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Artists Announced For 2024 Sculpture On The Gulf’s “Anything Could Happen” Exhibition
Perpetual Guardian Sculpture on the Gulf (SOTG), the outdoor exhibition showcasing art and sculpture on Waiheke Island, has announced the full line-up of artists, who will exhibit their work in 2024 at the much-loved biennial outdoor event.
Chris Booth
The popular event will mark its 20th anniversary when it commences on 24 February 2024 and will once again be nestled amidst the breathtaking backdrop of Matiatia Bay, on a 2.5 km coastal walkway.
Curators Robert Leonard and Brett Graham say, “We've gathered diverse works, each bringing something unique to the sculpture trail. There’s a dinosaur skull dangling from a crane, a shrouded-scaffolding ruin, a dystopian cinematic water feature, a shade structure for dreamers, ikebana in scrupulously fake tyres, an abstracted prison watchtower, an outdoor shower, poetic displaced signage, a pluralist-populist parade, a heart monitor for a tree and swimming lessons. We called it Anything Could Happen to prompt people to park their preconceptions on the ferry.”
Director of SOTG, Fiona Blanchard is thrilled to share the full artist line up. “We’re excited to present a fresh, thoughtfully curated exhibition of site responsive installations against a backdrop of the beautiful landscapes of Waiheke Island. Each artist has a unique perspective that comes through in a range of approaches, and we know this will be a truly immersive experience for visitors, who arrive with an curious mind and leave with a fresh perspective.
“The event will be full of thought-provoking, surprising, exciting, comforting and inspiring works, which will culminate in a fun, inspiring and fulfilling day out for people of all ages,” Blanchard adds.
Artists are predominantly from and based in Aotearoa, with a number of Māori artists represented and one international artist from Alaska, who will be in the country during the exhibition.
With the artist line-up finalised, the meticulous planning by the SOTG team ramps up.
“These are complex works, exposed to the elements of mother nature, publicly accessible 24/7 and exhibited on an island,” Blanchard says. “People marvel at just how we manage to place the artworks where we do, so close to the event opening – rest assured 2024 will be no exception.”
SOTG will open to the public on 24 February and will run until 24 March. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, including artist talks, workshops, and guided tours, providing visitors with an opportunity to delve deeper into the world of contemporary sculpture.
Waiheke is a 40-minute ferry trip from Auckland. It has vineyards, world-class hospitality, pristine beaches, and scenery that feeds the soul. Book ahead to eat, play and stay on this island paradise over several days.
Exhibition entry: $20 pp. Sculpture shuttle bus $10 per adult. Free for children under 15.
For the full programme, to purchase tickets, and to become a Patron or volunteer, visit www.sotg.nz.
The full artist line-up confirmed for SOTG 2024 are:
Chris Boothb. 1948, New Zealand. Based in New Zealand. | Born in Kerikeri Chris Booth has been at the forefront of environmental sculpture in a number of countries for over four decades. Chris has a profound interest in developing a creative language that involves deeply meaningful relationships with landforms, flora, and fauna. He has a special interest in trying to communicate a real sense of responsibility to our living planet. Social history and engagement with the wider community, in particular the Indigenous community, are paramount to his art practice. In addition, while engaging and often pioneering in these practices, Chris has over the past three decades gone on to produce large to very large public commissions in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, France, and Germany. |
Steve Carrb. 1976, New Zealand Based in Christchurch Represented by Michael Lett, Auckland and STATION Gallery, Melbourne. | Steve Carr’s work is frequently about precise moments of transformation, he uses lens-based practices as well as sculpture to explore and interfere with a range of materials and entities, from apples and watermelons to balloons filled with paint, shuttlecocks, fireworks, and smoke. The artist himself is often the subject of the change where he has become half-animal, a strange man-child, and a pre-teen girl. He has turned fire extinguishers into glass, bear rugs into wood, tyres into bouquets, and even himself into popcorn. |
Eddie Clemensb. 1977, New Zealand. Based in Auckland. eddieclemens.com | Eddie Clemens explores the intersections of film, photography, performance, and sculpture to create unconventional narratives through physical artifacts, drawing inspiration from film and television and creating connections between objects and the stories they tell. |
Nicholas Galanin(b. 1979), Alaska. Based in Sitka, Alaska. Represented by Peter Blum Gallery, New York | Nicholas Galanin’s work engages contemporary culture from his perspective rooted in connection to land. He embeds incisive observation into his work, investigating intersections of culture and concept in form, image, and sound. Galanin's works embody critical thought as vessels of knowledge, culture, and technology - inherently political, generous, unflinching, and poetic. |
