Gallery One Mudlark: ceramics by Bronwynne Cornish Opening Saturday 8 November at 5.30pm, with speaker, Alexa Johnston. Exhibition: 8 November – 13 December 2014 Bronwynne Cornish’s distinctive figurative works carry a strong sense of both their material and maker, pushing boundaries and perceptions of both contemporary craft and sculpture. When her large scale installations first appeared in the 1980s, they were considered a radical departure from the accepted traditions of pottery‐making in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Early on her work was accepted as ceramic sculpture, being included in the exhibition Five x Five at Denis Cohn Gallery, with the ambitious scale of the installation Home is where the heart is creating a sensation at the Dowse Art Museum in 1982 and then entering its collection. The following year Dedicated to the Kindness of Mothers was created as an installation at the Art Gallery, and a photograph of it made the cover of Art New Zealand 30 due to its spectacular cracked face, dramatic red lighting and the basalt composition of the body of the prone mother. These important exhibition, curated by Lucy Hammonds for MTG Hawke’s Bay, brings together four major series – Temples, Seated Figures, Baa Birds and Standing Figures. These motifs form the cornerstone of Cornish’s practice over the past twenty years, constantly recurring as her practice has evolved.

Gallery Two

New Graduate Works: selected by Tim Wagg

Opening Friday 5 December at 5.00pm, with speaker Derrick Cherrie.

Profiling the work of this year’s crop of graduating students from Elam School of Fine Arts, this exhibition will be curated by Tim Wagg following a call for submissions. Three graduates will be awarded and their artwork will be purchased as part of the University’s art collection.

Judges will be Linda Tyler, Director Centre for Art Studies, Dame Jenny Gibbs and Lisa Crowley, Collection Committee members and Tim Wagg, Window curator and Gus Fisher Gallery curatorial assistant, and the graduates will receive certificates acknowledging the acquisition of their work for the collection on the night.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMES

Saturday 8 November ‐ CLAYATHON: incorporating Clay O’Clock, an Auckland Festival of Ceramics in Shortland Street.

Meet the Makers Saturday: Join the bus tour 10am NorthArt, 11am Te Uru, 1.30pm Masterworks, 2.30pm Objectspace, 3.30pm FhE Galleries, 4.30pm Anna Miles Gallery, 5pm Gus Fisher Gallery.

Following a viewing of the exhibition Claytime at 10am at NorthArt, Norman King Square, Ernie Mays Street, Northcote Shopping Centre with curator Chika Lim, travel by bus to the talk at Te Uru, Titirangi, by this year’s Portage Ceramic Awards Judge Takeshi Yasuda (born 1943) at 11am, travel back into town and meet for a light lunch at Masterworks where Bronwynne Cornish will introduce her works on display. Travel on to Objectspace in Ponsonby to view Virginia Leonard’s installation in the Window and chat with her and Objectspace Director, Phillip Clarke at 2.00pm then around the corner to Whitespace for a viewing of Jim Cooper’s ceramics. Then back into town to FhE Galleries in Lorne Street to see Emily Siddell’s excursions into clay at 3.30pm, then on to Anna Miles Gallery at 47 High Street at 4.00pm for a Richard Stratton extravaganza before viewing the pop‐up exhibition of ceramics at Jason Books curated by Henry Davidson, and then joining the throng at the opening of Mudlark at Gus Fisher Gallery at 5.30pm. Taxi vans will return you to the carpark at NorthArt or Te Uru Waitakaere Contemporary Art Gallery at 6pm .

Book for this ceramic lovers tour (styled as Clayathon, an Auckland Festival of Ceramics) by emailing [email protected]

Cost $65

1pm, Saturday 15 November Photographer Deborah Smith will convene a panel discussion with Mark Thomas, Pauline Bern and Helen Aldridge.

1pm, Saturday 22 November A screening of the film Mindspaces: The Artist’s Studio, a 2014 documentary film narrated by Denis O’Connor who has authored a chapter titled “Funk, Pop and Putiki” in the book Mudlark. Produced and directed by Stephanie Bennett, the film pays tribute to the work of the artist’s late daughter Dr Blaze Valeska O’Connor (1975‐2009), who was involved in the relocation of painter Francis Bacon’s studio to Dublin. The studio of Bacon’s lifelong friend, Lucian Freud, is also discussed in the film with art critic and historian Martin Gayford, whose book Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud, is a record of the 250 hours he spent in Freud’s studio.

1pm, Saturday 29 November Bronwynne Cornish will present a floor talk in the exhibition, and invite visitors to offer their responses to her work.

1pm, Saturday 6 December In conversation with the artists whose work has been chosen for the collection, Tim Wagg, curator of New Graduate Works will discuss trends at Elam.

1pm, Saturday 13 December Homemade Christmas fruit mince pies on pottery platters to be consumed with Bronwynne Cornish and Alexa Johnston telling clay stories.

THE GUS FISHER GALLERY GALLERY HOURS The Tuesday ‐ Friday 10am ‐ 5pm 74 Shortland St Saturday 12pm ‐ 4pm Auckland, New Zealand Closed Public Holidays Telephone: 923 6646 www.gusfishergallery.auckland.ac.nz