New Work
Valerie Bos
Paintings inhabited with human-like and creature-like characters feature in this new work by Valerie Bos. Fuelled with emotions from the fallout of Tairawhiti’s Cyclone Gabrielle and the changing politics of our time, Bos meshes nature and imagination to create other worldly images. Utilising the reflective qualities of chrome cast vinyl and emboldened with a bright palette, these works seductively capture the viewer’s eye despite their origins. Encased in bespoke custom crafted frames with an iridescent pearl finish these paintings hold their own at a distance yet give unexpected rewards on closer inspection.
While on the face of it these works seem a departure from previous paintings, they bring together various strands Bos has been exploring for some years now. Creature-like characters first began to reappear in her work in 2016 after she began to reinvent dried bone-like seaweed sourced from Wellington’s southern coast; painting and photographing them is such a way that they took on a life of their own. Some of these early works – objects and images - were first exhibited in 2017 ‘Fragments: paintings, installation, and video projection’ at an artist’s run space in New York and later that year as ‘Transitional States’ at Mahara Gallery, Waikanae. Small objects in this vein have previously been part of other exhibitions at PAULNACHE however this is the first body or work where Bos has integrated these practices into her painting.
Virginia Leonard
Virginia Leonard’s ceramic works are ornate, visceral wonders. Her large, vessel-like structures bear some resemblance to everyday domestic items, yet the familiar shapes of vases, jugs, and urns are abstracted, morphed into melting masses. Colourful, sharp, seemingly floral and often gilded, the works have a fantastical quality and an aesthetic sensibility that borders on the Baroque. Leonard cites a visit to the Rococo rooms at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as influential, along with the lavish set and costume design of Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. “I just love the indulgence in the ornate. More is more in my world,” she states.
Glazed in vibrant colours and dripping with resin, Leonard’s objects are intentionally fired in a way that sees the objects partially slump and sometimes crack. This cracked, slumped, and visually lavish nature of the artworks is part of their meaning to the artist. “The celebration of ornateness is essential for my survival,” she says.
Valerie Bos + Virginia Leonard
Preview: Friday 20 Sept 2024, 5–7pm
Exhibition: 20.09.24 – 19.10.24
Photography
Credits: John Pennington, Thomas P Teutenberg & Oliver King
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