MICHAEL HIGHT

MICHAEL HIGHT Wakatipu

Preview 29th October from 5.30pm 30th October - 24th November, 2010

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

milford galleries queenstown 9A Earl Street

(03) 442 6896

qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

1. MICHAEL HIGHT, Bowen Peak (2010) oil on

linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 710 x 1118 x 33 mm

2. MICHAEL HIGHT, Shotover River (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 610 x 1220 x 33 mm

3. MICHAEL HIGHT, Malaghans Road (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 610 x 1220 x 33 mm

4. MICHAEL HIGHT, Lake Wakatipu (2010) oil on

n linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 760 x 1520 x 33 mm

5. MICHAEL HIGHT, Crown Range (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 505 x 760 x 33 mm

6. MICHAEL HIGHT, Hogans Gully Road (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 505 x 760 x 33 mm

7. MICHAEL HIGHT, Kingston (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 505 x 760 x 33 mm

8. MICHAEL HIGHT, Fairlight (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 505 x 760 x 33 mm

“Wakatipu is a new series of work which focuses on the Queenstown area. In these paintings, the rural landscape that is familiar, ordered and slowly gentrifying stands in sharp relief to the foreboding mountains that surround it. Here the hives attest to a harnessing of nature that, given these intimidating surrounds, can only ever be temporary.” 1.

Michael Hight is an outstanding nationally significant artist. 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. They are also a metaphor of industry and art. Hight knows Queenstown and the Wakapitu area intimately. This exhibition demonstrates 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.” 2.

1.

2.

Artist’s Statement, October 2010 TJ McNamara, Sense of Beauty in Decay, August 21, 2010, Weekend Herald

Malaghans Road (2010) (Top of the page) Shotover River (2010)

EXHIBITION PRICELIST

1

Bowen Peak (2010)

13,500

2

Shotover River (2010)

12,500

3

Malaghans Road (2010)

12,500

4

Lake Wakatipu (2010)

18,500

5

Crown Range (2010)

7,000

6

Hogans Gully Road (2010)

7,000

7

Kingston (2010)

7,000

8

Fairlight (2010)

7,000

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

MICHAEL HIGHT lives Auckland

Mesopotamia (2009)

Michael Hight is a painter, sculptor and assembler, working with paint, canvas, tin, wood and found objects. His most recent series of work has focused on beehives. He continues to explore this subject through both abstract assemblages and realist paintings. Hight regularly exhibits at both Milford Galleries Dunedin and milford galleries Queenstown.

“It was possible in 1988 to hail him as being in the forefront of our abstract artists.” Then in 1999 Michael Hight began a significant new series of representational work. “Astonishing. There is no other word for the stylistic change made by Michael Hight… He is recognisably the same artist, his preoccupations remain the same. Many of the shapes on the canvas are the same but what was formerly geometric abstraction is now depiction of stacks of beehives exactly rendered in accurately recorded landscapes. Hight has always used special surfaces related to place. Weathered textures on wood and stone as well as substances as varied as wax and sandpaper have been the materials of his art. These were arranged in geometrical patterns, along with material found at specific sites, to evoke a sense of place and time… At this time of post-modern art it is customary for artists who favour abstraction to abandon its purely formal qualities for some link, usually ironic, with reality. This remarkable exhibition works in exactly the opposite way.” 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 Stratford, New Zealand 1961. Bachelor of Social Sciences, University of Waikato 1982. Following a period from 1984-87 in which he travelled and lived and painted in London, Hight returned 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.

1.TJ McNamara, ‘Hiving off in a different direction’, NZ Herald, 14 August 2000.

