Justin Boroughs Light
25 August - 19 September 2012
www.milfordgalleries.co.nz
milford galleries queenstown
9A Earl Street (03) 442 6896 qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz
1. Through the Pass with Dido (2012) oil on board, frame: 905 x 1770 x 34 mm, panel: 878 x 1746 mm
2. Clouds and Hills, Lindis Pass, Otago (2012) oil on board, frame: 728 x 1232 x 37 mm, panel: 711 x 1216 mm
3. Mountains and Lakes, Queenstown (2012)
oil on board, panel: 310 x 920 mm
4. Clouds and Poplar Trees, Akaroa, Canterbury (2012)
oil on board, panel: 230 x 670 mm
5. Clouds and Mountains Near Lake Dunstan, Otago (2012) oil on board, frame: 437 x 1070 x 36 mm, panel: 422 x 1053 mm
6. Late Light, Lindis Pass, Otago (2012) oil on board
d, frame: 730 x 1400 x 36 mm, panel: 716 x 1348 mm
7. Harbour Cone, Otago, at Dawn (2012), oil on board, frame: 623 x 1144 x 39 mm, panel: 612 x 1124 mm
8. Old Villa, Esplanade Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland (2011/12) oil on board, frame: 591 x 715 x 34 mm, panel: 562 x 684 mm
9. Boatshed, Otago Harbour (2012) oil on board, frame: 438 x 725 x 34 mm, panel: 407 x 692 mm
10. Boatshed and Light, Wellington Harbour (2011) oil on board, frame: 500 x 811 x 34 mm, panel: 470 x 779 mm
11. Dark Boatsheds, with the Kailua and the Valwyn (2012) oil on board, frame: 465 x 1236 x 34 mm, panel: 432 x 1205 mm
Justin Boroughs is a masterful painter of the angled light of morning and afternoon. He paints its presence and marks its absence. He constructs acutely defined moments of time into exquisitely detailed photorealist works as well as building profound sensations that the viewer – in the act of seeing – is actually placed there and in this way actively participating in its reality. He possesses a deeply attuned eye for the regionalist dialogues of differing landscapes and buildings. His paintings resonate as much because of the exclusions as inclusions, and in this way his work collectively establishes an idealised rhetoric and visual language. Nothing it seems is out of place, even when fiction. He uses the implications and statements of human presence as pictorial devices for the viewer’s eye to travel along and about. He contrasts this suggestive human presence directly with the more pervasive, dominant, sense of isolation. His works are ultimately unoccupied (whether rural or urban) yet are redolent of our constant use, be that work or leisure, where we live or want to go. Boroughs palette is cool. Light is presented as soft and bright; it is placed and defined; its pictorial role is understated but well argued and slightly yellowed. Ultimately Boroughs paintings are an engaging mix of topographical and architectural accuracy with a surprisingly fluid brushstroke presence (when viewed close up). This modelling and surface rendering augments the overall photorealist approach of his work while declaring also his technical virtuosity to be significantly broader than first seemed.
EXHIBITION PRICELIST
1
Through the Pass with Dido (2012)
17,500
2
Clouds and Hills, Lindis Pass, Otago (2012)
15,000
3
Mountains and Lakes, Queenstown (2012)
6,500
4
Clouds and Poplar Trees, Akaroa, Canterbury (2012)
4,000
5
Clouds and Mountains Near Lake Dunstan, Otago (2012)
11,000
6
Late Night, Lindis Pass, Otago (2012)
15,000
7
Harbour Cone, Otago, at Dawn (2012)
14,000
8
Old Villa, Esplanade Rd, Mt Eden, Auckland (2011/12)
9,000
9
Boatshed, Otago Harbour (2012)
6,500
10
Boatshed and Light, Wellington Harbour (2011)
7,500
11
Dark Boatsheds, with the Kailua and the Valwyn (2012)
13,000
All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition
JUSTIN BOROUGHS b. 1952, lives Auckland
First Light, Te Mata Peak, Hawkes Bay (2012)
Justin Boroughs is often described as a ‘realist painter’ and does indeed paint scenes that the viewer recognises as actual places, but his works reveal more than what he sees directly in front of him. Individual elements – sea, sky, buildings, hills - are refined and heightened so that the finished work reveals a landscape that has become more than the sum of its parts. Boroughs paints the realities that we have in our mind’s eye – moments that have been captured and rendered still and unchanging by the trickery of memory.
Using subtleties of light and shadow, Boroughs creates a remembered atmosphere and sense of a particular place that is both timeless and instantly recognisable. The sharp freshness of early morning light and the fading colours of dusk are frozen in an instant, the golden hues Boroughs uses evoking nostalgia for a time and place that was. Suggested only through marks left on the environment (houses, sheds, boats), the absence of humans amplifies the feeling of an idealised and somewhat eerie, ‘unreal’ world.
Born in England in 1952, Justin Boroughs studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts under Gretchen Albrecht, Don Binney and photographer John B Turner, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975. As well as travelling extensively, Boroughs has worked as a photographer and art teacher, and is currently head of the art department at Auckland Boys’ Grammar School.
Justin Boroughs 2012 CV P a g e |1
milford galleries queenstown
www.milfordgalleries.co.nz
JUSTIN BOROUGHS b. 1952, lives Auckland EDUCATION 1975
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2004 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1993 1992 1991
Light, milford galleries queenstown Away to the South, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Auckland - Taranaki - Lake Dunstan, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Landscapes, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Recent Paintings, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington John Leech Gallery, Auckland Wellington, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Recent Wellington Landscapes, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Late Light, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Land Marks, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Wellington Landscapes, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Recent Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Wellington Landscapes, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington Auckland Foreshore, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Christchurch Landscapes, Dobson Bashford Gallery, Christchurch Auckland Cityscapes, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Places Remembered, Dobson Bashford Gallery, Christchurch Auckland Panoramas, John Leech Gallery, Auckland Romantic Landscapes, John Leech Gallery, Auckland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012 2011-12 2011 2010-11 2009 2005 1993
Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown The Earl Street Journal, milford galleries queenstown Between Earth & Sky, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington FRIEZE, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Spring Catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland FRIEZE, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Real Vision, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch
COLLECTIONS Te Manawa Art Gallery, Palmerston North Fletcher Trust Collection Telecom NZ Private collections in New Zealand, Australia & the United Kingdom
Otago Harbour Cone at Dawn (2012)
Justin Boroughs 2012 CV P a g e |2
milford galleries queenstown
www.milfordgalleries.co.nz