MICHAEL HIGHT

Haldon Station (2013) oil on linen, stretcher: 1050 x 2350 x 35 mm

Nevis Bluff (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 763 x 1220 x 34 mm

Towards Erewhon (2014)

oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1674 x 32 mm

Lake Aviemore (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 710 x 1825 x 32 mm

Mt Hutt Station (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 1065 x 1522 x 34 mm

Ngauruhoe (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 1015 x 1522 x 32 mm

Fighting Hill: Rakaia Gorge (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1675 x 32 mm

Chard Road (2014)

oil on linen, stretcher: 762 x 1218 x 34 mm

Macraes Road (2014)

oil on linen, stretcher: 762 x 1523 x 32 mm

Hector Mountains (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 760 x 1522 x 34 mm

Gore Bay (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 557 x 760 x 35 mm

Ruahine (2014) oil on linen, stretcher: 557 x 760 x 35 mm

Michael Hight has achieved with his beehive series of paintings something that is profoundly momentous – he has deeply informed and changed the way New Zealanders look at their landscape. He has revealed that beehives are everywhere and in that process shown us how to read the associated landscape in its details, while building powerful visual metaphors of contrast, industry, the on-going seasons and how we then use (and misuse) our environments.

Mt Hutt Station (2014) is a compositionally ambitious, brilliantly delivered painting composed of repeated sharp lines and geometric elements. We are shown parts of atrest rusting buckets and the extended arms of machinery, stacked suspension springs, portions of seemingly abandoned equipment or unused vehicles. The buckets dominate almost three-quarters of the foreground, with the shed angling back and narrowing away. Weeds and grass heads appear in massed profusion, rendered with remarkable, individual attention. Our eyes then become drawn to the beehive stacks – some clearly seen, others somewhat obscured – that divide the painting horizontally. There is another horizontal element of weeds just behind the hives and then much further back again a dense line of trees. Is that a native remnant or a plantation, awaiting harvest for the farmer’s superannuation? Above, in the barren alpine background, Mt Hutt skifield slowly declares itself.

Haldon Station (2013) is a tour de force. Hight’s mastery of light and dark, his understanding of the fluctuations between these as they occur out in the landscape, animate this wonderful work in both subtle and very dramatic ways. The beehives are slightly forward of the eucalypts, sitting out so as to be kissed by side light in stark and exhilarating contrast to the contained, protective spaces under the trees. Behind this, our eyes cross a farm paddock to a soft tube-like formation of fecund willow trees that travel from edge to edge. These further the key role of contrast with that of the barren, screeshingle, snow-smattered alps sitting back behind.

Ngauruhoe (2014) and Fighting Hill: Rakaia Gorge (2014), although significantly different works, both structurally and geographically, are united in the fundamental role performed by snow. We see landscapes transformed, witness the stunning, revelatory clarity of all that.

In Towards Erewhon (2014) and Lake Aviemore (2014) the shadows present lead the eye about. Distance, absence and the inexorable progress of time become subjects.

Chard Road (2014) and Nevis Bluff (2014) are geographically linked. The beehives locate the environment but it is the schist rock landscape protruding into the sky which becomes the dominant narrative.

Hight’s virtuoso, authoritative accuracy is likewise revealed again in Macraes Road (2014) where a small suite of hives is tucked into the Maniototo rock face.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

MICHAEL HIGHT

b.1961,livesAuckland

LakeWakatipu(2010)

Michael Hight is a painter, sculptor and assembler, working with paint, canvas, tin, wood and found objects. He is most well-known for his observations of the ubiquitous beehive and their individual locales. These works contain all the particularities of location – geography, vegetation, weather. More than that they convey the idiosyncratic qualities of ownership and use and allude to a wider consideration of “place”.

His works “gain their intensity from attention to the minutest detail.” The beehives stand in contrast to the surrounds, providing the “elegiac lyricism” of juxtaposition. "His virtuoso skills of representation of the highest order and achieves heights of mood” and the undeniable specifics of place “that go beyond just representation.” (1)

“Generally, Hight’s beehive paintings have run parallel to other work – his interest in rivers as a starting point for abstraction, in repeating patterns and his preoccupation with found objects and four main materials: ash-charcoal, canvas, wood and resin…. Most of his work has a landscape motivation as a driving force and in the past he has used found materials from a particular place fused into an abstract representation of that place. The abstract works fulfil all his needs as a painter and the representational works are simply about being more frank with respect to source, or inspiration of the abstract pieces.” (2)

“The idea of transformation is embodied in what happens inside a beehive and as far as I am concerned, transformation is the key element in 20th Century art. Artists like Duchamp and Warhol have taken something that is not art and turned it into art, so in a way, these are pictures of art as well as rural spots…”(3)

Born in Stratford, New Zealand, in 1961, Hight completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato in 1982. Between 1984-87 Hight travelled and spent time living and painting in London. Returning to live in Auckland, he has regularly exhibited since 1984 and has been a full time artist since 2001. He has received several QEII grants and his work is held in many New Zealand collections including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, The Chartwell Collection and The James Wallace Trust.

