For all three artists, this is the first time a public institution has surveyed their practice.
Energy Work brings together Kathy Barry and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, both of whom have developed works over the last decade that tap and give visual form to unseen energies and dimensions that they access through meditative and automatic processes.
Barry works in series, which have an evolving and cumulative effect. Her watercolour drawings are all of a similar scale, but their subtle colour variations and formal differences structure her presentation, so that each body of work takes the viewer on a journey into the energy fields that Barry feels passing through her body. These are not only from the environment around her but from other times and dimensions.
Smuts-Kennedy presents a series of installations and sets of drawings especially designed for the Adam Art Gallery’s spaces. She works with materials such as brass, glass, crystals, paper and pastels, to similarly articulate fields of energy. However hers are not contained on sheets of paper, but extend out into space.
Both artists redirect our understanding of abstract art, turning away from the idea of mark making as a mode of self-expression or formal experiment, to posit a way of opening themselves to and harnessing energy flows that manifest through them. They see this as having healing potential, as human control is surrendered in favour of a keen attunement to the universe.
Barbara Tuck has been painting since the 1970s, and over the decades has developed a way of working that draws on her extensive travels and her study of the history of painting and readings in philosophy, poetry and science. Delirium Crossing is a sampler of her work since 1999. Unusually, it is not a straightforward survey of her output, but rather a conversation with 14 writers who have each chosen a painting to write about. The exhibition therefore is an opportunity to canvass her output and explore the various ways in which writers have contextualised and responded to her practice.
This exhibition is jointly organised by Anna Miles Gallery in Auckland, Ramp Gallery, Hamilton, and the Adam Art Gallery, and will tour to Christchurch Art Gallery at the end of the year.
A preview tour of the exhibitions will take place at 5 pm on Tuesday 12 July prior to the opening reception. Artists Kathy Barry and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy and curators Christina Barton and Anna Miles will introduce the projects.
Christina Barton, director of the Adam Art Gallery and curator of Energy Work, says: “The Adam Art Gallery has a proud tradition of providing opportunities for artists who have not been widely seen. These exhibitions are no exception. They have been scheduled now because these artists have much to offer in terms of thinking through how to have a relationship with the world that is loving and restorative, hopeful even.”
Exhibition details
Energy Work: Kathy Barry/Sarah Smuts-Kennedy
Barbara Tuck – Delirium Crossing
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery
13 July–25 September 2022
Opening hours
Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery
Tuesday–Sunday 11 am–5 pm
For the safety of all, visitors to the Gallery are required to wear a mask.
Group visits are welcome. If your group is larger than five people and you would like a tour or introduction to the shows, contact the gallery administrator, Ann Gale, ann.gale@vuw.ac.nz or 04-463 5229.
Address
Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington
Gate 3, Kelburn Parade
Wellington 6140