Creative Kinship Sparks Meaning In New Exhibition

Dunedin’s Community Gallery is set to host ‘Memento Vivere’ (Remember to Live), a group exhibition featuring celebrated local artists Jane Siddall, James Sutherland and Timothy Peter Armstrong.

Running from 11 to 17 April, the show draws on archetypes found in art, society, history and nature and explores the collective unconscious through drawing, painting and printmaking. The free opening event at 5.30pm on Friday 10 April is open to the public.

Armstrong says Memento Vivere is a testament to the power and importance of creative kinship.

“Jane’s mystical, nature-inspired prints, James’s beautifully observed portraits and my vibrant, figurative abstracts are technically and tonally diverse, but they’re all in conversation with each other. This reflects the conversations we had as we worked in parallel to create shared sinews of meaning.

“Themes such as memory, time, and the human condition emerged from discussions about connection, creative practice, and what it means to be an artist during a time of social and technological change.

“We hope the exhibition will provide people with the opportunity to reflect, connect, and enjoy a moment of beauty and wonder.”

Jane Siddall has a BA in drawing and tapestry and a postgraduate degree in media arts. Her narrative-based work is inspired by the myth, folklore and animals of her childhood in Britain. An award-winning embroiderer, she has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

James Sutherland studied Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. He has exhibited in the National Contemporary Art Award, New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award and Adam Portrait Award. James is interested in portraiture as a means to invite discourse between viewer and sitter. His work explores the stories that play out in front of us every day: paths cross, run parallel or diverge, all adding to a larger collective narrative.

Timothy Peter Armstrong studied Fine Arts at Massey University. His practice leverages the canon of art history to unravel and atomise significant art works to their component parts, recontextualising shape, form, depth and surface to create new topologies.

The exhibition will be open from 10am until 4pm daily at 126 Princes Street.

About the artists: 

Jane Siddall: instagram.com/thejanesiddall

James Sutherland: instagram.com/thejamessutherland

Timothy Peter Armstrong: instagram.com/timothypeterarmstrong & timothypeterarmstrong.com

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