Hope Street to NO-BRAINER

Dots, dashes, dragged lines, text and colour building shimmering fields.  This is the first retrospective of John Reynolds - one of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary painters – in the Waikato. Recently referred to as ‘McCahon on Ecstasy’ John began his career in 1980, won the 2006 Arts Laureate, and represented New Zealand at the 2006 Sydney Biennial.

Hope Street to NO-BRAINER juxtaposes large wall works from the 1990s with new works, provoking dynamic conversation between the bodies of work, looking at where they overlap and where they present alternative trajectories.

With an intense feeling for language, deadpan humour, an interest in rock music and a fondness for images that are seemingly artless, under worked, or sharp edged, Reynolds combines overblown scale - billboards – with smaller observations and intimacies.

Visit the following links:
For biographical information:
http://www.artsfoundation.org.nz/john-reynolds.html

John Reynolds: Painting, Planting and Performing. Essay by Roger Horrocks, Art New Zealand, Number 122/Autumn 2007:
http://art-newzealand.com/Issue122/reynolds.htm

Walking with letters: Michael Parekowhai, John Reynolds, John Pule.  Essay by Rob Garrett, Artlink, Vol 27 No 1:
http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2916