Ian Kingstone Exhibition: 'Perfect Strangers'

Ian Kingstone
'Perfect Strangers'
11-30 September
Preview 5.30pm Tuesday 11 September
Aesthete Parnell Gallery

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PERFECT STRANGERS

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give a man a mask and he will tell the truth".
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Ian Kingstone is an Auckland born artist with a career spanning 40 years. He studied fine art and worked in London in the late 60's and mid 70's. Kingstone studied with Louise Henderson in 1970 and attended the Auckland Society of Arts where he was tutored by Jan Nigro . He attended master classes with Colin McCahon in 1980.

Ian Kingstone's paradoxical surreal narrative paintings reflect the reality of ourselves and the everyday fears and neurosis that comprise each and every one of us. That "something unseen that haunts the day", doubts and fears, small reveries and desperation are themes which can be sensed in much of his work.

Early in his career Ian was particularly influenced by Cezanne and Matisse. "I painted as an Impressionist/Fauve".

By the mid 80's these influences were replaced by Mondrian, Malevitch and Pollock.

During the mid eighties Kingstone's work began circulating within an expanding scene which had an appreciation of a rare type of kiwi cultivated surrealism.

By the time the early nineties set in Kingstone's work had began to rapidly evolve and a new confidence was gained.

During the late 1990s a brief foray into foregrounds devoted almost entirely to jigsaw, sparked by a deep respect undoubtedly in homage to cubism, burned briefly, then soon fizzled out. Kingstone quickly tired of wallpaper, sinking back into the realm of his one true love - portraiture. Preferably served up with a side order of either torment or anxiety.

Last season's Shelf Life Series at Aesthete Parnell Gallery has been replenished by Perfect Strangers, some employing venetian type carnival masks crisply presented that actually do seem to breathe, and others suspend the breath. Perfect Strangers represents a rich development in Ian's recognisable endlessly inventive style. There are nine tableaus presented with various gestures, accentuated by body language that ranges from the macarbre to the simply delightful. Isolation and loneliness pervade the characters in their unfolding drama with anxiety and fear binding this exhibition together.

Ian Kingstone is one of a relatively small group of New Zealand artists who can truthfully claim to have 'paid their dues'. Now aged 65 he is producing mature work which powerfully and increasingly reflects that fact.

ENDS

Aesthete Parnell
251 Parnell Road
www.aesthete.co.nz

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