Look Again

This summer the Forrester Gallery has enlisted the help of four local schools to co-curate an exhibition featuring works of beloved North Otago artist Colin Wheeler (1919-2012) from the Forrester Gallery permanent collection.

The exhibition, which is called Look Again, features 18 works chosen by students from Waitaki Girls High School, Fenwick School, Oamaru North School and Duntroon School.

Forrester Gallery Director, Jane Macknight says, ‘The schools were chosen by the Friends of the Forrester for their contribution and support of the Burns Memorial Art Exhibition 2014, plus enthusiasm and their effort in their artwork.’

‘The Friends of the Forrester sponsored five awards, which include transport to and from the Forrester for each school to visit an exhibition or programme of their choice. The awards were presented at this years Friends of the Forrester AGM. The Friends intend to make the initiative an annual award – recognizing the importance of our younger audiences and education in the arts for our local community.’

Forrester Gallery Curator, Alice Lake-Hammond says, ‘We invited 4-5 students from each school to the Forrester to look at Colin’s works and learn more about the artist and his contribution to our regional art scene and beyond.

‘Colin Wheeler was a respected and much valued member of our community. In a creative career spanning 7 decades his enduring legacy is his painterly documentation of our rural scene and built heritage in the Waitaki, and his generous gifting of over 150 painting and drawings to the Forrester Gallery permanent collection.’

‘Wheeler’s works often give us a fresh perspective of our local landscape and built environment. In his words, “contrasting and combining … objects you might otherwise just walk past”. They give visibility to our community vernacular and in doing so invite us to Look Again. By co-curating the exhibition with some of our young artists, we are able to share a fresh perspective on one of the Forrester largest collections. We hope you will all enjoy looking again.’

Look Again will run this summer in the Forrester Gallery upstairs gallery spaces from Thursday 11 December until March 2015.

 

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Forrester Gallery