NORTH AND SOUTH
MARK WOOLLER AND JOHN TOOMER
May 30-JUNE 14
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North and South is an exhibition exploring New Zealand’s identity and history through the lens of two landscape artists. Mark Wooller and John Toomer have spent their artistic careers painting New Zealand's North and South Islands respectively. Sensitive to their individual regions, the curation of the two artists together will explore the stories of New Zealand, our topography, landscape and heritage.
Documenting change is of fundamental importance for a society, and our artists are conduits for capturing and preserving these changes. The two artists of this exhibition have dedicated themselves to this cause, thoughtfully and consistently documenting New Zealand for over 30 years. Landscape is a start point for both artists, but it is the inclusion of the human trace, our engagement and connection with the landscape that brings their paintings to life, presenting us rich and complex narratives. |
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
JOHN TOOMER
John Toomer
Winter at Teviot Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 990 x 590mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Railway Wagons at Hyde Station Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 890 x 550mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Abandoned Farmhouse in the Ida Valley Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 920 x 420mm 2024 |
John Toomer
July Snow at Wedderburn Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 700 x 1240mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Sunlight & Shadows at Chatto Creek Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 740 x 390mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Shearers Huts at Home Hills Station Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 300 x 700mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Last Light on the Shearers Kitchen- Home Hills Station Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 610 x 900mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Old Schoolhouse at Blackstone Hill- Maniototo Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 1150 x 650mm 2024 |
John Toomer
Farm House and Buildings- Mid Canterbury Oil on Canvas, Tray Framed 490 x 940mm 2024 |
MARK WOOLLER
Mark Wooller
Harbour Crossing Oil on Canvas 1000 x 1200mm 2024 BACKSTORY- Harbour Crossing
Harbour Crossing captures Auckland's Downtown looking out over the Waitematā toward Devonport, featuring the original coastline of the city. The waterscapes are filled with the early waka and scows that travelled through these waters. These vessels are captured in a map like grid, denoting travel, the passage of time, the movements of people and the impacts these movements had on the land and our history. In the foreground 'Markers' stand to delineate a moment in history... a moment before massive change to the people and to the environment. The markers are placed in the landscape here by a unknown hand, the ribbon or rag flows in the wind, denoting a change in the air. |
Mark Wooller
Hauraki Oil on Canvas 800 x 600mm 2024 BACKSTORY- HAURAKI
A map of the Hauraki Gulf, reimagined with all the implicit promises of routes new and old, in and out of the unknown. This piece is a celebration of the Hauraki Gulf, with its Pohutukawa clad islands, rich sea life and diverse history. Translations:
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Mark Wooller
Mahurangi Marker Oil on Canvas 600 x 600mm 2024 BACKSTORY- MAHURANGI MARKER
The ‘Marker Paintings’ capture a moment in time. A moment before massive change to the people and environment. The markers are placed in the landscapes here by an unknown hand, the ribbon or rag flows in the wind, denoting a change in the air. The red ribbon shown here, might represent Papatuanuku, the earth mother, the sustainer of all living things. Te Whei Ao, the realm of coming into being, the forest. Rahui, a prohibition, here to protect a resource. |
Mark Wooller
Hauturu from Leigh Oil on Canvas 800 x 800mm 2024 BackSTory- Hauturu FRom LEIGH
Te Hauturu-o-toi Resting place of the wind From its position at the entrance to the Hauraki Gulf, Hauturu rises majestically from the sea. A stand of Kauri in the foreground, standing where the seaside village of Leigh (Omaha cove) now lies. |
Mark Wooller
Bush Town Oil on Canvas 500 x 500mm 2024 BACKSTORY- bush Town
A clearing in a forest/bush. Development and growth in a changing landscape. A move to the town, from wood to brick, from old quiet to new clamour. Bush Town is in many ways a pure expression of Wooller’s core ideas. From the beauty of the way the artist depicts the bush, to the gridding and expansion of the city blocks. This work speaks to urban planning, on our way of organising the natural, forming our own sense of place and our wonder of starting again. |
Mark Wooller
