BEN REID
Ben Reid is a Christchurch based contemporary printmaker. He majored in printmaking at Ara School of Art and Design. Specialising in Intaglio, more specifically drypoint and relief printmaking techniques. Reid’s critique of the vulnerability of ecosystems in the 21st century are impossible to dismiss, his prints directing the predicament of native species and their circumstances and possibilities of their resolution, back at us.
JOSH BASHFORD
Josh Bashford dives into the restorative qualities of nature, wildlife, family, faith and friendship in a new series of dramatic woodcuts, in high quality ink on canvas and hessian. Series are worked intuitively, exploring ideas of gathering with friends, celebrating with flowers. The Plentiful Teeming and Life Giver works introduce landforms reminiscent of the Canterbury and other coastlines, teeming with unseen fish life. The small works on hessian continue earlier themes of connecting with nature to revive and lift the spirit.
SASKIA VAN VOORN
In these dark times with climate change, raging wars and environmental degradation, I often feel overwhelmed and powerless. I tend to look up to the sky more and more for inspiration. The sky is always changing. It can be very light, but ominous too. It keeps mesmerising me the way it influences the colours of the land and water below. Over the last few years the sky has become the focal point in my work. Most of the time I don’t have to go far for my subject matter. 5 of the woodcuts are made on Banks Peninsula, one in Taranaki.
NIC TUCKER
I have worked and travelled around NZ, from the Deep south, where I was born, to the Far North, and lots of places in between. Over my life time I have grown a deepening understanding and love for our country, our whakapapa, our connection to our land, a connection that as individuals, we all have. This is the inspiration of my works. I translate my love of Aotearoa through an adapted Japanese style woodblock technique.