TONI MACKINNON

Toni

Mackinnon

Never Before Shades 15 October - 9 November 2011

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

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

1. TONI MACKINNON, Marina (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

2. TONI MACKINNON, Edna (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

3. TONI MACKINNON, Rakuko I (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

4. TONI MACKINNON, Hilma (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

5. TONI MACKINNON, Rakuko II (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

6. TONI MACKINNON, Kelly (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

7. TONI MACKINNON, Sonia (2011) gouache & ink jet print on paper, frame (v x h x d): 868 x 643 x 60 mm, sheet (v x h): 710 x 500 mm

Toni Mackinnon takes the viewer back to “1965 when Faberge, capitalising on the desire of women to create a bold new identity released its new brand of ‘Make-OP’! with its ‘never before shades’.”(1) The titles of the works explicitly acknowledge leading Op Art artists by variously using their first or surnames. (2) Mackinnon uses the optical effects of hard-edged black and white patterns that appear to vibrate and change shape as the viewer watches and comes to experience them. She establishes visual illusions through a varied process involving “collaging hand-made and digital processes the photographs from a variety of sources (such as Life magazine, photographic annuals and technical manuals of the 1960’s) and these photographic images are then reworked in gouache to introduce the found images from various Op Art artists.” (3) Each work also openly acknowledges the major exhibition at MOMA, New York in 1965 entitled “The Responsive Eye”. Mackinnon’s adroit placement of eyes or lips animates each work and also humanises them, eliciting from the viewer experiences of participation and individualised identity.

Mackinnon uses white space in a radical way as a compositional device as well as a colour in itself and in these ways what at first may seem visually simple or restrained comes to achieve powerful resonances which build and reach well beyond the original Op Art sources.

(1) Toni Mackinnon, Artist Statement, 5 October 2011 (2) Rakuko Naito, Marina Apollonio, Edna Andrade, Elsworth Kelly, Sonia Delaunay, Hilma Klimt.

(3) Toni Mackinnon, Artist Statement, 5 October 2011

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Marina (2011)

1,950

2

Edna (2011)

1,950

3

Rakuko I (2011)

1,950

4

Hilma (2011)

1,950

5

Rakuko II (2011)

1,950

6

Kelly (2011)

1,950

7

Sonia (2011)

1,950

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

TONI MACKINNON b. 1967, lives Auckland

Hilma (2011)

Toni Mackinnon uses optical effects, hard-edged black and white patterns, a collagic process and numerous photographic sources as the basis of her work.

“Her works bring together imagery from print sources such as Time Life magazine and National Geographic with delicately painted abstracts, reflecting both graphic design and fine art traditions.” In particular, her work references Op Art explicitly while also further developing ideas of modern abstraction. Her work employs a radical use of white space and builds visual tension by abrupt juxtaposition and contrast.

“Mackinnon uses reproductive processes at a number of levels in her practice. The found imagery which retains much of its grainy character is digitally re-printed, placing emphasis on the formal qualities of framing, colour and scale. Combined with these facsimiles are painted reinterpretations of works by abstractionists, including Frank Stella, Bridget Riley, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. In the process of reproduction these historic modernist icons are reduced to motifs, retaining little of their emblematic nature or authority.”

“The imagery in Mackinnon’s paintings is removed from its original context, negating any initial inferred political, social or art historical significance and replacing it with a contemporary framework that attempts to pull these disparate elements together. As the artist suggests ‘here modernism becomes a voice over, reconstructing and mediating the narrative as it unfolds’.” (1) Toni Mackinnon was born in 1967, lives in Auckland and teaches at Unitech. Recently exhibited at University of Waikato. Winner in 2006 of James Wallace Postgraduate Award. 1998 Finalist Waikato Art Awards.

(1) Karl Chitham, “Pushers” catalogue, Waikato University Gallery 2011

Toni Mackinnon 2011 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

TONI MACKINNON b. 1967, lives Auckland EDUCATION 2006 1996 1995

Masters of Art and Design (hons) Auckland University of Technology Diploma of Teaching, Auckland College of Education Bachelor of Fine Arts, Auckland University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 2006

'Never Before Shades’, Milford Galleries Dunedin ‘A Scope of Human Experience & Memory’, AUT Masters Graduate Exhibition

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2011 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005

‘Pushers’, Calder & Lawson Gallery, University of Waikato, Hamilton ‘It’s a Draw’, Group Exhibition, Artstation, Auckland ‘Overdrawn’, Group Exhibition, Artstation, Auckland ‘Tautoko’, Whakatane District Museum and Gallery ‘Taught’, Group Exhibition, Artstation, Auckland 5th Year Masters Art and Design Student Exhibition

AWARDS 2006 1998

Winner James Wallace Postgraduate Award Finalist Waikato Art Awards

Marina (2011)

Toni Mackinnon 2011 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz