIGEL BROWN, Thinking Saint Sebastian (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1237 x 907 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 588 x 870 mm

7. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Thinking Saint Sebastian (2011)

8. NIGEL BROWN, Save Our Water (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1297 x 967 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 940 x 655 mm

8. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Save Our Water (2011)

9. NIGEL BROWN, Great Balls of Fire (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1203 x 913 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 845 x 595 mm

9. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Great Balls of Fire (2011)

10. NIGEL BROWN, Long Term Nurture (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1227 x 903 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 883 x 590 mm

10. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Long Term Nurture (2011)

11. NIGEL BROWN, Black Singlet Milford (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1207 x 907 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 850 x 585 mm

11. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Black Singlet Milford (2011)

12. NIGEL BROWN, The Music (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1257 x 893 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 900 x 576 mm

12. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, The Music (2011)

13. NIGEL BROWN, Deeper Vision (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1242 x 912 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 875 x 597 mm

13. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Deeper Vision (2011)

14. NIGEL BROWN, Risk (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1243 x 929 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 855 x 595 mm

14. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Risk (2011)

15. NIGEL BROWN, My Film My Script (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1237 x 912 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 875 x 593 mm

15. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, My Film My Script (2011)

16. NIGEL BROWN, Do We Concentrate on Anything Now? (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1227 x 906 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 870 x 587 mm

16. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Do We Concentrate on Anything Now? (2011)

17. NIGEL BROWN, Art Worry No! (2011) acrylic on paper, frame (v x h x d): 1211 x 891 x 60 mm, painted image (v x h): 855 x 580 mm

17. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Art Worry No! (2011)

18. NIGEL BROWN, Song for a Different World (2011) acrylic on board, frame (v x h x d): 851 x 651 x 63 mm

18. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Song for a Different World (2011)

19. NIGEL BROWN, How Do We Remember? (2011), acrylic on board, frame (v x h x d): 851 x 652 x 63 mm

19. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, How Do We Remember? (2011)

20. NIGEL BROWN, A Few Hundred Years (2011) o

oil on board, frame (v x h x d): 900 x 1305 x 45 mm

21. NIGEL BROWN, Jupiter's Moons (2011) oil on

n canvas, frame (v x h x d): 860 x 1620 x 45 mm

22. NIGEL BROWN, Naked in Fiordland (2011) oil on canvas, frame (v x h x d): 605 x 861 x 35 mm

23. NIGEL BROWN, Humpbacks at Eua, Tonga (2010)

oil on board, frame (v x h x d): 900 x 1318 x 45 mm

22. DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Naked in Fiordland (2011)

24. NIGEL BROWN, Ocean Deep: The Humpbacks (201

010) oil on board, frame (v x h x d): 898 x 1320 x 45 mm

25. NIGEL BROWN, Kermadec (2011) triptych; acryli

ic on canvas, frame (v x h x d): 1010 x 1927 x 47 mm

Nigel Brown is a painter of ideas. He has an acutely developed idiomatic ‘ear’ for the nuances of words and phrases, understanding that everyday use embodies the cultural and social dynamics of its time.

In “Mitre” Brown turns to Mitre Peak and addresses it as a touch-stone and as if it is a wailing-wall. At the same time, he uses it as a pluralistic and metaphoric symbol of human endeavour, intellectual thought and layered history. Around it, he circles words, using these like incantations and worry-beads. In layering down these ribbons of thought he encapsulates various resonant political and social dialogues which have immediacy and currency in our time. He subjects one of NZ’s tourism clichés and most enduring landscape symbols to the “tangents of subversive questioning” and the “colliding forces … of pathos, irony and humour and endless possibilities.”(1) In his characteristic way, Brown presents the wilderness landscape as inhabited - by people and memory, by expectation and demand, by self-interest and philosophical positioning, by tourism and the currency of financial imperialism.

A stylistic trend of heightened colour expressively used continues in “Mitre” and reaches a fuller flowering in the paintings such as “Jupiter’s Moons,” “Naked in Fiordland,” “Ocean Deep: The Humpbacks” and the John Buchanan influenced “A Few Hundred Years” where Brown openly pays homage to one of the first significant works of NZ art.

