Exhibition explores sense of urban soullessness

Exhibition explores sense of urban soullessness

To: Arts editor/Features editor
From: Jan McCarthy – CCC Communication Team

MEDIA RELEASE March 2007

Exhibition explores sense of urban soullessness

Upbeat, hard-edged, and large-scale, Kelcy Taratoa’s paintings juxtapose recent self-portraits and comic book superheroes with TV sets, police cars, corner dairies and childhood images to explore his own background and cultural identity. An exhibition of these opens at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna of Waiwhetu on 23 March.

Drawing inspiration from his own experience, Taratoa (Ngaiterangi and Ngati Raukawa) portrays urban New Zealand as an alienating, soulless environment, emblazoned with the enticements of everyday commercial culture. His experience is common to many.

“Kelcy is a recent Masters graduate from Massey University in Palmerston North,” says exhibition curator Ken Hall. “His work conveys a psychological landscape, made from elements of his present and past. His paintings are streetwise and personal, but they also look at bigger questions, particularly what it means to be Maori when you’ve grown up in an urban, detribalised setting.”

kelcytaratoa: myspace will be exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery from 23 March to 24 June 2007. It is Taratoa’s fourth solo exhibition but the first time he has been exhibited in a South Island public art gallery.

Hall first saw Taratoa’s work exhibited at Te Manawa in Palmerston North in 2005. “I was very taken with his work, and felt that this was a voice which had not been heard before in contemporary New Zealand art.

“This is someone telling you his story. His paintings are dynamic and impressive; they ask you to stop and listen, to think about what he is conveying.

Taratoa grew up without any particular sense of identification with his Maori ancestry, but he was always made to feel different, an outsider. “His art confronts this, and he uses it to make sense of his world, to find out where he fits. The exploration has opened up new horizons and given him a very clear sense of who and where he is. His studies have clearly been an important part of this.”

Taratoa (34) now works as a full-time artist, and is recognised as a name to watch.

Art Gallery director Jenny Harper says that the Gallery is delighted to be hosting this exhibition. “It is timely, given that we also have Toi Mäori: The Eternal Thread and opening on 17 March Reboot. Between these three exhibitions there is a range of Maori art from the traditional to the most up-to-date. It shows a continuum of engaged commentary and dynamic art practice.”

kelcytaratoa: myspace will be exhibited at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu from 23 March to 24 June 2007.

ENDS

© Scoop Media