Stephen Bambury

Stephen Bambury

16 October 1999 - 16 January 2000

A major retrospective exhibition, which surveys twenty-five years in the career of this pre-eminent abstract painter.

The exhibition will show the various developments in Bambury’s style: the influence of Milan Mrkusich in the Area series of the 1970s, the Site Works where he first painted works to be displayed as pairs, through to his more recent use of the cross motif.

Although he has an obvious connection to Mrkusich and Colin McCahon in New Zealand art history, a particular point of interest is Bambury’s involvement in the international art scene. He first went to New York in 1980 and discovered, looking at the art of painters such as Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman, that what he had assumed to be smooth and delicate surfaces were in fact rough, with evidence of the preparation and brushstroke clearly visible. This inspired Bambury’s Block Paintings, whose dense layers of paint dribbled and congealed at the bottom of the canvas. He began constructing plywood reliefs in the late 1980s, before moving to France where he resided between 1989-1992. At this time, Bambury began a close association with his contemporaries on the world stage, such as Helmut Federle.

Today, Bambury’s works are a result of layered materials such as gold, graphite and lacquer. At first distant glance, they seem perfect and orderly, until closer inspection reveals subtle twists to the formula; measurements are askew and bubbles are clearly visible in the metallic paint.

Stephen Bambury reconfigures the language of geometric form, challenging modernist assumptions of aesthetic order while avoiding the confusing disarray of postmodernist multiplicities. The result is work that is pure, timeless— prompting the viewer to reflect and contemplate.

This exhibition is curated by Dr Wystan Curnow, who was responsible for The World Over at City Gallery Wellington in 1996.