1.TJMcNamara,'SenseofBeautyinDecay',August21,2010,WeekendHerald

2.AdrienneRewi,‘Phantombeekeeperstillbuzzingoverboxes’,SundayStarTimes,7November1999. 3.MichaelHightinRewi,ibid.

MICHAEL HIGHT

b.1961,livesinAuckland

EDUCATION

1980 - 82 University of Waikato (B.Soc.Sc)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014 New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Crossing the Line, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

2013 Recent Work, milford galleries queenstown

Forty-nine Rivers, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington

2012 Dreams of Children, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Recent Work, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2011 Reliquary, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington

2010 Recent Paintings, Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington

Wakatipu, milford galleries queenstown

From Waimarino to Red Jacks, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

2009 The Road to Erewhon, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Paintings, Judith Anderson Gallery, Napier

2008 Paintings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

Notes from the Waikato, Janne Land, Wellington

2007 Recent Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2006 Manuherikia, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

Recent Work, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

Taieri, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Recent Works, milford galleries queenstown

Manuherikia, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

2005 Manawatu, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

2004 Wandering Eye, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Recent Abstract Works, milford galleries queenstown

Land of Milk and Honey, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

2003 Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

2002 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Duologue, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2001 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

2000 Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

Recent Work, Milford Galleries Dunedin

1999 Recent Work, Judith Anderson Gallery, Hawkes Bay

Jonathon Jensen Gallery, Christchurch

Recent Work, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

Recent Work, Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch

1998 Recent Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Maungakaramea, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Gazetteer, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

1997 Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch

1996 Current Abstraction, Milford Galleries Dunedin

City Gallery Wellington, Wellington

Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch

Four Strong Winds, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Four Strong Winds, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

1995 In Trust, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth

Seven Rivers, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington

1992 Heartland Trinkets, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

1991 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

1990 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

1989 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

1988 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Jonathan Jensen Gallery, Christchurch

3/3 Gallery, Wellington

1987 Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

1986 Falcon Gallery, London

The Foyer Gallery, Hampstead, London

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2013 The Review, milford galleries queenstown

2012 Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Hight / Frazer / Hunt, milford galleries queenstown

New Year, New Works, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

2011 Parallel, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Gems, milford galleries queenstown

2010 Small Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Frieze, Gow Langford Gallery, Auckland

2009 Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown

2008 Masterworks, milford galleries queenstown

Drawings, John Leech Gallery, Auckland

Taranaki Gate, Percy Thompson Gallery, Stratford

2007 Te Turinga: Turning Point, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington

2006 Location South, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2005 The Southern Landscape, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Landscape Show, Lopdell House, Waitakere

The North Western Line, Corban Estate Art Centre, Auckland

2004 Recent Landscapes, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2001 Wild Season, City Gallery Wellington, Wellington

1999 Crossed Out, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

1998 Recent Acquisitions: Chartwell Collection Auckland Art Gallery

1997 City Gallery Wellington, Wellington

The Northern Line, Corban Estate Art Centre

Abstraction & Still Life, Milford Galleries Dunedin

1996 Is as Landscape as Metaphor, Milford Galleries Dunedin

1995 Found Objects, Outreach, Auckland

1993 Gift of The Artist, Artspace, Auckland

1992 Pacific Traces, 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

1991 Big Pictures Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland

Outcrop, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth

AWARDS

2000 Finalist Visa and Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation

1999 Visa & Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation, Auckland

1997 Finalist Visa Gold Award, Auckland City Gallery & City Gallery, Wellington

1989 QE11 Art Council Creative Projects Scheme

1989 QE11 Arts Council Grant

1988 QE11 Arts Council Direct Support Grant

COLLECTIONS

ABN AMRO Collection

Pukeiti Collection, New Plymouth

Fletcher Trust Collection

Colenso, Wellington

Chartwell Collection

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Sky City Grand Hotel Collection

Coopers & Lybrand Collection

James Wallace Trust

Private Collections in Germany, UK, Australia and U.S.A

SELECTED ARTICLES

2004 Knox, Elizabeth, Wandering Eye, catalogue, Milford Gallery (attached)

2004 O’Brien, Gregory, Land of Milk and Honey, catalogue, John Leech Gallery

2002 Green, Paula, Omarama, Place of Light, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery (attached)

1999 Caughey, Elizabeth & John Gow, Contemporary New Zealand Art 2, David Bateman Ltd, Auckland, p 66 (attached)

1996 Green, Paula, Four Strong Winds, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (attached)

1995/96 Green, Paula, Walking in the World, Michael Hight’s Trust in Place, Art New Zealand No.77, Summer, p77-79 (attached)

1995 Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings by 100 New Zealand Artists, Godwit Publishing, Auckland, p36

1994 Mannion, Robert, ‘Painting a Bright Future’, The Dominion, Saturday October 22

SpeargrassFlatRoad(2013)