Artist Talk | Closing Event

jhanamillers.com

Join Jhana Millers Gallery for an artist talk, in conversation with Sophie Thorn, at 2pm on Saturday 9 October, followed by a closing celebration 3pm – 5pm.

Spaces will be limited, so please contact the gallery here to RSVP.

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"Alan Ibell’s works subtly cite frescos by painters of the early Renaissance period. The soft and delicately rendered texture of his paintings feel as if they are mixed deep into plaster.

His use of dislocation and non-linear perspective, the purposefully off-kilter angles, suggest a fragmented narrative, a question of consciousness. Something isn’t quite right. What is real and what is imagined? What is reality anyway?

Visually Ibell leaves us a great deal of time with our own thoughts; his sparsely populated canvases convey psychologically charged environments. Difficult to get right, they contain just a smattering of narrative across a subdued pastel ground: a lone figure, a floating jug, a desolate landscape. The more space he leaves, the more our own memories fill in.

Vessels is the subject matter and title for this new exhibition. The canvas itself being a vessel inextricably tied to a complex play between mimicry and material. Dichotomies of full/empty, fire/water, abundant/sparse and traditional motifs are reworked to rethink, reflect, and subvert."

Extract from an essay by Sophie Thorn.

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Alan Ibell was born in Ōtautahi Christchurch and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otago Polytechnic, Ōtepoti Dunedin. He spent several years in Melbourne before returning to Aotearoa in 2016. Ibell has won a number of awards including the City of Dunedin Art Awards and the Edinburgh Realty Art Award and was a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards 2016 and 2009. Ibell currently lives and works in Papaioea Palmerston North. This is his second solo exhibition at Jhana Millers.

Price

  • Free

Date

  • Sat 09 Oct

Time

  • 2:00 pm — 5:00 pm

Address

  • Level 1 Mibar Building
  • 85 Victoria Street, Te Aro
  • Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington, 6011