2. Adrienne Rewi, ‘Phantom beekeeper still buzzing over boxes’, Sunday Star Times, 7 November 1999.

3. Michael Hight in Rewi ibid.

Michael Hight 2010 CV P a g e |1

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

MICHAEL HIGHT lives Auckland EDUCATION 1980 - 82

University of Waikato (B.Soc.Sc)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

2005 2004

Wakatipu From Waimarino to Red Jacks The Road to Erewhon Paintings Paintings Notes from the Waikato Recent Works Manuherikia Recent work Taeri Recent Works Manuherikia Manawatu Wandering Eye Recent Abstract Works Land of Milk and Honey

2003 2002 Duologue 2001 2000 1999

1998

Recent Work Recent Work Recent Work Recent Work Recent Works Maungakaramea Gazetteer

1997 1996

Current Abstraction

1995

Four Strong Winds Four Strong Winds In Trust

1992 1991 1990

Seven Rivers Heartland Trinkets

1989 1988

1987

Michael Hight 2010 CV P a g e |2

milford galleries Queenstown John Leech Gallery, Auckland Milford Galleries Dunedin Judtih Anderson Gallery, Napier John Leech Gallery, Auckland Janne Land, Wellington Milford Galleries Dunedin Janne Land gallery, Wellington John Leech Gallery, Auckland Milford Galleries Dunedin Milford galleries queenstown Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Milford Galleries Dunedin Milford Galleries Queenstown John Leech Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Milford Galleries Dunedin Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Milford Galleries Dunedin Judith Anderson Gallery, Hawkes Bay Jonathon Jensen Gallery, Christchurch Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Milford Galleries Dunedin Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Milford Galleries Dunedin City Gallery, Wellington Campbell Grant Gallery, Christchurch Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Jonathen Jensen Gallery, Christchurch 33 /3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

1986

Falcon Gallery, London The Foyer Gallery, Hampstead, London

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2010 2009 2008

Small Works Southern Landscape Masterworks Taranaki Gate

2007 2006 2005

2004 2001 1999 1998 1997

1996 1995 1993 1992 1991

Te Turinga: Turning Point Location South The Southern Landscape Landscape Show The North Western Line Recent Landscapes Wild Season Crossed Out Recent Acquisitions Visa Gold The Northern Line Abstraction & Still Life Is As Landscape as Metaphor Found Objects Gift Of The Artist Pacific Traces Big Pictures Show Outcrop

Milford Galleries Dunedin milford galleries queenstown milford galleries queenstown Percy Thompson Gallery, Stratford Auckland Art Fair City Gallery, Wellington Milford Galleries Dunedin Auckland Art Fair Milford Galleries Dunedin Lopdell House, Waitakere City Corban Estate Art Centre Milford Galleries Dunedin City Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford, Auckland Chartwell Collection New Gallery, Auckland New Gallery, Auckland City Gallery, Wellington Corban Estate Art Centre Milford Galleries Dunedin Milford Galleries Dunedin Outreach, Auckland Artspace, Auckland 33 1/3 Gallery, Wellington Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth

AWARDS 2000 1999 1997 1989 1989 1988

Finalist Visa and Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation Visa & Wallace Art Awards, James Wallace Arts Foundation, Auckland Finalist Visa Gold Award, Auckland City Gallery & City Gallery, Wellington QE11 Art Council Creative Projects Scheme QE11 Arts Council Grant QE11 Arts Council Direct Support Grant

COLLECTIONS ABN AMRO Collection Sky City Grand Hotel Collection Pukeiti Collection, New Plymouth Coopers & Lybrand Collection Fletcher Trust Collection James Wallace Trust, Auckland Colenso, Wellingto Recent Acquisitions, Chartwell Collection, Auckland City Gallery Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington Private Collections in Germany, UK, Australia and U.S.A

SELECTED ARTICLES 2004 2004 2002 1999 1996 1995/96 1995 1994

Knox, Elizabeth, Wandering Eye, catalogue, Milford Gallery (attached) O’Brien, Gregory, Land of Milk and Honey, catalogue, John Leech Gallery Green, Paula, Omarama, Place of Light, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery (attached) Caughey, Elizabeth & John Gow, Contemporary New Zealand Art 2, David Bateman Ltd, Auckland, p 66 (attached) Green, Paula, Four Strong Winds, catalogue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland (attached) Green, Paula, Walking in the World, Michael Hights Trust in Place, Art New Zealand No.77, Summer, p77-79 (attached) Brown, Warwick, 100 New Zealand Paintings by 100 New Zealand Artists, Godwit Publishing, Auckland, p36 Mannion, Robert, ‘Painting a Bright Future’, The Dominion, Saturday October 22

Michael Hight 2010 CV P a g e |3

milford galleries queenstown

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz