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1. NEIL FRAZER, Lone Rock (2011), diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

1. DETAI L VI EW NEIL FRAZER, Lone Rock (2011)

2 NEIL FRAZER, Sea Face ( 2011) diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

3 NEIL FRAZER, Time Lapse Study (2011) diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

3 DETAI L VI EW NEIL FRAZER, Time Lapse Study (2011)

canvas, size overal (v x h x d): 1118 x 2238 x 25 mm

5 NEIL FRAZER, Tide Pull (2011) diptych; oil on canvas, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

6 NEIL FRAZER, Neap Tide (2011) diptych; oil on canvas, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

6 DETAI L VI EW NEIL FRAZER, Neap Tide (2011)

canvas, size overal (v x h x d): 1118 x 2238 x 25 mm

8. NEIL FRAZER, Long Shore Drift (2011) diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

9. NEIL FRAZER, Wavelength Study (2011) diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

9. DETAI L VI EW NEIL FRAZER, Wavelength Study ( 2011)

canvas, size overal (v x h x d): 1118 x 2238 x 25 mm

11 NEIL FRAZER, Surge Channel (2011) diptych; oil on canvas, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

12 NEIL FRAZER, Gyre Study (2011) diptych; oil on linen, frame (v x h x d): 545 x 1050 x 45 mm

12 DETAI L VI EW NEIL FRAZER, Gyre Study (2011)

Time and tide wait for no man, and in Neil Frazer’s show of the same name, his seascapes possess a barely contained energy that surges across the canvas in waves of textured paint. It is Frazer’s ability to depict a recognisable ‘reality’ while at the same time making the viewer intensely aware of the vivid painterliness of his works that makes them so remarkable.

Frazer uses a thick impasto technique and applies paint using ‘rags, brushes and his own hands’ with the end result that the gestures of the artist become one and the same as rush of the water and the striations of the cliffs he depicts. The effect is one of a world shaped by unfriendly forces of nature where even mutable reflections appear carved out of the water.

‘Wave Length II’ is dominated by a sloping promontory, and the artist has used both the texture of the paint and subtle tone-on-tone hues to suggest wind-lashed foliage and eroded crags. Below the white-capped waves is an echo of the coastline, warped by water and perspective. Frazer leaves it to the viewer to work out the lay of the land and it is not clear where water stops and land begins. The feeling of being caught ‘between worlds’ evokes a sense of unease and disquiet, emphasised further by the artist’s use of empty space.

The sky becomes a void in these paintings; flat and white, its featureless absence throws into strong relief the dominant presence of rock, sand and sea. The tension Frazer captures between this absence/presence enhances the powerful composition of the works, necessary when he uses his medium in an almost sculptural manner. The tactile paint surfaces advance from the two-dimensional canvas, creating actual - not imagined - shadows that emphasise further the physicality of the subject matter.

Few artists manage successful exhibiting careers on both sides of the Tasman, but the sell-out success of his August show ‘Fracture’ in Sydney bears witness to Neil Frazer’s significant and ongoing achievements in both Australia and New Zealand. In ‘Time and Tide’ he portrays in swirls and eddies of paint a world ruled by the vagaries of nature. Arresting and compelling, we look on and wonder at the art of both the environment and the artist.

NEIL FRAZER

b. 1961, lives Sydney

“The oddly compelling nature of Neil Frazer’s bodyof work is not solelythe result of his handling ofpaint. The power of the works hinges on his creation of a dualityof spatial illusion and material literalness on a scale that is all-involving.The picture plane is rendered elusive, replaced byoptical recession and tactile fact,resisting a complete assimilation of the image. The works all operate on this frontal/recessive contradiction,evoking simultaneouslythick,constructive curtains of paint and veiled depths.” (1)

"In his recent paintings the landscape is clearlya source and impetus for his imagery...the muscularity and painterliness of his surfaces clearlyshow that he has brought tothese works the lessons and disciplines of abstract painting.These paintings - although landscapes - could onlyhave been made by a sophisticated abstract painter." (2)

In Frazer’s large-scale oil paintings,paint is often laid in thick impastosothat it protrudes from the canvas.“Frazer works his canvases on the vertical,attached tothe wall,and applies the paint in a varietyof ways,including rags,brushes and his own hands. Often in the later stages, he flicks the paint with his fingers straight from the tube ontothe canvas,the twist of his wrist creating regular,bright loops of colour which articulate the surface of the painting,erupting awayfrom the receding nebulous tones of the background.” (3)

Neil Frazer:“I’m not trying tomake paintings thatsolve world problems or hold out a mirror to society, but I believe painting hasthe power toprovoke thought and feeling and can make a positive contribution”. (4)

Frazer was born in Canberra Australia in 1961 and moved to New Zealand in 1965.He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Universityof Canterbury, Christchurch in 1985 and attended the New York StudioSchool of Drawing,Painting and Sculpture, New York, USAin 1986. From 1996 to1999, Frazer was a lecturer at Illam,School of Fine Art,Universityof Canterbury until he moved toSydneywhere he now resides. He graduated with aMaster of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts,Sydney, Australia in 2000. Neil has been exhibiting since the early80s and has had over 40 soloexhibitions.He has received many premier awards and fellowships in New Zealand and Australia,including the 1992 Frances Hodgkin’s Fellowship at the Universityof Otagoand being a finalist in Australia’s prestigious and longest running art awards,the Wynne Prize, in both 2010 and 2011.Hiswork is included in most major public,corporate and private collections inNew Zealand including the National Bank,Fletcher Challenge and the Christchurch Art Gallery.

1. Lisa Beaven,‘Neil Frazer Recent Paintings’, Art New Zealand 66, Autumn 1993.

2.Martin Browne quoted byDonna Duggan,'White-out',Mindfood, April 2008.