“Great Balls of Fire” (and “Jupiter’s Moons”) openly references a 1958 diagram of ‘planetary bodies compared with a portion of the sun’(2) and images of a solar flare.

These elements are used as stylistic and incremental motifs, varying scale and visual roles as demanded by the pictorial and narrative weighting, and in this way uniting the discursive narrative strands from one work to another.

This exhibition also emphasises the crucially innovative role works on paper has in Brown’s oeuvre and that it drives his practice forward. In “My Film My Script” and “Do We Concentrate On Anything Now?” the encircling text occupies the foreground, enclosing Mitre Peak in an accelerating rhythm of expressionistic outlines. Brown’s allusive use of dramatic devices such as curtaining and elements of the stage enable the works to traverse political issues (eg. “Peak Demand” or “Global Positioning”), humanist conundrums (eg “Risk” or “Deeper Vision”) and then to seamlessly link Aotearoa, James K. Baxter and Saint Sebastian (full of arrows at Ruatahuna) with Cezanne and the financial system (“Might Collapse and Jittery”).

This subversive narrative brooks no fools and exempts none, including the art world the artist inhabits.

1. Nigel Brown, Artist Statement April 2011 2. Raymond C. Moore, Introduction to Historical Geology, McGraw-Hill, 1958

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

Mitre Milford (2010)

6,750

2

Peak Demand (2011)

6,750

3

Global Positioning (2011)

6,750

4

Tourist Earth (2011)

6,750

5

Might Collapse and Jittery (2011)

6,750

6

Sebastian Aotearoa (2011)

6,750

7

Thinking Saint Sebastian (2011)

6,750

8

Save Our Water (2011)

6,750

9

Great Balls of Fire (2011)

6,750

10

Long Term Nurture (2011)

6,750

11

Black Singlet Milford (2011)

6,750

12

The Music (2011)

6,750

13

Deeper Vision (2011)

6,750

14

Risk (2011)

6,750

15

My Film My Script (2011)

6,750

16

Do We Concentrate on Anything Now? (2011)

6,750

17

Art Worry No! (2011)

6,750

18

Song for a Different World (2011)

9,500

19

How Do We Remember? (2011)

9,500

20

A Few Hundred Years (2011)

17,500

21

Jupiter's Moons (2011)

19,000

22

Naked in Fiordland (2011)

23

Humpbacks at Eua, Tonga (2010)

17,500

24

Ocean Deep: The Humpbacks (2010)

17,500

25

Kermadec (2011)

21,500

8,500

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

NIGEL BROWN b. 1949, lives Southland

All Our Days (2007-08)

Nigel Brown has established a reputation as one the most important figurative artists working in New Zealand and is acknowledged as New Zealand’s leading narrative artist. His distinctive works are a blend of symbolic and expressionistic approaches with a deep social concern.

Brown actively uses story telling precepts within the ‘confines’ of the image. He directly and selectively employs history, literature, politics, etc. as devices and in so doing examines the varied plights of the individual and environment with an emotional, intuitive sympathy which is accurate, incisive and clothed in a vernacular of the human condition.

His work expresses fundamental spiritual and humanistic concerns common to mankind.

These are infused with the particularity of cultural location and reference, the specific of place and event, the dynamism of individual character and personality with the narrative (artist as author) point of view.

A potent myth-maker, Brown articulates the conscience of a country reinterpreting and revisiting its past. He translates this and expresses its (discordant) present with the expectation of better things to come.

Born in Invercargill, New Zealand in 1949, Nigel Brown (ONZM) gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Arts, University of Auckland in 1971 and began his full time artist career in 1972. Since then he has exhibited extensively in public and private galleries throughout New Zealand and has had several touring exhibitions including in 2000-2001 ‘Points Along the Way’ (a survey). After many years living in suburban Auckland, he moved to a coastal property in rural Southland in 2000. He has received numerous awards, commissions and residencies and is represented in most New Zealand public collections and many private collections. Brown was awarded the Order of NZ Merit for Services to painting and printmaking in 2004 and in 2005 was awarded a three week residency in Russia hosted by NZ’s ambassador in Moscow, Stuart Prior.

In addition to his painting, Brown is also a printmaker and he has undertaken two significant stained glass window designs – St Mary’s Catholic Church, Auckland (1991) and Auckland Cathedral, Parnell (1998). Most recently Brown completed ‘Seven Last Words’ (2009) a suite of lithographs commissioned by Chamber Music NZ in association with String Quartet in honour of the 200th anniversary of Haydn's death.

Nigel Brown 2011 CV P a g e |1

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

NIGEL BROWN b. 1949, lives Southland EDUCATION 1968-71

Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (BFA) (Tutors include McCahon and Ellis)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 2010

2009

2008

2007 2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999 1998 1996 1993

1988

Mitre, Milford Galleries Dunedin Short Lives of Birds, whitespace, Wellington Short Lives of Birds, whitespace, Auckland New Lemon Tree, Williams Gallery, Petone The Written Word: Works from the Artist, Wallace and Museum Collections, Tairawhiti Museum and Art Gallery, Gisborne Selected Works, milford galleries queenstown All Our Days, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Haydn Lithos, Touring Papergraphica Exhibition, Launching at Futuna Chapel, Karori, Wellington Art of Reading, Williams Gallery, Petone Conversations, milford galleries queenstown Lamp, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Antarctic Visions, Williams Gallery, Petone Gold Miner, Milford Galleries Dunedin Will To Meaning, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Worded Image, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Southern Odyssey Project Commission: Painting for Railway, Mossburn Hotel Iconic Way, milford galleries queenstown Personage, Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore Yeah, Human, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Allegories, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington A Russian Journey, Lithographs, Muka, Auckland Russian Works, New Zealand Embassy, Moscow, Russia I Am IV, CoCA, Christchurch Human Condition, Tinakori Galley, Wellington Dance of the Origin, Milford Galleries Dunedin Points Along The Way, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru I Am III, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Deco Echo, Statements Gallery, Napier Points Along the Way, Ashburton Art Gallery; Forester Gallery, Oamaru I Am II, Tinakori Galley, Wellington This Human Place, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Points Along the Way, Pataka Porirua Museum of Arts and Culture; Fisher Gallery, Auckland; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui I Am, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Points Along The Way, touring show by Milford Galleries Dunedin; Suter Gallery Nelson Hard Pressed, Portfolio Gallery, Auckland Road Works, Statements Gallery, Napier Encounter and Discovery: Pacifica, Rotorua Museum of Art and History Antarctica, touring show Government House, Wellington & Auckland, Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum Pacifica V Southland, Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill Living Here Aotearoa, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch Living Here Aotearoa, A Survey, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North 1984 and After, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North

Nigel Brown 2011 CV P a g e |2

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

Delights, Medallion Artists New Zealand, Remuera Gallery, Auckland My City, Whitespace, Auckland 58th Peace Art Exhibition, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse #1 (Yokohama New Port), Japan Medallion Show, Remuera Gallery, Auckland Masterworks, milford galleries queenstown 57th Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Ueno, Japan Garden of Delights, New Zealand Medallion Group, Auckland Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre Artists to Save Our Water, Chamber Gallery, Rangiora Taste, Auckland Art Gallery The Captain, Tauranga Art Gallery Nine Artists in Fiordland, St Paul’ Cathedral (Caselburg Trust) Dunedin Eden Arts Sketchbook Project: For Artists in Eden Day Select, Old School Puke Ariki, New Plymouth 56th Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Veno Japan Sinfonia Antarctica, The New Dowse, Lower Hutt Te Kauri, Zealandia, Warkworth (2008-2009) Guest Artist (With B. Brickell) NZ Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington Artists to Save our Water, NG Gallery, Christchurch Showcasing Southland Artists, Southland Museum and Art Gallery Adornment, Medallion Group, Waiheke 55th Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Veno Japan Art for Conversation, Michael Fowler Centre / Government House, Wellington The Printmakers, Catchment Gallery, Nelson The Shock of the New, CoCA, Christchurch Ten Renowned Artists, Remb=uera Gallery, Auckland Driving Creek collaborative ceramic sculpture with Barry Brickell The VAANA Fragments, Outreach, Auckland VAANA Mural, Digitised Version, Karangahape Road, Auckland Editions, Catchment Gallery, Nelson Masterstrokes, Gallery 33, Wanaka Inview: Works from VVA Art Collection, Curated by Adam Art Gallery, Wellington Everyday Moments, (with Cathy Helps), CoCA, Christchurch The Hocken Collections in Auckland, Portraits of Artists, University of Otago House A Celebration of the Life of Lyndsay Crooks, Dunedin Community Gallery In From the Cold, Christchurch Public Art Gallery 45˚ Below, An Antarctic Summer, Forrester Gallery, Oamaru 53rd Peace Art Exhibition, Ueno, Tokyo, Japan Medallion Group Exhibition, Catchment Gallery, Nelson McCahon’s Legacy, Ferner Gallery, Wellington Transit of Venus, milford galleries queenstown Three Notable Printmakers, Willams Gallery, Petone A Comparison of Scale, The New Zealand Medallion Group, Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford Pacific Rim, Contemporary New Zealand Medallic Sculpture, Medalia, Rack and Hamper Gallery, New York Fidem XXIX 2004, Seixal, Portugal 52 Anniversary Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Uneo, Japan The Sublime Metaphor, New Zealand House, Haymarket, London; City University of New York (CVNY) Oxford University Museum; Leedy-Volkous Art Centre Gallery, Kansas City Ranges of Inspration, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Waitakere City Art in the Woolshed, Tawharanui 51st Anniversary Peace Art Exhibiton, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno, Japan Connectedness, Hawkes Bay Museum

Nigel Brown 2011 CV P a g e |3

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

2002

2001

2000

1996 1994 1987 1985

Barking Mad, The Suter, Nelson On Location, Te Papa Touring Exhibition, Included Southland Museum The Wind in the Fences, Dunedin Public Art Gallery Overview, AS IS, Landscape and Metaphor, Milford Galleries Dunedin Artists Against Aqua, Forrester Gallery, Oamaru Annual Spring Exhibition, Anderson House, Invercargill Pacific Rim, Simons Gallery , London, England Southern Exposure, Artists Residence, Cosy Nook 50th Anniversary Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Uneo, Japan Pacific Rim, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch Spiritual Art, Auckland Cranleigh Barton Drawing Awards, McDougall Gallery, Christchurch (Finalist 2001) Pacific Rim, Cliff McPherson Gallery, Christchurch Millennium Medallions, Auckland Museum 49th Anniversary Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno, Japan Sheep, CoCA, Christchurch The Artists Chair, Milford Galleries Auckland Millennium Medallions, Wellington City Art Gallery Annual Spring Exhibition, Anderson House, Invercargill Text and Image, Lopdell House, Auckland XXVII Fidem 2000 Internationalle Medaillenkunst, Berlin Weimar 48th Anniversary Peace Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno, Japan Murals for Auckland Town Hall Restoration Project and Green Peace.

Visiting Artist, Hawkes Bay Polytechnic 1987 Print Series, City Gallery, Wellington Living in the Bomb Age, Dunedin Public Art Gallery

AWARDS & COMMISSIONS 2009

2007 2006 2005 2004 1998

1995 1993 1991 1986 1981 1978

“The Haydn Lithos”, Printed Papergraphica, Christchurch. Commissioned by Chamber Music NZ in association with NZ String Quartet (performance) and Sara Brodie (video included in the performance). Performance touring New Zealand, 2009 Cover for Courses and Careers, Cervin Publishing Work for Railway Hotel, Mossburn, Southern Odessey Trail Awarded a three week residency in Russia hosted by NZ’s ambassador in Moscow, Stuart Prior, and partially funded by private contributors in NZ ONZM for services to Painting and Print Making Inaugural member Artists to Antarctica Stained glass window commission Auckland Anglican Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland Southern Odyssey Project Commission: Painting for Railway, Mossburn Hotel Finalist Visa Gold Artist in Residence, Wanganui Regional Polytechnic Stained glass window commission St Mary’s Catholic Church, Auckland Awarded QEII Arts Council Grant Awarded QEII Arts Council Grant for travel to USA, UK & Europe Awarded QEII Arts Council Grant

COLLECTIONS Hocken Library Dunedin Alexander Turnbull Library Auckland Art Gallery Sarjeant Gallery Robert McDougall Art gallery Te Papa Tongarewa Manawatu Art gallery Dowse Art Museum Waikato Museum of Art & History Lincoln College

Nigel Brown 2011 CV P a g e |4

University of Auckland University of Otago Chartwell Trust Collection Aigantighe Art gallery Creative NZ University of Canterbury Porirua Court Massey University University of Waikato Gisborne Museum & Arts Centre

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

The Rutherford Collection Anderson Park Art Gallery Christchurch City Council Ministry Of External Relations and Trade The Suter Hawkes Bay Polytechnic

Simpson Grierson Eastern Southland Gallery Canterbury Museum Fletcher Challenge Petroleum Natural Gas Corporation PricewaterhouseCoopers Westpac Trust Buddle Findlay NZ Insurance Tower Corporation AMP Millennium Hotels Tauranga Art Gallery

ANZ Bank BNZ Fletcher Challenge Bank of NZ Bromhead Design Centra Hotel Russell McVeagh

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2011 2010

2009

2008

2007

2004 1991

Wolfe, Richard and Stephen Robinson, Artists At Work, Penguin Books, London, England Ed. Paul Millar, James K Bazter, Selected Poems, Fyfield Books, Carcanet Press Ltd Manchester and Auckland University Press, Auckland (work on the cover) ‘Living Icons’, Jam Radio, Depot Artspace, Devonport, Auckland. Denys Trussell Interviews Artist.

Wolfe, Richard and Stephen Robinson, Artists @ Work, Penguin ‘North South’, Handwritten and Illustrated by Artist. Poem by Glenn Colquhoun. Steele Roberts. CNZ Funded.

‘The Christian Symbolism of Nigel Brown’, Alastair Lane, Stimulus, Vol 17, Issue 1, February 2009 The Brown Years, exhibition catalogue, Tauranga Art Gallery. (Catalogue essay by Penny Jackson) Gifford, Adam, ‘Shadows of McCahon and More’, Herald, October 11, 2008 Orton, Mark, Nine Artists in Fiordland, A DVD of Break Sea Girl Trip Kim Hill Interview, Radio NZ, 19 April 2008 The Real Art Show (Promotional pack for touring show) ‘Talk Talk’, Finlay McDonald, Free Air, Recorded June 2008 Johnstone, Christopher, The Painted Garden in NZ Art, Random House NZ, 2008 Wolfe, Richard, NZ Portraits, , Penguin, 2008 Trussell, Dennis, The Expressive Forest, Brick Row Publishing, Auckland, 2008 K.M., Bravado (Cover), Issue 14, 2008, (Included Katherine Mansfield Conference Paper by P. Jackson, London) ‘Te Ara’, the Encyclopaedia of NZ, Online, Ministry of Culture and Heritage Fallow, Michael, ‘Vulnerable Stuff’, Southland Times, 2007 Eyley, C.P., No Nukes is Good Nukes, CD, 2007 Clairmont, Sunday Programme, 4/11/2007, TV1 Footage and interview Will To Meaning, Catalogue 2007, W.H. Gallery, Auckland. (Note by B. Brickell) Dance of the Origin, DVD material (unedited) of Milford Galleries Dunedin exhibition, 2004, (TV1 coverage, rehearsal, paintings) O’Brien, Gregory, Nigel Brown, Random Century

Nigel Brown 2011 CV P a g e |5

Milford

Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz