Garry Currin, (b. 1952)

His paintings are "internal landscapes”. They have a physicality about them like landscapes, but they also have something more. “People see things in them that I don't see". (1)

Currin’s work is …made major by a scope that encompasses not only the edgy physical attributes of its subject but also the metaphorical implications so that Currin actually captures the power, the darkness and the malevolence of the very thing that he paints.” (2)

“The atmospheric way forms in his paintings melt into one another exude a sense of mystery” (3)

“He paints as if mixing rare elixirs with rancid oils. He’s a lyricist in paint, coaxing moody landscapes out of tangled streaks and veils of colour. He’s a quester in search of lost time, remembering things past: the fall of shadow at a certain time of day, the spiritualised sunburst, the cloud-splitting vista at dusk. His paintings are phantasmagoric because they’re less actual landscapes than they are atmospheric reconstructions… At times, his paintings seem to well up from the surfaces they’re painted on like secretions. They’re tinged with a morbid edge, a Gothic resonance verging on the melodramatic.

These are the talismans of skewed memory. Currin teases and disrupts your attempts to establish the reality of place by, say, triangulating a few landmarks. … He offers you inventions which tease and tantalise with their elusiveness. The landmarks fluctuate, dissolving back into the paint before re-emerging as cloud, or surf, or waterspout.” (4)

Born in Whanganui, New Zealand 1952. Currin has been exhibiting his work since 1976. The time he devotes to painting and his exhibiting programme has been gathering momentum in recent years. Currin was a finalist in the Wallace Visa Gold Award in 1999 and a finalist in the James Wallace Awards 10 times since 1995 in addition to winning the ‘people's choice' vote in 2004. In 2008 Currin won the grand prize in the Team McMillan 'Where Brush Meets Bonnet' BMW Art Award and in 2011, a merit in the NZ Painting and Printmaking Award. His work is included in various significant collections.

1. Garry Currin, Artist Statement, 2009, 2. Paul Field, ‘Seascapes capture power’, Otago Daily Times, 14 June 2001, 3. Charmian Smith, ‘Shifting Changing World Inspires’, Otago Daily Times, March 27, 2003, 4. David Eggleton, ‘Garry Currin The Painter as Salvage Artist’, Art New Zealand No. 94, Autumn 2000

Garry Currin, 2019

Off the coast of Karitane