Celebrating the diverse and vibrant arts community, Artweek will take place from 5 - 14 November 2021. Check out the exhibitions and Artweek activity in Newmarket below.

What Makes a Print Collectable?

Railway Street Studios, 8 Railway Street, Newmarket

3pm Sunday 7 November

Determining the value of any genre in art can be challenging. Prints are no exception. Throughout history, artists keep finding ways of taking the medium to radical ends. It is time to consider the exceptional value there is to be found when collecting prints.

FREE EVENT To register your attendance please email: enquiries@railwaystreetstudios.co.nz

Land of Birds - Niels Meyer-Westfeld

ArtSelect Gallery, 19A Osborne Street, Newmarket

Tuesday – Friday 10.30am – 4.30pm

Saturday & Sunday 10.30am – 3.30pm

Artist Niels Meyer-Westfeld moved to New Zealand from Germany, where he had a career as a graphic artist and landscape artist. But once he met our birds, he couldn’t stop drawing them, which lead to a book and exhibitions.

“Drawing birds takes patience. To really get a sense of their behaviour you can’t just draw from a photograph, you have to spend time watching.” “My father is a passionate lepidopterist and botanist and growing up in Germany, I was lucky enough to accompany him on trips around Europe while he pursued his interest,” says Niels. “His love of nature inspired me artistically and I’ve always drawn the flora and the fauna that surrounds me.”

Then he fell in love with kiwi fashion designer Deborah Sweeney which brought him to the rich natural environment of New Zealand. All original artwork is available as a limited edition fine art archival giclee print.

Eroica - Tina Frantzen

Railway Street Studios, 8 Railway Street, Newmarket

Opening: 5pm-8pm Thursday 11 November

Exhibition: 11-30 November

Tina Frantzen paints intuitively, using a process of revealing in which figures appear. The details of these figures are unknown to her before she starts, so that with each work there is a path of discover as the painting proceeds. In this new body of work, Frantzen introduces additional layers of meaning both literally and figuratively. ‘Eroica’, in part is named after Beethoven’s 3^rd symphony. Frantzen, a pianist and singer herself, employs light and music while painting. The choice at the time influences the end result, with different brush marks and colour choices communicating a mood, or movement and rhythm.

The ground swirls with colour as well as collaged elements of old music manuscripts, some dating back to 1872. Undoubtedly, ‘Eroica’ will be present somewhere. Serendipitously at the time of composing’ Eroica;, Beethoven was embarking on a new trajectory. It caused a sensation at the time, changing the idea of what a symphony could be.

FREE EVENT: 1pm, Saturday 13 November. ‘Insight to creative process’.

Frantzen reveals the inspiration behind her paintings. Historical references, hidden layers and her intuitive process. Please register your attendance, email: enquiries@railwaystreetstudios.co.nz

Finished Unfinished - Brendan McGorry

Sanderson Contemporary Art, Osborne Lane, 2 Kent Street, Newmarket

Opening: 11am-1pm Saturday 6 November

Exhibition: 2–28 November

Brendan McGorry presents 'Finished Unfinished', a series of conspicuously and deliberately unfinished works. Building upon his exploration of historical art, McGorry references the famed unfinished works by the Old Masters. Through either abandonment or happenstance, artists have left paintings unfinished. By doing so, they have revealed their artistic process and fed into an age-old fascination with the inner workings of the artist’s studio. Notable unfinished works that have influenced McGorry include Leonardo da Vinci’s La Scapigliata, with its highly refined features of a young woman’s face surrounded by the scratchy impressions of where her hair is yet to be filled out, and Rembrandt’s The Jewish Bride, a study of light and form comprising entirely of expert cross-hatching.

McGorry has similarly granted us a peek into the artistic process through a series of studies of ambiguous subjects, sometimes emulating the unfinished compositions of his famous references. Unlike those references, however, McGorry has made intriguing and precise decisions around when to cease working and leave an artwork unfinished. The result is a living artwork, existing somewhere between emerging and complete, with salient traces of the artist’s hand.

