We got lucky in New York and were invited
to Kate Newby’s studio in Green Point, Brooklyn. The area is a mix of rapid new
development amidst the grand remnants of past industrial enterprises with
Manhattan just across the river. Martin Basher, a New Zealand artist who has
been working in NY for some time, had offered Kate part of his studio space in
a very large building full of small businesses and artist studios (so we got an unexpected visit to Martin's studio too). Martin shows
with Starkwhite in Auckland and is yet another example of the many NZ artists now
working and exhibiting internationally and still retaining their home
connections.
It wasn’t always so. Back a while the attitude was that when artists left New Zealand they had deserted the ship and they often paid a big price in terms of local recognition. Of course staying in NZ and making an international impression has never been easy. Even Colin McCahon, an artist who most international curators admire, has never managed to make a sustained impact. There are odd flutters of interest and then the art machine moves on. As in his lifetime, NZ and Australia pretty much have him to themselves (not that we’re complaining!). This ramble precedes the announcement of more studio shots on OTN:STUDIO.
This time it’s:
Kate Newby in New York, 2014
Don Driver, 20 March 2012
Seraphine Pick, 9 February and March 2014
Peter Robinson, 2003
Image: Kate Newby’s studio in New York
It wasn’t always so. Back a while the attitude was that when artists left New Zealand they had deserted the ship and they often paid a big price in terms of local recognition. Of course staying in NZ and making an international impression has never been easy. Even Colin McCahon, an artist who most international curators admire, has never managed to make a sustained impact. There are odd flutters of interest and then the art machine moves on. As in his lifetime, NZ and Australia pretty much have him to themselves (not that we’re complaining!). This ramble precedes the announcement of more studio shots on OTN:STUDIO.
This time it’s:
Kate Newby in New York, 2014
Don Driver, 20 March 2012
Seraphine Pick, 9 February and March 2014
Peter Robinson, 2003
Image: Kate Newby’s studio in New York
