Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Recent Bambury

AA
View Discussion
Stephen Bambury: Ideogram (at Giverny), 2014, nine works from the Fourteen Mirrors series (2014), and "Ideal knowledge is the eternal present", 2014. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Ideogram (at Giverny), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and white gold (5 panels), 910 x 2158 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury: Six works from the Fourteen Mirrors series (2014), plus "Ideal knowledge is the eternal present", 2014. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (1), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic, and 16k gold, 387 x 659 mm (3 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (II), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and 12k white gold, 347 x 333 mm (2 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (III), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and chemical action on silver and 12k white gold, 390 x 641 mm (2 panels).  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (IV), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and 12k white gold, 391 x 392 mm (2 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (V), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, 205 x 483 mm (4 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors, 2014, chemical action on aluminium, 287 x 246 mm; 280 x 238 mm (2 panels -12 mm gap). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (VII), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and chemical action on 12k white gold and silver, 395 x 440 mm (2 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Fourteen Mirrors (VIII), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and chemical action on 12k white gold and silver, 350 x 360 mm (2 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (VII), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, and chemical action on 12k white gold and silver and acrylic, 390 x 390 mm (2 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (X), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, 169 x 900 mm (2 panels).  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen mirrors (XI), 2014, chemical action on aluminium, acrylic and 12k white gold, 271 x 265 mm (3 panels). Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Fourteen Mirrors (XIII), 2014, chemical action on alumium, acrylic and 12k white gold, 390 x 469 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury: Here, 2014, iron filings and acrylic on 7 aluminium panels, 1400 x 7080 mm; on far right the installation of Seven Days. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  installation of the Seven Days series. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Seven Days (I), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 325 x 325 mm.  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (II), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 249 x 249 mm.  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (III), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 170 x 327 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (1V), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 249 x 338 mm.  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (V), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 244 x 226 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (V1), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 260 x 321 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury,  Seven Days (VII), 2014, chemical action on 4 brass plates, 262 x 341 mm.  Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury: Hau, 2014, 4000 x 720 mm; ICO89341, 2008-2014, 795 x 795 mm; Te Ara, 2014, 510 x 499 mm.   Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury, Te Ara, 2014, acrylic and graphite on aluminium, 510 x 499 mm. Photo: Sam Hartnett Stephen Bambury: Here, 2014, iron filings and acrylic on 7 aluminium panels, 1400 x 7080 mm; on far right and obscured, Hausen (Another Place) Slovenia, 2000. Photo: Sam Hartnett

Because he has been exhibiting cross paintings for too long now, the excitement of this Bambury show comes from the much smaller 'Fourteen Mirror' paintings and the 'Seven Days' suite. One exploits corrosives on aluminium panels and gold and silver leaf, pocked and pitted sections covered with acrylic; the other coloured pigments and churning chemicals on brass - in elegant barlike arrangements.

Auckland

 

Stephen Bambury
“play it again, sam”

 

6 October - 28 November 2014

In this exhibition of recent Stephen Bambury works (twenty-nine 2014 paintings and one 2000 sculpture) the four main spaces in Trish Clark’s gallery are shrewdly allotted certain visual themes, such as compact crosses of simmering rust within corners of glowing orange, rectangular plates of wispily streaked aluminium, or logolike configurations of small coloured oblongs.

While overall there is too much work here - the cross paintings could all have been left in the studio and the rest of the show would have made an extraordinary, more adventurous and dynamic presentation - Bambury has clung to his ‘brand motif’ and architectural intervention (obviously to him irresistible in a new Clark space), rather than solely showcase his talent as planar surface innovator, a skilled manipulator of markmaking liquid chemicals and blended pigments. The cripplingly cramped hang of Fourteen Mirrors in the triangular window gallery and office would have been avoided if he had spread them out instead in the central square room on their own.

Because he has been exhibiting cross paintings (in my view) for too long now, the excitement of this Bambury show comes from the much smaller Fourteen Mirror paintings (a version of Stations of the Cross with no crosses) and the Seven Days suite. One exploits corrosives (and perhaps heat) on aluminium panels and gold and silver leaf, pocked and pitted sections covered with acrylic; the other coloured pigments and churning chemicals on brass - in elegant barlike arrangements. These comparatively intimate and nuanced works completely upstage the physically imposing lines of crosses that stridently traverse or ascend whole walls.

In the Fourteen Mirror series, where the smooth aluminium plates have been divided up into squares or vertical rectangles, the aluminium bears iridescent streaks and fine wispy feathery traces. The composition is comparatively random and unstructured, with projecting ridges from butted up acrylic coated or metallic leafed panels acting as an interruptive foil. Some of these works, especially the smaller ones, need a lot of space so you can focus on the delicacy and evanescent texture of their relatively faint pink, yellow or grey marks.

I like the veil-like quality of these visually restrained works, their lack of obviousness as understated traces, their sense of drifting movement or blurry ripples, their lack of fixed geometric order or solid foundation. They also display a function as a ‘caressed on’, ‘stroked’ foil for the crumbly and shredded, shiny metal leaf. One is in the picture-plane surface, the other is on it.

The Seven Days paintings in comparison are luscious - overtly so. They have a richly decorative sensual colour that is mottled with internally undulating organic forms, found inside carefully organised configurations of four small rectangles. The saturated but modulated chroma is the type associated with ostentatious clothing or lavish furnishing, but here residing within tight, very simple formal arrangements that are often refreshingly asymmetric. Internally embedded within this colour are flaky textures often associated with leaves or bark.

These works lack the broach-like quality that some of Bambury’s small cross paintings have - an advantage. They obviously require a wall to trumpet the nuances of their complex shape, with its internal and external gaps, and don’t suffer from associations as potential fashion accessories.

Personally I think these two series (with their abandonment of religiosity) are more successful than anything else Bambury has ever done, the Fourteen Mirror works because of the (apparently newly) relaxed approach to composition, its open spontaneity mixed with optical discretion, and the Seven Days series because of the inventive dynamic of the four rectangles and the sumptuous richness of the agitated velvety colour. Fascinating and beguiling explorations.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Jae Hoon Lee, Mother and Child, 2024, inkjet on smooth pearl. 1500 x 1500 mm

Looking Through (or At) Jae Hoon Lee

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Auckland

 

Jae Hoon Lee
Internal Landscape Part II


16 March 2024 -13 April 2024

JH
Outside installation of part of Shiraz Sadikeen's The Natural Rate, at Treadler. Photo: Alex North.

Sadikeen @ Treadler

TREADLER

Auckland


Shiraz Sadikeen
The Natural Rate


8 March 2024 - 23 March 2024

 

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024