Text by Julia Craig

Smitten - Candy Clarke

The Poi Room, 17 Osborne Street, Newmarket

Exhibition: 5-12 November

Candy's subject matter is often in abstract form, a commentary on daily life, social behaviour & current events. With the love of language, the use of text often features as narrative or stand-alone objects within Clarke's paintings. Inspiration comes from a personal lexicon of collected language, overheard snippets, song lyrics, movie lines, new technology, old sayings, or new catchphrases. Bold colour & graphic components are always evident within Candy's work. Candy paints mainly in acrylic upon formed Perspex sheet.

Painting on Perspex began as a happy accident! Candy has been honing her painting backward skills for about 20yrs; the softness & reflectiveness of the Perspex adds an animation enhancing the work. The colour beneath the surface is bright & luminous - these features uniquely identify her work. Through her paintings, Candy is always looking for the irony or humour & ways to gently mock the human condition.

Passage - Ray Haydon

Sanderson Contemporary Art, Osborne Lane, 2 Kent Street, Newmarket

Exhibition: 2-28 November

Artist Ray Haydon is known as a master of materials - he effortlessly sculpts fluid forms from the most rigid and unforgiving materials. This new body of work, as its title 'Passage' suggests, is a continuation of Ray Haydon’s distinctive sculptural practice of working with various mediums. In his masterful approach, Haydon never loses the urge for development and experimentation, pushing his familiar materials into new and transformative outcomes. He boldly introduced red into his mostly monochromatic kinetic works and resin coated wall sculptures recently; here Haydon surprises us with a jewel toned deep purple wall sculpture entitled Passage, a monumental dynamic and fluid artwork using carbon fibre for lightness and strength.

Haydon is renowned for his minimal ribbon works, these wall sculptures known as the Convolution, Fluid and Velocity series embody his vision and innovation with carbon fibre - “I always describe it as getting a ribbon, throwing it in the air, and freezing it. Basically, when they are made, that is it: they’re free formed. There’s not a preconceived idea of what they will end up as, nor can I force that.” Haydon’s material skill and knowledge allows each sculpture to emerge without a sense of manipulation, which is key to the dynamic and natural shape of the finished work. They delight as they appear to hover against a wall or awaken in a light breeze, weightless, their curving form express a curvilinear beauty with calm sense of movement and fluidity.

Towards Strangeness - Prue MacDougall, Kyla Cresswell, Nan Mulder, Kathryn Madill, Catherine Macdonald

Railway Street Studios, 8 Railway Street, Newmarket

Exhibition: 21 October – 9 November

Enjoy a private one-on-one viewing (like real estate agents do) with strict protocol to adhere to Ministry of Health guidelines. Phone artist Prue MacDougall 021 148 0297 to book a time or email enquiries@railwaystreetstudios.co.nz to receive details.

Occasionally circumstances seem to produce a perfect breeding ground for eccentrics. At these rare moments strangeness leaks out, providing the impetus for a creative frenzy. 'Towards Strangeness' brings together a group of talented printmakers and with it, varying degrees of the inexplicable, the unfamiliar, and the mysterious. To the uninitiated, printmaking seems a disciplined type of artmaking – not one ordinarily correlated with innovation or to be associated with aesthetic strangeness, yet artists from Edvard Munch to Edgar Degas kept finding ways of taking the medium to radical ends.

This exhibition is no exception - expanding the possibilities of drawing, creating surfaces with a heightened sense of tactility, and inventing new means for new subjects. The monotype can spark a host of experiments, a starting point from which an image could be reworked and revised. Mezzotints and intaglio reveal new kinds of artwork that are less about completion but endless innovation.

Guided Artweek Tour of Newmarket

11am-1pm Saturday 6 November and Sunday 7 November

Join the Street Artearoa tour guides on an interactive adventure across Newmarket discovering the rich variety of art located within the business district – street art, outdoor sculpture, fine art and more! Spaces are limited and bookings are essential.

The Artweek Tour of Newmarket with the Artearoa tour guides will also include a visit to Westfield Newmarket to view the works of over 20 artists within the Centre and to Newmarket Galleries – Railway Street Gallery, Sandersons, The Poi Room and Art Select Gallery. For bookings, visit: http://www.streetartearoa.nz/