Artist Susan Te Kahurangi King at Robert Heald Gallery

Robert Heald Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by the internationally celebrated New Zealand outsider artist Susan Te Kahurangi King, Drawings 1960 – 70, opening 11 August and closing 2 September 2017.

Born 1951, Susan Te Kahurangi King is a self-taught or ‘outsider' artist who stopped speaking around the age of five. As King’s inability to speak set in, so too did her heightened ability and commitment to draw. Her drawings, in graphite, coloured pencil, pastel and ink, are detailed and intensely expressive. They disrupt and recreate familiar characters—from Donald Duck to human figures and animals—and have a unique appeal that, as The New Yorker stated, “should be enough to banish the pejorative term 'outsider' once and for all.”

King’s work has received considerable attention both locally and internationally. Following the acclaimed solo presentation of her work at the New York Outsider Art Fair in 2014, King’s exhibition with Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York, one of the top Outsider art dealers in the world, was chosen as 'One of the 19 Best Art Shows of 2014' by prominent American art critic Jerry Saltz, as well as being chosen as one of the '15 Best Art Exhibitions of 2014' by The Huffington Post. In 2016 King had her first museum survey exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami which was accompanied by a substantial catalogue. Susan's second solo exhibition with Andrew Edlin Gallery took place in September 2016 and received significant critical attention—reviewed both in The New Yorker and Artforum. In 2017, King’s work was exhibited at Marlborough Contemporary in London and was profiled by Paula Cocozza in The Guardian.

As Emily Hall stated in Artforum, “King’s personal history—and later diagnosis of autism—may also tempt us to […] interpret her works as tumultuous inner landscapes or as insuppressible visual shouts of things unsaid or unrecognized. In the end, such armchair analysis is unnecessary: The drawings have a very particular urgency, pulling us in with their power to amaze and confuse, and keeping us there with the distinct atmosphere of apprehensiveness and dread.”

This will be Susan's second solo exhibition at Robert Heald Gallery and will focus on work from the 1960’s, created when King was between nine and nineteen years old and showcasing an extraordinary talent well beyond her age.

The exhibition will also be accompanied by the event Drawing with Susan on Saturday 12 August at 2pm. This workshop allows visitors to join Susan in a drawing workshop and offers a unique opportunity to witness the artist at work.

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