John Reynolds in China

John Reynolds is showing in the exhibition Supreme Metaphysics Spirit at the Epoch Art Museum in Wenzhou, China, coordinated by the Shanghai-based agency Monumental Culture.

Image: John Reynolds, FrenchBayDarkly.../Woolloomooloo, 2018, oil paint marker on acrylic on canvas, 4800 x 1800 mm

John Reynolds Missing Hours at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery

John Reynolds has completed a 23m x 7.5m painting titled The Falls on the Big Wall at the Dundedin Public Art Gallery. Read more...
Image: John Reynolds, The Falls, 2019 (detail) at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Soap Box Symposium at the Auckland Art Fair

John Reynolds will run a soap box symposium at the Auckland Art Fair where visitors can engage in one-to-one encounters and conversations with the artist in a booth designed with architect Malcolm Walker. The conversations will be fueled by ‘The Think Drink’ (aka coffee by Coffee Supreme). Read more...

Image: John Reynolds' booth at the Auckland Art Fair

John Reynolds: RocksInTheSky...

John Reynolds' exhibition RocksInTheSky... runs in our upstairs gallery to 24 December. Read more...

Image: John Reynolds, RocksInTheSky... (2017), oil stick on acrylic on linen, 800 x 580 mm

Paperboy covers FrenchBayDarkly...

This week's edition of Paperboy includes an insightful piece of writing by Anthony Byrt on John Reynolds' exhibition FrenchBayDarkly... The show closes at Starkwhite on Saturday 17 June.
Image: John Reynolds photographed by Meek Zuiderwyk for Paperboy

John Reynolds at the McCahon House

John Reynolds is at the McCahon House for a two week stay to undertake further research for his  ongoing exploration of Colin McCahon’s ‘missing hours’ when McCahon tragically went missing in the Botanical Gardens on the eve of the launch of his 1984 Sydney Biennale satellite retrospective I Will Need Words. Reynolds’ describes his project as part missing person’s archive, part pilgrimage, part art historical vagabondage.

Image: Colin McCahon House in Titrangi, designed by Bossley and Associates.

John Reynolds: FrenchBayDarkly...

FrenchBayDarkly... runs at Starkwhite to 17 May. Read more...
Image: John Reynolds, FrenchBayDarkly... 2017, oilstick on acrylic on linen, 3 x 5m

Recent acquisitions

Two paintings from John Reynolds' recent exhibition WalkWithMe... have been acquired for the Chartwell Collection which is housed at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki,
Image: Unhinged Text (Dark Night) #1, 2016, acrylic paint marker on acrylic on canvas, 2100 x 1520 mm, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

John Reynolds: Field Notes

John Reynold's exhibition WalkWithMe... continues this week, closing Saturday 24 September. Upstairs we have a new suite of works from his ongoing exploration of Colin McCahon's missing hours. Read more...
Image: John Reynolds, Field Notes 5 (2016), acrylic paint, acrylic paint stick and graphite on paper, field notes board.

Coming up at Starkwhite

In 1984 Colin McCahon tragically went missing on the eve of his survey exhibition I WILL NEED WORDS, staged as a satellite show of the 1984 Biennale of Sydney, In his new project WalkWithMe... John Reynolds speculated on the passible nature of those missing hours. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 30 August 6 - 8 pm.
Image: John Reynolds, WalkWithMe... 2016 (detail), silver marker and acrylic paint on linen, 2.1 x 10 meters

John Reynolds' Blutopia: MANIFESTO

John Reynolds' Blutopia: MANIFESTO is showing at the Tauranga Art Gallery. Read more...

John Reynolds' Epistomadologies at the Auckland Art Gallery

John Reynolds' Epistomadologies opened at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki last night and runs to i November. Read more...
Images: from John Reynolds', Epistomadologies series 2001

A coastal walk of art

Len Lye's Wind Wand is a striking and much-loved feature of New Plymouth's coastal walkway, which also includes John Reynolds' Big Wave Territory. This work celebrates Taranaki's rich cultural landscape, directing passers by to various local and regional destinations - the Mountain, Paritutu Rock and Sugar Loaf Island, SPOT X and The Forgotten World Highway. Using Transit New Zealand's road design format and materials, the high reflection sign also provides cultural points of departure, including artistic legacies, such as the writing of celebrated author Ronald Hugh Morrieson and Len Lye's kinetic sculpture.

