SEAing Bleu/Whakaata Kitea

Artists - Tracey Lee Cassin and Joanne Black

This exhibition brings the work of two local artists together. Joanne Black and Tracey Lee Cassin explore ideas of expression, freedom, and power, using the colour blue. For Tracey Lee, the sea is an important motif. Her oils are full of texture; paint is applied intuitively to each canvas. We see water churned and foaming, in waves and coils that repeat across the walls of the gallery.

The restorative act of painting is also championed by Joanne, whose ornate blue and green figures crowd and hover on their vintage mirror surfaces, staring out from a different world while literally reflecting our own. Her works, shimmering and strange, imagine ancestral Māori wāhine in poses that reference western Renaissance paintings. They are highly decorated, at times adorned by birds and creatures, looking out unflinchingly on the realm of the gallery. 

The paintings of both artists hang here thanks to friendship, a mutual respect for heritage, and a deep need to bring their artwork home. This is their first exhibition together.