FVHS Art

21/07/2019

Gabriella Challis said the Parkin Drawing Prize invited artists to submit works that pushed the boundaries.

21/07/2019

The artist will receive $260,000 from the car giant's distributor, which used his installation on the Kunsthal Charlottenborg as a backdrop.

21/07/2019

Artist Ray Bartkus wanted to incorporate Lithuania's eupe River into a captivating work of art, so he intentionally painted his mural

04/07/2019

18/06/2019

If it’s been a while since you visited a gallery, here’s a little reminder of how art can blow your mind.

26/03/2019

Inspired by Mason Currey’s new book, Daily Rituals: Women at Work, we share anecdotes from the lives of 10 pioneering women artists.

20/03/2019

Sylvia Marsters
Tiare Taina
New Paintings
Opening 6pm, Thursday 28th March.
All welcome.

CITC LiquorBank South PacificPalm GroveTūrama PhotographySands Villas Rarotonga

Closer to Home

The role of flowers within human culture is diverse.

From the origin of a flower's name to its distinctive characteristics and rich mythology, flowers are infused with symbolism and meaning. We sense the personalities of different flowers and intuitively choose one over another to fit our mood or the occasion.

Gardenias have long been a subject close to the heart of Sylvia Marsters. The artist has painted them in increasing detail through out her career.

Richly scented, with a full white petal bloom, they evoke a sense of warm climates, sea breeze and romance. They convey a tropical allure impossible to resist. In Rarotonga, they are ever-present. Popular in gardens, perfumes and in flower Ei (or Lei), they pervade the senses and comfort the soul, they are given, they are worn and they are highly prized.

Over the past two years, Marsters painting style has evolved dramatically. Her detail and use of colour project a powerful sense of assurance. The Gardenia bushes and flowers of her new exhibition Tiare Taina are represented in hyper detail, full evergreen shrubs with white flowers in various stages of bloom, some are buds and some have reached the end of their brief life spans.

The mood of the paintings varies, from almost surreal to high definition. They are painted in various sizes, from a relatively demure, small canvas to commanding, large square images.

This is not an anthropological study, nor is it an overt attempt to deliver a purely decorative work. The artist plays on the viewer’s sentiment; these flowers evoke strong emotional connections, leading them down personal paths of remembrance. To each, a different experience awaits.

For the artist, these flowers link her heritage with her present reality - the Gardenias of Aitutaki, where her father was born, and the Gardenias of Auckland, where she lives. Within these compositions, Marsters debates her sense of place, reconciling past stories of a romanticized Island lifestyle with the realities of urban existence in a modern city. A whole lifetime of experience lies in-between.

Sylvia Marsters is represented by Bergman Gallery. Marsters has exhibited in Auckland, Wellington, Rarotonga & New York.

20/03/2019

Powerful paintings by Kevin Peterson imagine youthful explorers in dystopian environments: http://bit.ly/2F9hg2Z

26/01/2019

23/01/2019

The trailblazing artists making their mark on Australia's creative landscape.