Only 12 months ago, on 28 January, Marty Ball, the co-Director of Momentum Framing Gallery, sadly passed away.
It is with great sadness that we announce that Marty's partner and Momentum co-Director Deb Stearns passed away yesterday, almost a year after him.
R.I.P. Deb
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WHO CARES?: Shane Hansen doesn't expect to sell many copies of his self-portrait and has created this limited edition print as a more positive piece for people to buy $100 from each sale will go to The Parenting Hub. Photo: Ben Campbell Happy with sad portrait Shane Hansen is serious when he says he wants his art to make people sad. via stuff.co.nz/Central LeaderSeptember 2011 BY HANNAH SPYKSMA He is getting real about the child abuse issues that face New Zealand and are, in his opinion, highlighted during the Rugby World Cup.
He has created a provoking self-portrait to acknowledge his feelings about the issue, and hopes to stir an emotional response from art buyers as well.
"I make no apologies for this image and the feelings it may ignite.
"It is intended to create a reaction," Mr Hansen says.
He is one of five contemporary Maori artists to have work commissioned and patterns licensed for use on official world cup merchandise.
But the Mt Albert father-of-two says that on the flip-side of having his brand exposed to the world, is a feeling of responsibility to our country's children.
Social Development Ministry statistics show Child, Youth and Family services dealt with more than 21,000 cases of abuse and neglect in 2009 and 2010.
So as a side project to his world cup art, Mr Hansen has started a fundraising venture to help out south Auckland charity The Parenting Hub.
The hub is run by Linda Biggs.
It gives parents practical help and tools to care for their children.
Mr Hansen is using his self-portrait as a talking point and hopes it will draw people's attention to another limited edition screen print he has created.
The piece is called Whaanau and depicts the layered relationships and connections that being a family brings.
The print is being retailed at the moment and $100 of the proceeds from each sale go straight to The Parenting Hub.
The aim is to raise $10,000 for the hub so it can by a new mini-van.
Mr Hansen says his initiative has not been received that well among his stockists.
Only four of 12 stores nationwide are choosing to display the self-portrait.
Many people have told him he should wait until after the world cup to start a heavy campaign like this.
But the artist believes there is no time like the present and he does have some support in Auckland.
"Good on him I say – I just think he's got a lot of guts," Momentum Gallery owner Deb Stearns says.
Her Herne Bay gallery is displaying Mr Hansen's image and prints as she believes the artist has his heart in the right place.
"I'm just really proud of him for having the nerve to do the project at this time in this country."
Ms Stearns is holding an exhibition of the artist's work in late October and says she is always happy to help out deserving artists.
Mr Hansen is not phased by negative reactions.
"We all have to face up to the reality of what is happening in Aotearoa and do what we are able to do in order to help combat it."
A report released by the Health Ministry in the lead up to the world cup lists alcohol consumption and domestic violence among the four main adverse effects that could stem from the six-week event.
It suggests that health promotion efforts to reduce alcohol related harms should be a central component of public health planning for the duration of the event. See Shane Hansen artworks here »
Graphic artist Greg Straight is one of our brightest design talents, with clients ranging from streetwear labels to big corporates. Recently he jumped into the fine art world with his pop art-style kiwiana prints read more (PDF)
Review The Painter by Dick Frizzell Godwit RRP $75 320pp full-colour reproductions throughout
Since I’ve moved to Auckland, I now get all my prints and photographs framed at the Momentum Framing Gallery in Jervois Road.
Sometimes I go to their openings to see the art but, I suspect, like most of us I’m really there for the beer.
The work they show is normally easy on the eye, but the tension at these evenings is the draw for an unsigned print of Dick Frizzell’s eponymous painting Mickey to Tiki.
It’s one of the gallery’s most popular prints. Why?
Now, I’ve given up on most art books because my intelligence can’t decipher the denseness of the printed matter.
Rest assured there’s not much theory here.
Dick Frizzell’s The Painter is an honest, rambling read.
Rough hewn, this history of Frizzell’s oeuvre slips all over the place like a book in a scrap.
I’m not even put off by the dodgy reproductions; I like this book so much because the writing is so good.
A laconic yarn with lots of exclamation marks!
So what is it with Dick Frizzell?
I think his trick is working like a cultural magpie, grabbing whatever from whomever.
Whether it’s a tiki, landscape or lawnmower he doesn’t seem particularly fussed.
His practice is to appropriate and coagulate the things out there into something that resembles what is to be a New Zealander in New Zealand.
In New York as an aspiring artist, Frizzell recalls perhaps a seminal conversation with the artist Neil Jenney, where he is told over an awkward lunch to stop kidding himself and understand that an artist’s job was to paint his own culture, not anybody else’s.
Frizzell obviously took that advice to heart and, in so doing, has done us proud.
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Hours: Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm, Saturday 10am - 5pm
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