Images: Len Lye's Wind Wand and John Reynolds, Big Wave Territory, Coastal Walkway, New Plymouth

Last days for Vagabond

Our current show,Vagabond by John Reynolds, closes tomorrow at 3pm.
Image: Installation view of John Reynolds' Vagabond exhibition at Starkwhite

John Reynolds' Vagabondage at Starkwhite

John Reynolds exhibition Vagabondage runs at Starkwhite to 21 September. Beginning with a mini survey of maxi works, the show presents a changing parade of moments in a practice that ranges across painting, drawing, performance and installation.

Image: John Reynolds, Vagabondage, installation view, Starkwhite

Auckland Art Gallery patrons centre stage in a suite of collection-based exhibitions

The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki is highlighting the role of patronage in collection-based exhibitions drawing on works gifted by its patrons group and the Chartwell Collection, which is on long term loan to the gallery. The shows include works by a number of Starkwhite artists: Grant Stevens features in Whiz Bang Pop; Phil Dadson, Gavin Hipkins and John Reynolds are in Partner Dance: Gifts from the Patrons of the Auckland Art Gallery, both curated by Natasha Conland; and the evolving downstairs show Toi Aoteroa includes a new section, also curated by Conland, with works by Martin Basher, David Hatcher, Gavin Hipkins and Jae Hoon Lee.
Image: David Hatcher, The Simplest Surrealist Act (Andre Breton), 2002, silkscreen on plexiglass, 2000 x 1430 mm, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki; Gavin Hipkins, Dunedin (Landscape), from The Homely series, 1997-2000, C-type colour photograph,  600 x 400 mm collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki; Phil Dadson, Echo-Logo, 2003, DVD, 7 mins, collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

John Reynolds' Big Wave Territory at New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway

Commissioned by the New Plymouth District Art in Public Places Trust, John Reynolds' Big Wave Territory was installed recently at the Port gateway to New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway. The work celebrates Taranaki's rich cultural landscape, directing passing pedestrians and port car park traffic to various local and regional destinations - the Mountain, Paritutu Rock and Sugar Loaf Island, SPOT X and The Forgotten World Highway. Using Transit New Zealand's road design format and materials, the high reflection sign also provides cultural points of departure, including artistic legacies, such as the writing of celebrated author Ronald Hugh Morrieson and Len Lye's kinetic sculpture.
Image: John Reynolds, Big Wave Territory (detail), Coastal Walkway, New Plymouth

Artists put heat on New Zealand Government to protect one of the last great wildernesses on the planet

Last year a group of artists from the South Pacific region, including Phil Dadson and John Reynolds, travelled on HMNZS Otago to a place rarely explored - the Kermadec Islands. The project was an initiative of the Pew Environment Group's Global Ocean Legacy programme, which promotes the designation of large, highly-protected marine reserves.

The Kermadecs are the most remote part of New Zealand. Despite their historical, as well as mythological significance, public awareness of the islands and surrounding waters is slight. The voyage aimed to change that by documenting an imaginatively-charged encounter with one of the least known natural wilderness areas on the planet.

The resulting exhibition, Kermadecs: Nine artists in the South Pacific, opens tonight at Auckland's Maritime Museum.

Dadson and Reynolds see the exhibition as a way to underpin efforts to protect the region, placing pressure the New Zealand government to protect the Kermadecs for all time by designating it as a marine sanctuary, free from fishing and mineral exploitation, making it the world's biggest marine reserve."The Challenge is to try to find a voice, an effective voice, for expressing concerns about the very real threat this part of the ocean is under", says Reynolds. "We understand from PEW that the National Government caucus agrees it's a worthy cause, but it remains unactioned."
Image: NASA photograph of Raoul Island, the Kermadecs, and still from Phil Dadson's video PAX (2011)

Sign of the times

Image: John Reynolds' Democratic Vistas, 2011, reflective vinyl on aluminium

John Reynolds' The Art of War at the Britomart Project Space

Made during a residency in Beijing and presented at ART HK 2010, John Reynolds' 700-part work The Art of War is currently showing in the Britomart Project Space, in downtown Auckland.

John Reynolds, The Art of War (2101), marker pen on acrylic on canvas, blocks each 100 x 100 x 10 mm, installation dimensions variable