Commercial Bay Oil on Canvas 600 x 600mm 2024 BACKSTORY- commercial bay
The work Commercial Bay depicts the busy urban scene of Queen Street and adjacent streets from its early days. Central to this composition is the small stream that still runs under Queen Street, Wai-Horotiu. The markers symbolise the early stake by settlers in the area and the quickly rising structures of what is now Auckland’s CBD. The ‘Markers’ in the foreground of the work capture a moment in time. Wooller includes these markers in the piece as Nga Tohi Pumahara (survey pegs of the past), or as memory. Te Rerenga-or-iti, ‘The leap of the survivors’. The headland later renamed to Point Britomart, and then later removed. Te Nga u-wera, ‘Burnt Breasts’, the head at the mouth of the Wai Horotiu stream. The piece is titled Commercial Bay, a name that described the activity of the bay. |
Mark Wooller
Moehau- Coromandel Oil on Canvas 800 x 1000mm 2024 BACKSTORY- MOEHAU
This piece depicts a stylised map of the Moehau forest range in the northernmost tip of the Coromandel peninsula. Te Moengahau-o-Tamatekapua, The windy sleeping place of Tamatekapua (captain of one of the great canoes used by Maori to settle New Zealand) The construction of this piece by Wooller inspires the idea of sequential island-hopping, as done by Tamatekapua when discovering Aotearoa for the first time. With our continued personal exploration of the Hauraki, this piece gives a sense of our own connection to the ideas of exploration and discovery in our own lives. |
Mark Wooller
Tāmaki Makaurau Marker Oil on Canvas 600 x 600mm 2024 BACKSTORY- Tamaki MakauraU
The ‘Marker paintings’ capture a moment in time. A moment before massive change to the people and to the environment. The markers are placed in the landscapes here by a unknown hand, a stake in the ground. Tamaki, desired by many, is the traditional and ancient name of Auckland. Rivers of the Tamaki Makaurau, shown left to right:
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Mark Wooller
Town view, Waitākere Oil on Canvas 400 x 560mm 2024 BACKSTORY- Town View
A vista from the Waitakere ranges to Auckland, capturing the inner suburbs of a growing Auckland. The numbers represent vacant lots awaiting purchase. |
Mark Wooller
Through the Gulf Oil on Canvas 800 x 600mm 2024 Backstory- Through the Gulf
I runga te moutere On the island. Early explorations, landings and settlement Akau, Rocky Shore The risks and danger of the early exploration |
Mark Wooller
Forest Bridges Oil on Canvas 600 x 1000mm 2024 BACKSTORY- FOREST BRIDGES
From the West Coast to the East Coast, corridors linking stands of forest to neighbouring stands creating safe passages for birds and wildlife to meander between coasts. (The Forest Bridge Trust has been working since 2013 to create this vision). Oruwharo (West) Okahukura (West) Tohitohi-o-rei, The dome (Center) Tamahunga (East) Tawharanui (East) |
Mark Wooller
Kauri Island Oil on Canvas 800 x 800mm 2024 Backstory- kauri island
Translations:
This work serves to remind us of the bounty of the sea, surrounding this little beautiful island filled with unique native trees like Kauri. |
Mark Wooller
Marker 1 Oil on Board with Attached Found Wood 200 x 200mm 2024 |
Mark Wooller
Marker II Oil on Board with Attached Found Wood 300 x 200mm 2024 |
Mark Wooller
Marker III Oil on Board with Attached Found Wood 400 x 200mm 2024 |
Mark Wooller
Island Oil on Board with Attached Found Wood 200 x 200mm 2024 |
Mark Wooller
Swell Oil on Board with Attached Found Wood 200 x 200mm 2024 |
EXHIBITION TEXT
Mark Wooller and John Toomer have spent their artistic careers painting New Zealand's North and South Islands respectively. Sensitive to their individual regions, the curation of the two artists together will explore the stories of New Zealand, our topography, landscape and heritage.
Documenting change is of fundamental importance for a society, and our artists are conduits for capturing and preserving these changes. The two artists of this exhibition have dedicated themselves to this cause, thoughtfully and consistently documenting New Zealand for over 30 years. Landscape is a start point for both artists, but it is the inclusion of the human trace, our engagement and connection with the landscape that brings their paintings to life, presenting us rich and complex narratives.
John Toomer’s new works continue his documentation of our Southern Heartland, rendered in fine oil on canvas. With a cinematic gravitas, Toomer presents us with photo-realistic homesteads, railway stations, school-houses and early infrastructure. These solitary buildings stand drenched in the last evening light, or emerging from snow, or huddled under vast brooding skies. The buildings come to represent the people who inhabited them and all who have followed. We recall those pioneering individuals and their experiences, those who worked together in a beautiful, but often unforgiving land, building for their future.
