Creative Hawke's Bay Invitational 2011

10 April 2011 - 26 June 2011

Now in its fifth year, the Creative Hawkes Bay Invitational has grown to be the signature regional art event. A well attended black-tie opening night sets the scene for showcasing new work by professional artists born in or connected to Hawke’s Bay. The exhibition runs for more than ten weeks.

For the last two annual Invitational’s,  Creative Hawke’s Bay have invited an experienced external curator to look at what the Hawke’s Bay arts community has to offer,  and then to  make a personal selection.

This is of course a most difficult task as professional artists invited to submit works may be later rejected during the exhibition design, when the curator attempts visual cohesion from an eclectic and diverse body of work.

Selection is then all the more important for artists, who wish to be included alongside their peers. What is always pleasing is the great regional pride evident from visitors during the Invitational season. This year’s curator Helen Kedgely from Pataka says that “The thing I’m looking for is quality. There are some very very fine artists exhibiting”.

 In her statement for the show she talks further about some of the artists she has selected.

Artists such as Phil Dadson, Derek Henderson, Freeman White, Leanne Culy and Matt Couper were born in the Bay. But a growing number of others have been drawn here by not only the Bay’s weather, Art Deco architecture and landscape, but also its thriving artistic community. Internationally acclaimed artist and visionary David Trubridge, for example, who initially came to Napier as artist-in-residence at Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic in the 1990s, is now firmly established in the Hawke’s Bay artists' colony.

Such an exhibition defies easy categorisation. But one can discern some shared themes – interconnections between the different cultures in New Zealand, the interplay between technology and culture, responsiveness to the influences of locality, an empathy with the East Coast landscape, concern for the environment, explorations of identity and belonging, as well as a range of discussions reflecting on our uncertain times. Some of the works have a dark, rather melancholy mood, a few are challenging and provocative, but overall there is a feeling of optimism and vibrancy. The artists offer a wide variety of fresh, sharp, witty and mostly hopeful visions.

Hastings City Art Gallery continues its commitment to raising the profile of local professional artists . Take a look at this exhibition and see what support for the arts in a community can achieve.

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