Suite kicks off 2010 with ‘First Test’

Media Statement and Invitation
For immediate release
Thursday 21 January 2010

Suite kicks off 2010 with ‘First Test’

Five artists exhibit at Suite this month for the first time in First Test.

Christchurch-based painters Roger Boyce and Marie-Claire Brehaut, Auckland-based photographer Jennifer Mason and Wellington based sculptors Hannah Bremner and Peter Trevelyan are new to the Newtown gallery. Wellington artists Valerie Bos, Claire Zanelli, Andrew Topp and Grant Muir and Wanganui based Andrea Gardner complete the line up.

Roger Boyce is an ex-pat American and senior lecturer in painting at Ilam who has had solo shows in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Paris with works also part of exhibitions at the Sao Paulo Biennale, FIAC – Decouvert at the Grand Palais, Paris, PS1 and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

Boyce’s work is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington DC) and the deYoung Museum (San Francisco) and he has contributed critical writing to Art in America, Sculpture and Art New Zealand, among other publications.

First Test will be Marie-Claire Brehaut’s first exhibition since completing her Honours degree in painting at Ilam. Jennifer Mason has exhibited regularly at ORex gallery in Auckland and has won many awards for her staged photography. Glass artist Hannah Bremner has recently exhibited at Pataka Museum and is a regular at the Thermostat in Palmerston North.

A Masters graduate from Massey University, Peter Trevelyan will be showing an intricate graphite sculpture. From 26 February, Trevelyan will envelop four massive, permanent bollards on Wellington’s waterfront, between Te Papa and Circa Theatre as part of the New Zealand International Arts Festival.

The four bulbous kinetic forms, made from hinged and mirrored equilateral triangles, will provide an ever-changing translation of their environment as the constantly shifting surfaces reflect the surroundings.

Fresh from being profiled in Art Zone magazine, Andrea Gardner will exhibit one new sculptural work.

First Test also includes new paintings by Valerie Bos, Claire Zanelli and Andrew Topp, who all return for their second show at Suite. Also back again is Grant Muir - whose painted inkjet of a local rugby match features on this opening invitation and flyer.

Exhibition opening invitation
First Test
Opening with the artists Friday 29 January 5.30-7.30pm
Exhibition closes 5pm Saturday 20 February
Suite, 69 Owen Street, Newtown, Wellington
www.suite.co.nz
ends

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