CREATIVITY IN THE HEART OF THE CITY

The Central Art Gallery is now three years old. A vision born of five local stakeholder families to offer exhibition and selling opportunities to contemporary New Zealand artists in central Christchurch, post-quake.

Solo exhibitions by Neil Dawson, Bing Dawe, Elizabeth Thomson, and Simon Edwards have been punctuated by themed group shows like Glimpse Panorama (landscape) and One Moment Please (still life in contemporary New Zealand art). There have been new work shows which include artists rarely seen in Christchurch, like Ann Robinson, Veronica Herber, Martin Poppelwell, and Stanley Palmer.

Fiona Van Oyen and Kirstin Carlin have shown an array of organic forms. Dick Frizzell has stolen the floor, and Reuben Paterson’s glitter works dazzled visitors through December and January just passed.

The gallery also offers space to browse stock on accessible sliding steel racks. Whilst print drawers offer a large variety of works on paper by gallery artists. These are easily viewed on an iPad that catalogues and displays every available work. The Central is a flexible space (with mobile walls offering intimate moments and a sense of enclosure within something much bigger). Flooded with graceful natural light and the warmth of old timbers and stone, the Old Library Building from pre-Arts Centre days has come back alive.

Now, under the stewardship of gallerists Jonathan Smart and Laura Gobbe, a wonderful variety of contemporary work continues to be offered in the city. Emma Camden’s sculptural cast glass currently glows in the generous window bays, Karl Maughan’s layered brushwork and vivid palette will tantalise in March, and Hannah Kidd will explore the mixed blessings of inheritance in a lavish show of sculpture come May.

The Central Art Gallery is open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 10am to 4pm. All are welcome to come down and peruse their collection of work. You’ll find The Central in The Old Library Building in the Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora on Worcester Boulevard.

Works pictured: Neil Dawson Feather (Down) 2019, Emma Camden, Solid Cross 2016, Reuben Patterson We Keep What Belongs To Us 2019.

https://thecentral.co.nz/