The Wanganui National 2009 Amalgamated Tech Art Exhibition and Award has been inaugurated to promote the fine arts in New Zealand, showcased in Wanganui, a city renowned for nurturing and inspiring visual artists.
The exhibition is open to all artists living and working in New Zealand, and offers an array of styles and tastes. Seeded by twelve artists from the Wanganui, Wellington and Hawkes Bay regions, the Wanganui National aims to promote New Zealand artists and the visual arts, and to bring new arts experiences to the city.
Neil Buddle and Esther Topfer are two Wanganui artists seeding the exhibition. Neil Buddle continues to grow and develop his art practice following stints in arts administration. This has meant developing both the commercial and conceptual strands of his work.
His latest work selling in Auckland are prints of New Zealand native trees and how the rich natural resources of our country make our urban environment, intertwining the history of people and land. In addition he is exhibiting in international, national and local exhibitions.
Although currently working primarily as a printmaker, Neil is looking forward to returning to the medium of assemblage for this exhibition. His principal subjects of interest are local politics, landscape, cultural history and erotica.
Esther Topfer is a Diploma of Glass graduate and is completing the last year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Wanganui’s Quay School of the Arts. Her exhibition piece is titled Glory, a work of mixed media, paint and screen-printing on glass.
The delicate surface beauty of Esther’s work draws the viewer into a world of eclectism where beliefs of many cultures are magically entwined in a unification of spiritual imagery. By using divergent materials, processes and subjects, Esther is asking the viewer to accept these differences and meld our individual spirituality and beliefs to form a new way of devotion to God, Goddess and Spirit.
The exhibition will have all works for sale and runs during a time of numerous other cultural events in the city, such as the Wanganui Literary Festival and the Wanganui Festival of Glass. A cash award will be given to the artist with the Best in Show as judged by a selection panel.
The exhibition is held at the Wanganui Community Arts Centre. The opening function starts at 5pm on Thursday 17th September and the exhibition shows until Sunday 27th September.
The Wanganui National Art Exhibition and Award is presented by Optiv101 Fine Arts and Multimedia Studios
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