CALLUM ARNOLD

CALLUM ARNOLD Sojourn

12th February - 9th March, 2011 UPSTAIRS GALLERY

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown 9A Earl Street

(03) 442 6896

qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

1. CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley II (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

1. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley II (2010)

2. CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley Track (2011), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

2. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley Track (2011)

3. CALLUM ARNOLD, Crown Range (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 708 x 1217 x 33 mm

3. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Crown Range (2010)

4. CALLUM ARNOLD, Cold Pass (2010) oil on l

linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 912 x 1522 x 32 mm

5. CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Path (2010) oil on l

linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 912 x 1522 x 32 mm

6. CALLUM ARNOLD, Reflecting (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 708 x 1215 x 33 mm

6. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Reflecting (2010)

7. CALLUM ARNOLD, Southerly Approach (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

7. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Southerly Approach (2010)

8. CALLUM ARNOLD, Rest Stop (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

8. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Rest Stop (2010)

9. CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Edge (2011), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 457 x 710 x 33 mm

9. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Edge (2011)

Producing dynamic compositions that achieve a synthesis of landscape painting and abstraction through gestural painted marks and complex layering of visual elements, Callum Arnold is establishing himself as a significantly skilled and confident painter. Carefully considered subtle shifts in light, shade, opacity or scale solicit various and altered views that disorientate and re-orientate at every turn despite the familiarity of the landscape presented.

Forms and fleeting shadows fragment and unfurl as quickly as they emerge in a harmonious rhythm of flux. Intersecting lines, layered imagery and fractured planes appear to migrate within the surface of the painting kindling the suggestion of passing time and memory. “We are captured in a moment of cross-fade between the past and the present, the picturesque and the documentary, between memory and witness”.1 ‘Sojourn’, Callum’s much-anticipated second solo exhibition at milford galleries queenstown, reveals the artists inland journey southwards through the Lindis Valley to Queenstown. From the crisp chill of windswept snow collected against the steep tussock-clad hillside in ‘Cold Pass’ (Lindis Valley), the looming heavy sky and misted atmosphere in ‘Valley II’ (Lindis Valley) as it blankets the land with its cool touch to the comforting warmth of the late winter sun bathing the land in gold-tinted light in ‘Crown Range’, Callum’s keen ability to convey the physical reality and sense of place in his painting is profound.

Making an emblematic presence in ‘Lake Path’ (Diamond Lake, Wanaka) and ‘Reflecting’ (Mackenzie basin) the figure is a new muse for Callum. Not only do we find that the figure amplifies the sheer scale and expansiveness of the landscape depicted but it also makes an allusion to that familiar physical sense of journey and movement so distinctive to Callum’s practice.

Paths of water wistfully stretching into the distant horizon in a mirage of evaporating reflections in ‘Lake Path’ direct our attentive gaze subconsciously as do the bright blue watery depths of the canals as they weave a threaded path in ‘Reflecting’. Power poles, sign posts and roads intervene and dissect in works such as ‘Valley II’ and ‘Rest Stop’ (Lindis Valley) as if to offer a momentary lull before tempting us on another path, an alternative viewpoint.

‘Sojourn’ reveals a progression in Callum’s practice in terms of insight, complexity, stylistic substance and painterly skill. It is clear too that a heightened spatial awareness and sense of journey along with the interconnected emergence of the figure (as both metaphor and subject) are becoming increasingly important and central to the narrative in his work.

Callum’s dedication to a constantly evolving practice further establishes his importance as a remarkably assured and skilled artist who is reinvigorating and reinterpreting the experience of the New Zealand landscape in a visual language which is entirely his own and just as unique as the environment he travels through.

Review by Richard Dingwall, ODT, 23 March 2006

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Valley II (2010)

4,500

2

Valley Track (2011)

4,500

3

Crown Range (2010)

7,000

4

Cold Pass (2010)

9,000

5

Lake Path (2010)

9,000

6

Reflecting (2010)

7,000

7

Southerly Approach (2010)

4,500

8

Rest Stop (2010)

4,500

9

Lake Edge (2011)

3,000

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

CALLUM ARNOLD b. 1973, lives Christchurch

Ranges (2010)

Callum Arnold challenges the traditional representation of the landscape as static. His paintings are “reminiscent of a Sunday journey. …Long drives through the landscape are experienced in passing through the car window.” (1) “Despite the sense of journeying, nothing is blurred. On the contrary, an Arnold painting exudes a sense of tranquillity, of time stilled, a dream frozen.” (2) “My interest lies in the disjointed construction that memory creates through the influence of fleeting visions of land. The attempt is to depict a more universal view rather than a regional specific location.

Some aspects or similarities between locations are due to geographical feature of the rural environment and the way roads are constructed to dissect the land into portions.” (3) “The act of looking for dramatic panoramic landscapes in dislocated spaces is limited to viewing from roads and the visual memory. My work is primarily concerned with geographic experience and the transpositions of media upon that knowledge. The act of painting the visual…is no longer an accurate rendering of the actual world but a collaboration of processes. The inherent spiritual nature of the land has become diffused creating a new visual history.” (4) “The great journey in New Zealand painting has been by road, from John Kinder to Colin McCahon….Arnold proves that the road trip as a nationalist narrative isn’t over yet. His paintings put us in the front seat of a vehicle driving through the heartland on a road that, paradoxically, seems to be taking us both back to Samuel Butler’s Erewhon and forward to a future of destabilised digital representations.” (5) Born Wellington in 1973, Callum Arnold gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, 2000 and a Masters of Fine Arts with Distinction in Printmaking 2001 from the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts.

1. Callum Arnold, Artist Statement, 2005 2. Warwick Brown, ‘Seen this Century’, Godwit, 2009 3. Callum Arnold, Artist Statement, 2005 4. Ibid 5. David Eggleton, ‘High Visibility’, NZ Listener, April, 2006

Callum Arnold 2011 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

CALLUM ARNOLD b. 1973, lives Christchurch EDUCATION 2002 2001 1997

Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education, Christchurch College of Education MFA with Distinction in Printmaking, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts BFA Honours 2000, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2001

Sojourn, milford galleries queenstown Callum Arnold & Simon Edwards: New Works, Suite Gallery, Wellington Simulations, Milford Galleries Dunedin Divergence, Suite, Wellington Direction, milford galleries auckland Detour, Suite, Wellington Merge Shift, milford galleries auckland Horizon, milford galleries queenstown Contents May Shift, Milford Galleries Dunedin Transitional Space, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch New work, Chambers Gallery, Rangiora Simon Edwards & Callum Arnold, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch Leading Impressions, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch Landscapes, University of Canterbury Fine Arts Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009 2008 2007 2006 2003 2002

Recent Work (Dawson, Petre, Arnold), milford galleries queenstown Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown Small Works, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch Looking South, Milford Galleries Dunedin Essence, milford galleries auckland 25, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch Christchurch College of Education 125 Anniversary Art Show, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES 2008 2008

Awarded Artist in Residence, Rangiruru Girls School Finalist The Wallace Awards, Auckland, New Zealand

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2009 2009 2006 2006

McCrone, John, ‘Art for living's sake’, The Press, 12th December 2009 Brown, Warwick, Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary NZ Artists a Collector’s Guide, Godwit, 2009 Dingwall, Richard, ‘Movie Technique Exposes The Shifting Nature of Landscape’, Otago Daily Times, 23rd March 2006 Eggleton, David, ‘High Visibility: Callum Arnold paints New Zealand from the road’, New Zealand Listener, April 1-7, 2006

Callum Arnold 2011 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz