Foliage

'Foliage' is a group exhibition showcasing works by four New Zealand artists, who have been refining their painting practices independently over the past 10 years.

Dominique Baker, Meghan Geliza Jackson, Michael Kennedy and Paul Walsh will be creating artworks reclaiming the potency of nature in new contemporary art.

On opening night, The Grey Place will be transformed into a surreal, immersive and flora-filled space, honouring the harmony and tension between the natural world and the human imagination. Paintings and immersive participatory installations will fill the room, ambient music will play, plant-based canapes and drinks will be served and limited edition prints will be released.

These artists have been proactively engaging the local and international arts community for more than a decade. They've collaborated on group exhibitions together in the past, such as Beauty meets the Bizarre (2010), First Thursdays (2010), Misfits (2015) and Tiny Travelling Gallery (2015). Public, city-wide and international art events they've been part of includes Imago Mundi Luciano Benetton's NZ Collection (2016), The Whittaker's Big Egg Hunt NZ (2014), and Frameworks Art Trail for Asylum Seekers (2017).

This show will mirror our current paradigm - depicting flora and man's place in it from a solid 21st century viewpoint, as we collectively work through the current tension between consumption and mutualistic symbiosis. Through their diverse painting styles straddling pop surrealism, street art and geometric abstraction, these four kiwi artists will render a timeless subject through a modern lens.