Mid Canterbury, Central Otago, Maniototo and beyond are captured in these latest works. For John, having spent his life in these areas, the act of painting them serves as a form of "nostalgia, a bit of storytelling and a bit of history". Now after some 30 years of focused painting in this genre John Toomer has finessed the approach of transforming humble rural buildings and landscapes into scenes of iconic status.
Toomer’s carefully crafted scenes entice the viewer to gaze longer at these often-forgotten buildings, giving back our attention and recognition to these structures that were important foundations for our South.
Mark Wooller takes our focus to the North Island, in particular the Auckland region and surrounding coastal areas and islands. He titles this new body of work Markers, in reference to the survey pegs or timber structures that stand in his landscapes. These Markers embody the concept of 'Nga Tohu Pumuhara'- survey pegs of the past. These pegs or memory markers connect us to the land.
Wooller’s canvases are rich in both topography and typography. His integration of written place names on his survey pegs and throughout his compositions enables the communication of rich narratives that are associated with place. As described in a key reference text ‘Nga Tohu Pumuhara'- New Zealand Geographic Board, names carry a cargo of meaning and memory, they signpost the fact that place has a human dimension. A place name can store and release whole parcels of history.
The grid is a common compositional device across these new works, utilised not just for the balance and harmony it brings to the paintings, but also to make reference to early New Zealand mapping and town planning that has evolved over time. Areas have been bought, sold, developed, cultivated, populated and changed; and through this process histories, stories and narratives emerge. The grid also symbolises travel, the passage of time, the movements of people and the impacts of these movements on the land and on history.
In combination with text references, Wooller’s paintings are distinctive for their semi-surreal and technically detailed approach to rendering the landscape. Wooller cloaks his land in dense primeval foliage, serving to transport the viewer to a past time, a time of untouched landscape.
Wooller’s Markers series provides us an opportunity to read our past through a shared lens of time, change and hope.
Documenting change is of fundamental importance for a society, and our artists are conduits for capturing and preserving these changes. The two artists of this exhibition have dedicated themselves to this cause, thoughtfully and consistently documenting New Zealand for over 30 years. Landscape is a start point for both artists, but it is the inclusion of the human trace, our engagement and connection with the landscape that brings their paintings to life, presenting us rich and complex narratives.
John Toomer’s new works continue his documentation of our Southern Heartland, rendered in fine oil on canvas. With a cinematic gravitas, Toomer presents us with photo-realistic homesteads, railway stations, school-houses and early infrastructure. These solitary buildings stand drenched in the last evening light, or emerging from snow, or huddled under vast brooding skies. The buildings come to represent the people who inhabited them and all who have followed. We recall those pioneering individuals and their experiences, those who worked together in a beautiful, but often unforgiving land, building for their future.
Mid Canterbury, Central Otago, Maniototo and beyond are captured in these latest works. For John, having spent his life in these areas, the act of painting them serves as a form of "nostalgia, a bit of storytelling and a bit of history". Now after some 30 years of focused painting in this genre John Toomer has finessed the approach of transforming humble rural buildings and landscapes into scenes of iconic status.
Toomer’s carefully crafted scenes entice the viewer to gaze longer at these often-forgotten buildings, giving back our attention and recognition to these structures that were important foundations for our South.
Mark Wooller takes our focus to the North Island, in particular the Auckland region and surrounding coastal areas and islands. He titles this new body of work Markers, in reference to the survey pegs or timber structures that stand in his landscapes. These Markers embody the concept of 'Nga Tohu Pumuhara'- survey pegs of the past. These pegs or memory markers connect us to the land.
Wooller’s canvases are rich in both topography and typography. His integration of written place names on his survey pegs and throughout his compositions enables the communication of rich narratives that are associated with place. As described in a key reference text ‘Nga Tohu Pumuhara'- New Zealand Geographic Board, names carry a cargo of meaning and memory, they signpost the fact that place has a human dimension. A place name can store and release whole parcels of history.
The grid is a common compositional device across these new works, utilised not just for the balance and harmony it brings to the paintings, but also to make reference to early New Zealand mapping and town planning that has evolved over time. Areas have been bought, sold, developed, cultivated, populated and changed; and through this process histories, stories and narratives emerge. The grid also symbolises travel, the passage of time, the movements of people and the impacts of these movements on the land and on history.
In combination with text references, Wooller’s paintings are distinctive for their semi-surreal and technically detailed approach to rendering the landscape. Wooller cloaks his land in dense primeval foliage, serving to transport the viewer to a past time, a time of untouched landscape.
Wooller’s Markers series provides us an opportunity to read our past through a shared lens of time, change and hope.