John Walsh
New Zealand indigenous artist John Walsh is known for his unconventional style. His paintings are characterised by a distinctively vibrant palette of aqua and green hues, and a penchant for bold and expressive brushwork.
Walsh’s unconventional style and subject matter has evolved over recent years as he infuses narrative paintings with whimsy and wit. Gestural strokes mimic the trace of his movements – wiping, sweeping and scratching the pigment across the surface of the work. At times it is frenzied or tumultuous yet always in keeping with the dynamic narrative which is being told.
Walsh’s works from Gallipoli focus on the intimate stories that took place during the war. The above work explores the practice of everyday communications. The Turks had a constant flow of people relaying mail and news and supplies between the front and villages keeping contact with family and the state of their campaign. Walsh’s paintings personalise and provide insight into the individual narratives and experiences during a violent time of war.
Both an artist and curator John Walsh is of Aitanga a Hauiti descent. Walsh’s technique and narrative approach has been evolving since he left Art School. Since 1993 he has been the curator of contemporary Maori art at the National Art Gallery (now Te Papa).
Walsh exhibits annually in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. He has completed a number of large public commissions including participating in the Pathfinder International Mural project in New York City in 1989. His work is held in various public and private collections including the James Wallace Collection, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, the Sargeant Gallery Collection and the Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre Collection in Noumea, New Caledonia.
pageblackiegallery.co.nz/artists/john-walsh
Image: Uncle Mamet relays news, 2014, oil on paper, 17.7 x 42 cm
Courtesy the artist
In this preview of the Your Friend the Enemy documentary, meet some of the artists involved as they first encounter the surrounds of Gallipoli.
Including your local newsagent, you can also purchase the Your Friend the Enemy Special Edition at select Art Gallery shops listed here.
In commemoration of the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign this year, Your Friend the Enemy curated by John McDonald, is opening at S.H. Ervin Gallery.
The Your Friend the Enemy trip wasn’t nearly finished after the artists flew out from Turkey in 2014. The project had only just begun.
As we near the launch of the Your Friend the Enemy exhibitions, we look back to the personal links that inspired Your Friend the Enemy.
For artist Idris Murphy The Lost Diggers, accompanied by a show at the State Library held personal connections to the ANZAC legend.
Despite its geographical distance from Australia, Gallipoli holds great relevance and connection to contemporary Australian history. Linked by personal stories and histories to the battles...
After three days straddling the Golden Horn, there is a sense of itchy feet; artists eager to get into the field, but at the same...
Deirdre Bean • Elisabeth Cummings • Steve Lopes • Guy Maestri • Euan Macleod • Idris Murphy • Michael Nock • Peter O’Doherty • Susan...
Deirdre's watercolour paintings reveal the beautiful forms that can be found within nature.
Cummings works quietly and consistently. Her work, while influenced by landscape,her process is led by intuition.
Steve Lopes is a painter and printmaker known for his figurative landscape works.
Macleod produces dark, expressive landscape paintings
Maestri’s work documents the many journeys he has made across the country and the experience of the Australian landscape.
Your Friend the Enemy – the title of this exhibition – is inspired by a recent discovery of 160 letters written by grandfather Charles Idris...
Michael Nock is a practicing artist primarily focusing on oil painting, his works are imbued with the deep emotion that is etched into the landscape.
Peter O'Doherty's paintings are tonal assemblages of oblique geometric detail imbued with dense shadow and vivid Australian light.
Susan O’Doherty is a mixed media artist whose work ranges from large abstract paintings through to small mixed media assemblages as well as acrylic portraits.
Holding a personal connection to the trip, New Zealand artist Stanley Palmer’s Father fought at Gallipoli.
Travelling informs the work of respected Australian contemporary painter Amanda Penrose Hart.
The landscape has always been Robba's muse, but in this expedition the meaning goes beyond the surface of the painting.