It is very noticeable when you travel nowadays that a large number of New Zealand artists are at work around the world. They are of course part of a grand tradition with predecessors like Frances Hodgkins, Billy Apple, Boyd Webb and Michael Stevenson just for starters but the number has increased hugely in the last decade.
We have already mentioned meeting Fiona Connor who was preparing for her Hammer Museum appearance in Los Angeles (she has been given the large marble entry foyer as her space). Then we visited the ICA in London to find that half of its current exhibition In control had been curated by Simon Denny who also has work in the show. The exhibition marks the passing of analogue television as TV goes digital and Denny has installed in it a monster piece of broadcasting equipment that now no doubt could be run from an iPhone. When we texted Simon to say we were standing in the ICA he was off to install his solo show at the Aspen Art Museum.
And as if that weren’t enough global NZ activity, you can add Francis Upritchard’s upcoming solo show in the Zaha Hadid designed Contemporary Arts Centre in Cincinnati. Small world.
Images: the section of the ICA’s exhibition In Control curated by Simon Denny with his own work far right
