The Hot Show
A winter exhibition displaying some of the Collection’s warmer, more vibrant works
This exhibition of paintings from the Fletcher Trust Collection was curated primarily to offer Fletcher Building staff and the visiting public a warm and vibrant journey through the tunnel under Great South Road.
The Hot Show featured a collection of recently acquired works by mostly younger New Zealand artists, many of whom treated paint in interesting and novel ways. Young Ōtautahi artists André Hemer, Miranda Parkes, and Aaron and Hannah Beehre were included, as was Helen Calder, whose painting in a colour called Daredevil raised a few eyebrows. So did Sara Hughes’ optically challenging Eye Candy 3. Major works by Māori artists Shane Cotton and Darren George were also included.
Because these new works were mainly light-hearted and bright, it seemed a good time to bring out some older paintings conceived in the same spirit. Most of these dated from the late 1970s and the 1980s. The main focus was on highly coloured and energetic gestural abstract paintings. Among artists included were Philip Clairmont, Pat Hanly, and Allen Maddox, as well as Gretchen Albrecht and Philippa Blair. A selection of smaller though similarly bright works from the past were added to provide contrast with the predominantly abstract focus of the exhibition.
—Peter Shaw
