24 September - 25 October 2014

An exhibition of new etchings by Barry Cleavin.

Barry Cleavin has exhibited in New Zealand since 1969 and has made a significant contribution to the New Zealand printmaking landscape through his role as Senior Lecturer of printmaking at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts between 1978 and 1990. As a collection these works suggest that not all reactions or interpretations to things have to be literal. They may be interpretative. They do not have to be large or heroic in order to have resonance. These works are curated for a collective intimacy. They were born in different years but now join each other as ‘Portrayals and Betrayals’.

One series deals with something that is as innocent as music – listening to, and drawing (during a Christchurch winter) from Glenn Gould’s recorded (DVD) archives. These are small responses to the musical events – drawn, etched out, printed in ultramarine blue. They are portrayals of sounds as much of the performer in performance.

A second series of portraits – are responses to photographs of ‘Defendants’ who forfeited their lives during the Moscow Show Trials of 1938. The third series (in two parts – colour and black and white) are ‘responses’ to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘responses’ to profiles of people of his (real or imaginary) acquaintance.