Stephen McCurdy, award-winning composer for New Zealand film and television in the 1980’s and 1990’s, will exhibit two decades’ worth of paintings at Depot Artspace from October 21 – November 8.

Metanoia, which in Classical Greek translates to ‘change of mind’ or ‘change in the inner man’, promises to be a show rich in identity, complicity, and morality, offering a fascinating display of the work McCurdy has completed between 1997 and 2017.

Reflecting his years of scoring music for theatre, television and documentary, Metanoia demonstrates an underlying fascination with character and feeling, with myth, fable, and belief, with identity, isolation, and connection. Some of the paintings are bleak, attesting encounters with depression and a pessimistic world-view. Others are more hopeful.

“I paint from what I have experienced, what I have lived and not lived, thought, felt and understood, probably even more so from what I have not understood,” says McCurdy.

McCurdy believes he is only beginning to see what he can achieve with painting. His artistic practice has provided him with a vital change in thinking, which in part has changed his way of living – his own personal metanoia.

Painting for McCurdy is a refuge from language and a way of evading the need to define, quantify or claim certainty where it most likely doesn’t exist. He believes that some kind of narrative in his work is probably inescapable, and even where it is not explicit in the making, it will probably emerge in the seeing.

Assailed as we are by digital images way beyond our capacity to absorb, there is a place for the silent, singular and paradoxical stillness in paintings. As McCurdy explains, “It is easy to lose the desire and ability to stand still, to watch and listen, easy to be caught up in speed and surface. I think a painting is worth keeping if it can sustain concentrated looking.”

McCurdy’s abstract style presents visual translations mirroring that of Hieronymus Bosch with his works eliciting imagery related to atheism, addiction, depression, and enlightenment. Depot Artspace is proud to host this milestone exhibition for one of New Zealand’s foremost screen composers.

Metanoia officially launches on Saturday 21 October, 2:00pm – 3:30pm, at Depot Artspace, 28 Clarence Street, Devonport, Auckland. The exhibition runs from Saturday 21 October – Wednesday 8 November 2017 in the Main Gallery.

In Conversation with Stephen McCurdy – Sunday 5 November 2017, 2:00pm -3:00pm
Join Stephen McCurdy in the Main Gallery for a fascinating discussion about his artistic journey, his work and the multifaceted theme of Metanoia.