Glen Hayward is known for his sculptures of everyday, mass-produced items. Carved from wood and painted exactly as they were as found objects, they masquerade as the real. Hayward completed his doctoral dissertation at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 2005. "I work at the intersection of carving and painting, I find all the world of things endlessly fascinating and potentially meaningful. This way of making solves two tensions, one my tendency to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things, the time it takes to carve things limits the number of things I can make. The second is more process based, it acknowledges that selection of the 'thing' reflects a way of understanding the world, as the ready-made enacts. Although the world is fecund the mere presentation of it shows - an angle not all angles. To make a ready-made incites a value for the thing depicted, it permits a physical understanding of the world through making and parallels this through viewing." Recent solo shows include: I don't want you to worry about me I have met some Beautiful People, City Gallery Wellington and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu(2013); Mirrorworld, McCahon house open studio, Auckland Arts Festival (2011); For want of a nail, Tauranga Art Gallery (2011); The Island of Wen, Alties Spitel, Solothurn, Switzerland (2011): and Live Transmission, Starkwhite, Auckland (2009).
Group shows include: The Obstinate object, curators Aaron Lister and Abbey Cunnae, City Gallery, Wellington (2012); Collected fictions, curators Kim Paton and Gareth Williams, Waikato Art Museum (2012); Debuilding, curator Justin Paton, Christchurch City Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu,Christchurch (2011); Song of the woods, curator Greg Donson, Sarjeant Gallery Wanganui (2011); Call Waiting, curator Alexa Johnston, Auckland City Art Gallery (NEW), Auckland (2010); F is for fake, curator Emma Bugden Te Tuhi, Pakuranga (2009); Woodwork, 5 Artists working in wood, curated by Greg Donson, Sarjeant Galley, Wanganui (2008); Reboot, The Jim and Mary Barr Collection, curator Justin Paton, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery and Wellington City Gallery (2006-2007); and Vanishing point: representing the invisible, curators Jim Barr & Mary Barr, Starkwhite, Auckland (2005). Recent Awards and Residencies include Four plinths sculpture project Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and Wellington Sculpture Trust award for Rita used to grow her own vegetables (2012); Rita Angus Fellow (2012); McCahon House Residency, Titirangi (2011); and Kaipara Foundation Award, Switzerland Residency, Wallace Art Awards, Auckland (2011). Glen Hayward was born 1974 in Auckland, and currently lives and works in Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand. http://glenhayward.com
Virginia Leonard’s personal and visceral ceramics represent the artist’s bodily scarring and the chronic pain she suffers, following a serious motorbike accident in London in 1986. “The clay work always refers to my body. Each work is a self-portrait. Always attempting to understand two issues, chronic pain and bodily scarring. These objects are my body ... it is the pain I make and express in clay...the objectlessness of chronic pain is processed and overcome through abstraction. Abstraction represents the voiceless”. Leonard graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Whitecliffe College of Arts & Design, Auckland in 2001. During Leonard’s early career, her bold post-abstract expressionist paintings were exhibited widely across New Zealand in commercial and public spaces, including the Auckland Art Fair in 2009. Leonard’s paintings were the recipient of numerous national awards, including the overall winner of the Walker and Hall Waiheke Art Award 2011, Waiheke and the Molly Morpeth Canady Art Award 2012 in Whakatane, New Zealand. In 2013 Leonard began working with ceram ics to address her physical scarring and chronic pain. Self-taught and adopting an experimental approach, the artist’s first major ceramic project was for leading New Zealand public craft and design gallery, Objectspace in Auckland, culminating in the successful solo-exhibition The Effects of Crack (31 October 2014 - 5 January 2015). Since turning to ceramics, Leonard has received national recognition for her distinctive and emotive practice.
Most notably, the artist received a Merit Award at New Zealand’s premier ceramics prize and exhibition, the Portage Ceramic Awards 2015 at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Auckland. Previous accolades include, three-time finalist in the Wallace Arts Award, Auckland 2013, 2014, 2015 and finalist in the National Contempo rary Art Award, Waikato Museum 2014 and 2015. Recent ceramic exhibitions also include Foursome (2014) at The Vivian, Matakana and the group show Graffiti Lounge (2016) at PAULNACHE Gallery, Gisborne, New Zealand. Leonard is currently developing a new series of ceramic works for a group exhibition at Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark (August 2016), a solo show at Corbans Estate Arts Centre, Auckland in (October 2016) and a group show at Two Rooms, Auckland (October – November 2016). Virginia Leonard was born 1965 in Auckland and currently lives and works in Matakana, Aotearoa New Zealand. http://virginialeonard.co.nz/
Raised in a family of artists, Evan Woodruffe is a painter who is well respected for his in-depth technical knowledge. Woodruffe presents us with a baroque condition of the modern world, an unstable, networked world which he attempts to map, with the trail of the brush marking stages, places and possible events. We are offered multiple entrances to his work and our gaze becomes nomadic, following both the process and passage: ours. "Woodruffe's stated intention as an artist is to present 'a confused multiplicity of interconnected elements and surfaces that allude to our current urbanism'. The results are bold, spellbinding and literally dazzling". – Professor John Seed, Huffington Post, February 2016. Woodruffe has his MFA (1st Class Honours) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He has a proven exhibition and award history, including the 2011 Molly Morpeth Canaday Award and the 2003 Becroft Premier Award, and has works in significant collections, such as the Wallace Art Trust. Recent solo shows include: ‘Hypnic Jerks’, PAULNACHE, Gisborne, NZ (2016); Dodge, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, NZ; Here Comes Everyone, Orexart, NZ (2015). Recent group shows include: ‘beyond the haha’, PAULNACHE at Auckland Art Fair; Graffiti Lounge, PAULNACHE, Gisborne, NZ; Lost Dimension, WooSpace, Beijing, China (2016); UNfold FourFOLD, Ferriera Projects, London, UK (2015). Evan Woodruffe was born 1965 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, where the artist currently lives and works. http://www.evanwoodruffe.com