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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
board, frame (v x h x d): 900 x 1305 x 45 mm
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
DETAIL VIEW NIGEL BROWN, Naked in Fiordland (2011)
board, frame (v x h x d): 898 x 1320 x 45 mm
NIGEL BROWN, Kermadec (2011) triptych; acrylic
acrylic 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
NIGEL BROWN
b. 1949, lives Southland
Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (BFA) (Tutors include McCahon and Ellis)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Mitre, Milford Galleries Dunedin
Short Lives of Birds, whitespace, Wellington
2010 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
2009 All Our Days, Milford Galleries Dunedin
The Haydn Lithos, Touring Papergraphica Exhibition, Launching at Futuna Chapel, Karori, Wellington
Art of Reading, Williams Gallery, Petone
2008 Conversations, milford galleries queenstown
Lamp, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland
Antarctic Visions, Williams Gallery, Petone
2007 Gold Miner, Milford Galleries Dunedin
Will To Meaning, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland
2006 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
2005 Yeah, Human, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland
Allegories, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington
A Russian Journey, Lithographs, Muka, Auckland
Russian Works, New Zealand Embassy, Moscow, Russia
2004 I Am IV, CoCA, Christchurch
Human Condition, Tinakori Galley, Wellington
Dance of the Origin, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2003 Points Along The Way, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru
I Am III, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland Deco Echo, Statements Gallery, Napier
2002 Points Along the Way, Ashburton Art Gallery; Forester Gallery, Oamaru
I Am II, Tinakori Galley, Wellington
This Human Place, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland
2001 Points Along the Way, Pataka Porirua Museum of Arts and Culture; Fisher Gallery, Auckland; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui
I Am, Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland
2000 Points Along The Way, touring show by Milford Galleries Dunedin; Suter Gallery Nelson Hard Pressed, Portfolio Gallery, Auckland
Road Works, Statements Gallery, Napier
1999 Encounter and Discovery: Pacifica, Rotorua Museum of Art and History
1998 Antarctica, touring show Government House, Wellington & Auckland, Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum
1996 Pacifica V Southland, Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill
1993 Living Here Aotearoa, Aigantighe Art Gallery, Timaru; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch
Living Here Aotearoa, A Survey, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North
1988 1984 and After, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010 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
2009 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
2008 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
2007 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
2006 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
2005 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
2004 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)
2003 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
2002
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
2001 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
2000 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
1996 Murals for Auckland Town Hall Restoration Project and Green Peace.
1994 Visiting Artist, Hawkes Bay Polytechnic
1987 1987 Print Series, City Gallery, Wellington
1985 Living in the Bomb Age, Dunedin Public Art Gallery
AWARDS & COMMISSIONS
2009 “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
2007 Cover for Courses and Careers, Cervin Publishing
2006 Work for Railway Hotel, Mossburn, Southern Odessey Trail
2005 Awarded a three week residency in Russia hosted by NZ’s ambassador in Moscow, Stuart Prior, and partially funded by private contributors in NZ
2004 ONZM for services to Painting and Print Making
1998 Inaugural member Artists to Antarctica
Stained glass window commission Auckland Anglican Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland
Southern Odyssey Project Commission: Painting for Railway, Mossburn Hotel
1995 Finalist Visa Gold
1993 Artist in Residence, Wanganui Regional Polytechnic
1991 Stained glass window commission St Mary’s Catholic Church, Auckland
1986 Awarded QEII Arts Council Grant
1981 Awarded QEII Arts Council Grant for travel to USA, UK & Europe
1978 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
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
The Rutherford Collection
Anderson Park Art Gallery
Christchurch City Council
Ministry Of External Relations and Trade
The Suter
Hawkes Bay Polytechnic
ANZ Bank
BNZ
Fletcher Challenge Bank of NZ
Bromhead Design
Centra Hotel
Russell McVeagh
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2011
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
Wolfe, Richard and Stephen Robinson, Artists At Work, Penguin Books, London, England
2010 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
2009 ‘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)
2008 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
2007 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)
2004 Dance of the Origin, DVD material (unedited) of Milford Galleries Dunedin exhibition, 2004, (TV1 coverage, rehearsal, paintings)
1991 O’Brien, Gregory, Nigel Brown, Random Century
