new paintings in a world far from ordinary
Nigel Brown
14 September - 3 November
The paintings in No Ordinary - sometimes fierce, sometimes subtle – are as diverse as the issues NZ's leading narrative artist Nigel Brown thrusts in front of us. This is a language we know, with familiar characters, but there’s a new edge here, eased with the glow of nostalgia and a few fingers of hope. He comments:
'With these new works birds, sun and black singlet are familiar but questions are asked and there is a mix of celebration and alarm. I feel new excitement in word fragments placed to vibrate off each other as if this is a new art form. Is it a chant or a disturbing mumble? The mind can throw up strange memory combinations. We can, with some paintings here, fall back into the purely visual although nothing is merely reassuring surface representation. The symbolic tension of relationships between all things (and I stress: all things) remains the underlying drum beat.' - Nigel Brown, 2024
For more information on individual works, click on the image, or for a catalogue and the artist’s comments on each painting, contact
No Ordinary – Full Artist Statement:
When Sue and I lived at Cosy Nook in Southland, we saw two extremes of décor. One was ‘container craft’, that mass mimicry associated with glib furniture and a bland commercial look, the low point of modernism. A kind of cultural vacuum at odds with weathered timber and true ‘belonging’.
The other décor we found at the local Tuatapere craft centre, including hand carved birds, knitting and wooden bowls. I knew which we preferred, because we prize individuality greatly in our lifestyle and surrounds. For my painting there is no quest for ordinary passive wallpaper. I like a priority of ideas that touch on current issues cloaked in the strength of the archetypal and vernacular.
Most Expressionist/Symbolist artists naturally feel a kinship with the more rustic and organic in seeking mood and intensity. When I drive my car, I absorb its smooth waxed finish; accidental dents or rust are disturbing. But when I paint, I seem to work in a semi trance-like state where irregularities are often ignored and my finish is not precise. I dislike my paintings when their surfaces become featureless or like a glossy product.
At different times in my career my work has been misinterpreted – thus in 1979 I was included in an International Exhibition of Naïve Art in London [Hamilton’s Gallery, Mayfair]. I was later on the cover of a book on indigenous Pacific art when I was associated with Tautai [Pacific Arts Trust]. My work on Captain Cook has never been the simple easy interpretation of either side in Post-Colonial debate. Even my refencing of older artists such as McCahon, Baxter and Brickell has been perplexing to some.
The use of words in my work or a connection with poets has not always been accepted. But text is one of my tools so the work continues.
I have no ordinary stifling agendas and will defy the categories as best I can. That may involve conflict in the self and some disloyalty. I aim for works that impose on the mind and trigger conversations.
With these new works birds, sun and black singlet are familiar but questions are asked and there is a mix of celebration and alarm. I feel new excitement in word fragments placed to vibrate off each other as if this is a new art form. Is it a chant or a disturbing mumble? The mind can throw up strange memory combinations.
We can, with some paintings here, fall back into the purely visual although nothing is merely reassuring surface representation. The symbolic tension of relationships between all things (and I stress: all things) remains the underlying drum beat.
– Nigel Brown, 2024