Tauranga Art Gallery
It was a pleasure and privilege last Friday to formally open a couple of wonderful exhibitions now running at the Tauranga Art Gallery.
Before I come to the exhibitions it is worth mentioning what a first class piece of cultural infrastructure the Tauranga Art Gallery is for the people of the city. Some may have a picture of infrastructure as only roads, rail, and the like, but if you think of infrastructure as literally being the building blocks that go to make a place what it is, galleries are very important. Arts and culture give a city a soul. Opened only recently in 2007 we’re lucky to have this locally-funded gallery and now we couldn’t do without it.
The first exhibition is called ‘Kathleen’s Collection’ and is a selection of works of art accumulated over art lover Kathleen Kirby’s lifetime in Tauranga. The works include paintings by household names such as Goldie and Frances Hodgkins and what impressed me, other than the individual pieces, was how a person can over a period of years build such a canon of works.
The second exhibition, ‘The Farmer’ by John Mclean, is a series of paintings which follow on from his ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ collection. At the end of the first paintings the wife leaves the farmer, while this latest series explores what happens to him when he contemplates taking in his housekeeper. The art and the story in combination have a powerful effect.
Both exhibitions run until mid June and are definitely worth seeing.
It was a pleasure and privilege last Friday to formally open a couple of wonderful exhibitions now running at the Tauranga Art Gallery.
Before I come to the exhibitions it is worth mentioning what a first class piece of cultural infrastructure the Tauranga Art Gallery is for the people of the city. Some may have a picture of infrastructure as only roads, rail, and the like, but if you think of infrastructure as literally being the building blocks that go to make a place what it is, galleries are very important. Arts and culture give a city a soul. Opened only recently in 2007 we’re lucky to have this locally-funded gallery and now we couldn’t do without it.
The first exhibition is called ‘Kathleen’s Collection’ and is a selection of works of art accumulated over art lover Kathleen Kirby’s lifetime in Tauranga. The works include paintings by household names such as Goldie and Frances Hodgkins and what impressed me, other than the individual pieces, was how a person can over a period of years build such a canon of works.
The second exhibition, ‘The Farmer’ by John Mclean, is a series of paintings which follow on from his ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ collection. At the end of the first paintings the wife leaves the farmer, while this latest series explores what happens to him when he contemplates taking in his housekeeper. The art and the story in combination have a powerful effect.
Both exhibitions run until mid June and are definitely worth seeing.