Brett Graham(Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) b. 1967, New Zealand. Based in Auckland. Represented by Gow Langsford. | Brett Graham is known for his large-scale sculptures and installations that explore indigenous histories, politics, and philosophies, often addressing issues of imperialism and blending traditional craft with contemporary themes. |
Natalie Guy(Ngāpuhi, Ngāruahine) b. 1964, New Zealand. Based in Auckland. | Natalie Guy is a sculptor who explores the legacy of mid-century modernism through her work, questioning and reinterpreting its iconic nature while acknowledging her urban surroundings and drawing from various influencers such as Jane Drew, Isabelle Graw, Hito Steryl, and Nicholas Bourriaud. |
Turumeke Harrington(Kāi Tahu) | Turumeke Harrington has a background in industrial design and fine arts. An interest in whakapapa, space, colour, and material sees her regularly creating large sculptural installations at the intersection of art and design. Harrington’s clarity of form and function is supplemented by a pragmatism and a commitment to making that is at once playful and provocative. Her sympathetic approach to materials combines with a bold colour palette and sharp humour to create engaging works that speak to the artist’s own personal relationships, cultural anxieties, and everyday musings. |
Chevron Hassett (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, Kahungungu) b. 1994, New Zealand. Based in Auckland. | Chevron graduated with a Bachelor of Design with Honours from Massey University in 2016, received CNZ Nga Manu Pirere award in 2017 and was a recipient of The Arts Foundation Springboard award in 2022. Currently studying a diploma in Indigenous Art (Whakairo Maori carving) and is teaching Art and Design at Redhill School in Papakura. Hassett is predominantly working in lens-based media, sculpture, and public installation. Exhibiting both in Aotearoa and Australia, at the heart of his practice is the essential spirit of whanaungatanga. His recent works engage with narratives of socio-cultural identities, urban indigeneity, colonialism within Pacific and indigenous histories. He works in public institutions, in public spaces and within communities |
Lonnie Hutchinson (Kai Tahu, Ngāti Kuri ki Kai Tahu, Samoan) b. 1963, New Zealand. Based in Christchurch. Represented by Milford Galleries | Lonnie is a leading Māori and Pacific artist whose work explores indigenous histories, women’s histories, and craft practice through various mediums, incorporating Māori motifs and capturing the interplay of form, light, and shadow to articulate a Polynesian worldview and generate conversations about culture, gender, and sexuality. |
Simon Ingramb. 1971, New Zealand. Based in Auckland. Represented by Gow Langsford Gallery. | Simon Ingram has engaged in a decades-long examination of painting and technology. At the heart of his practice is an interest in human responses to new technologies. To Ingram, painting is a way to explore those encounters. His work connects to a recurrent theme in painting since the invention of the camera. Ingram’s interest in the idea of machines and systems as a means to explore painting has moved through several iterations. He has created paintings using custom machine assemblages that translate data, interpreting signals from a wide range of sources including cosmic radiation and brain waves to generate paintings. He has also used machine learning tools to generate imagery. This exploration has seen him experiment with other disciplines including computer science and radio astronomy, and he notes that his works can be seen as science experiments as well as artworks. |
Ana Iti (Te Rarawa, Pākehā) b. 1989, New Zealand Based in
Hawkes Bay | Ana Iti works across sculpture, video, and text. Iti’s work explores poetic and structural relationships between language and our environment, as well as the practices of shared and personal history-making. Iti has a BFA (Sculpture) from the Ilam School of Fine Arts in Ōtautahi Christchurch and a MFA from Toi Rauwharangi Massey University in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. She was the recipient of the Grace Butler Memorial Award in 2022 and is a nominee for the 2024 Walters Prize. |
Zac Langdon Poleb. 1988, New Zealand. Based in Auckland and Berlin. Represented by Michael Lett Gallery | Zac Langdon-Pole is known for his work in photography and sculpture, exploring themes of memory, translation, and the organisation of social and natural worlds, with recent projects including exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, France, and Berlin, and being selected for prestigious awards and residencies. |
Yona Leeb. 1986, South Korea Based in Auckland. | Yona Lee was born in 1986 in Busan, South Korea and she is based in Auckland, New Zealand. Lee’s work has recently been the subject of solo museum exhibitions at the Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand (2022); Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2018-2019); City Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (2018-2019); and Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand (2020). She has featured in large-scale thematic exhibitions including the Busan Biennale, South Korea (2020); 15th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, France (2019); and Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea (2016). |
Isabella Loudonb. 1994, New Zealand. Based in Wellington. Represented by Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington | Isabella Loudon’s sculptures, made from delicate fabrics dipped in thin concrete, appear both solid and fragile, reflecting the artist’s exploration of the contrast between external presentation and internal vulnerability while also evoking a range of interpretations from viewers, from industrial explosions to ancient artifacts to futuristic architecture. |
Dane Mitchellb. 1976, New Zealand Based in Auckland. Represented by The Renshaws, Australia, and Christopher Grimes, USA. | Dane Mitchell (1976) was Aotearoa New Zealand’s representative at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. He has presented solo exhibitions at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany; Institut D’Art Contemporain, Lyon, France; Te Papa, Wellington, New Zealand; Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; Govett-Brewster, New Plymouth, New Zealand; Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia; SAM Sound Art Museum, Beijing, China; Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand; Raebervon Stenglin, Zurich, Switzerland; Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles, United States; Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand; A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Galerie West, Den Haag, The Netherlands amongst many others. |
| Denis
O’Connor b. 1947, New Zealand. Based on Waiheke. Represented by Two Rooms Gallery | Denis O’Connor is a renowned ceramist, sculptor, and writer known for his limestone carvings and slate engravings that draw inspiration from Irish and New Zealand literature and history, and he has received numerous prestigious awards and residencies for his work. |
Seung Yul Ohb. 1981, Korea Based in Auckland. Represented by Starkwhite Gallery. | He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Has held solo exhibitions at the ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2023, 2020); Starkwhite, Auckland (2022); Xinchang Culture Center, Shanghai (2018); Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga (2016); Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland (2015); Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2014); Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (2013) and others. Participated in numerous group exhibitions those held at the Yavuz Gallery, Sydney (2020); ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2020, 2019); Whistle, Seoul (2018); Lille 3000, Lille (2015); APMA (Amorepacific Museum of art), Jeju (2014); City Gallery Wellington, Wellington (2014) and many more. Oh, also has proceeded with public art works commissioned by 101 Collins Street, Melbourne (2023); Cordis Hotel, Auckland (2022); Richmond Library, Nelson (2018); SCAPE Public Art, Arts Center, Christchurch (2017); Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2014); Amore Pacific Korea, Jeju (2014) and others. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; The New Dowse Museum, New Zealand; National Gallery of Victoria, Australia; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand; Amorepacific Museum of Art Project, Jeju, Korea, and others. |
Marie Shannonb.1960, New Zealand Represented by Trish Clark Gallery | Marie Shannon is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, who graduated from Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 1983. She works in the media of photography, video and drawing, and has been working with text over a number of years. Her work is concerned with the local, the domestic and the autobiographical, and often depicts overlooked or seemingly inconsequential objects and situations. She has exhibited extensively in Aotearoa and internationally over the last 35 years, and her work is held in numerous public and private collections. A survey exhibition of her work, Rooms found only in the home, was developed in 2017 by Dunedin Public Art Gallery, curated by Lucy Hammonds and Lauren Gutsell, and toured to Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery (2018), Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (2018) and Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery (2019). In 2019 she was the Tylee Cottage Artist in Residence in Whanganui, and her subsequent exhibition, Sleeping Near the River opened at the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui in August 2021. |
Oliver Stretton-Powb. 1968, New Zealand. Based on Waiheke Island. | Oliver Stretton-Pow graduated from Art School in Perth in 1992 then worked in Europe and the Middle East for four years. Stretton-Pow then travelled to Queensland working as a blacksmith returning to New Zealand in 1998 where he built a permanent studio in the Whangaroa. Stretton-Pow held his first solo exhibition in 2002 and completed his MFA at the University of Auckland in 2004. In 2005 he relocated his studio to Waiheke Island. Stretton Pow has had residencies in Perth(2012), subsequently exhibiting in Sculpture at Bathers in Fremantle(2015), solo exhibitions and contributed to many significant indoor and outdoor group shows in including SWELL sculpture festival(2015), Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney, and Perth (2016) NZSoS(2016). In 2018 he gained a post-graduate diploma in Teaching (secondary). |
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