3. FelicityMilburn,‘Neil Frazer:Stretched tothe Limit’,McDougall Art Annex,1996.

4. Neil Frazer quoted in Michael McHugh ‘Opposites Attract’ FQEntertaining,Winter, 1998.

NeilFrazer‘LongShoreDrift’(2011)

NEIL FRAZER

b. 1961, lives Sydney

EDUCATION

2000 Master of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts,Sydney, Australia

1986 New York StudioSchool of Drawing,Painting,and Sculpture, New York, USA

1985

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Universityof Canterbury, Ilam School of Fine Arts, Christchurch

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selectedfrom1993)

2011 Time and Tide,Milford Galleries Dunedin

Fracture,Martin Browne Fine Art,Sydney, Australia

2010 Snow, Rock, Sand,milford galleries queenstown

Neil Frazer, Philip Bacon Galleries, Queensland

2009 White Sky,Martin BrowneFine Art, Sydney, Australia

2008 Melt,milford galleries queenstown

Bowen Galleries,Wellington

Perfect Day,milford galleries queenstown

Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, Australia

2007 Selected Works 1996 – 2007, milford galleries auckland

Southern Elevations,milford galleries queenstown

milford galleries auckland

Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, Australia

2006 View Finder,Milford Galleries Dunedin

milford galleries auckland

2005 Recent Paintings- Milford Galleries Dunedin

milford galleries auckland

Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, Australia

2004 Super Nature,Milford Galleries Dunedin

Recent Abstract Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

milford galleries auckland

Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney, Australia

Brooke Gifford Gallery,Christchurch

2003 New Works,Milford Galleries Dunedin

Bowen Gallery,Wellington

milford galleries auckland

2002 Michael Carr Gallery,Sydney, Australia

2001

milford galleries auckland

Brooke Gifford Gallery,Christchurch

2000 Michael Carr Gallery,Sydney, Australia

1999 Olsen Carr Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1998 milford galleries auckland

1997 Brooke Gifford Gallery,Christchurch

1996 Robert McDougall Art Annex, SurveyExhibition,Christchurch

Brooker Gallery,Wellington

Milford Galleries Dunedin

1995 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Brooker Gallery,Wellington

1994 Luba Bilu Gallery,Melbourne, Australia

Brooke Gifford Gallery,Christchurch,New Zealand

1993 Hocken Library Gallery,Dunedin, New Zealand

Luba Bilu Gallery,Melbourne, Australia

Brooke Gifford Gallery,Christchurch,New Zealand

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

(selectedfrom1993)

2010 White,Universityof New Castle Gallery, Australia (Group Exhibition motivated by10 day travel in Antarctica)

2009 Southern Traverse, milford galleries queenstown

Southern Landscape,milford galleries queenstown

2007 Looking South,Milford Galleries Dunedin

Auckland Art Fair,milford galleries auckland

2006 Chosen - Milford Galleries Dunedin

Location South - Milford Galleries Dunedin

AFeeling for Space,the Landscape Now- MartinBrowne Fine Art, Sydney, Australia

Postcards from the Desert,Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, Australia

Inthe Heat of Summer,Martin Browne Fine Art Sydney, Australia

2004 OverView; Abstraction & Still Life,Milford Galleries Dunedin

ABN AMRO Art Award,Finalist,Sydney, Australia

Australian Contemporary Art Fair,Melbourne, Australia

Visiting Artist,Norsewear Art Awards, Hastings, Auckland

2003 New England Art Gallery, NSW, Australia

James Wallace Art Award Finalist, Auckland, New Zealand

Martin Browne Fine Art Sydney, Australia

Norsewear Art Award Guest Artist,Hastings,New Zealand

Art Gallery of New England, Armidale,NSW, Australia

2002 Australian Contemporary Art Fair,Melbourne

2001 Over the Back Fence,Bowen Galleries, Christchurch

1998 Art for Life Charity Auction, Christchurch, New Zealand

40 out 40, McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch

1994 Australian Contemporary Art Fair,Melbourne

Recent Acquisitions,CanterburyUniversity

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2011 Wynne Prize, Finalist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2010 Wynne Prize, Finalist, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2008 Fleurieu Water Prize finalist

2004 ABN AMRO Art Award,Finalist,Sydney

2003 James Wallace Art Award Finalist, Auckland

Norsewear Art Award Guest Artist,Hastings

1993 Victoria College of the Arts, Artist in Residence at the Dunmoochin Foundation, Melbourne, Australia

Awarded Artist Residencyat the Victorian College of the Arts,Melbourne, Australia

1993 Artist in ResidencyVictoria College of the Arts,Melbourne

1992 Francis Hodgkins Fellowship,OtagoUniversity,Dunedin,New Zealand

1986 New Zealand Arts Councils Grant

1986 Fulbright Travel Grant for study New York StudioSchool

1984 Sawtell Turner Painting Prize,Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand

1983 Ethel Rose Overton Scholarship, Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Newcastle Regional Gallery

Artbank

Macquarie Bank Limited,Sydney

Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna oWaiwhetu,Christchurch

Dunmoochin Foundation,Melbourne

St George Foundation, Sydney

Baker & McKenzie, Sydney

Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North

Lincoln College Art Collection,Christchurch

National Bank Art Collection, Auckland

National Bank Art Collection,Wellington

National Bank Art Collection, New Plymouth OtagoUniversity Collection, Dunedin Victoria UniversityCollection,Wellington Hocken Library Collection,Dunedin Deloitte Collection, Auckland ElectroCorporation,Wellington Victoria UniversityCollection,Wellington Canterbury University, Christchurch