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Belligerence and Bubblegum

25 Nov 2010
A collaboration between a Dunedin artist and hair salon will bring 'Habitat Hairdos' portraits, w

Written by

Andy McCready

'Belligerence and Bubblegum,' an exhibition of prints and paintings by Dunedin artists Sam Ovens and Andy McCready opens at ROCDA Gallery (73 Princes Street, Dunedin) on Monday 29th November at 5.30pm. The show runs until Saturday 4th December, from 10am to 6pm weekdays, and 11am to 3pm on Saturday.

'Belligerence and Bubblegum,' an exhibition of prints and paintings by Dunedin artists Sam Ovens and Andy McCready opens at ROCDA Gallery (73 Princes Street, Dunedin) on Monday 29th November at 5.30pm. The show runs until Saturday 4th December, from 10am to 6pm weekdays, and 11am to 3pm on Saturday.

All works on show will be available for purchase, including a selection of affordable prints  perfect for that special Christmas gift, and the opening night will also feature some unique collaborative pieces...

"I have a series of works called 'Habitat Hairdos,' which depict girls with animals living in their hair,' explains Andy. "I thought it would be fun to bring some of these images to life, so I approached Aart on St Andrew hair salon, who have been really enthusiastic and will be creating masterpieces on the heads of my three lovely models."

These include a couple of familiar (not to mention identical) faces - Nellie and Elza Jenkins, the Dunedin twins from popular television show New Zealand's Next Top Model.

And as for the art on display? 'Belligerence and Bubblegum' takes all the best things in life - punk rock, girls, Surrealism, hair, animals, Pop, candy, music, neon colours - throws them in a blender and spits out a highly stylised yet playful aesthetic that is one part fanaticism and two parts fantasy.

"Our styles are very different, but the works do sit well together - they share a strong Pop Art sensibility, with vibrant colouring and a quirky, tongue-in-cheek approach," says Sam.

It's been a busy time for Sam, who has just been putting the finishing touches on his work for the Otago Polytechnic SITE Exhibition as part of his final year of a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours degree.

‘Belligerence and Bubblegum’ is kindly sponsored by Aart on St Andrew Hair Salon and Green Man Brewery.

ARTIST STATEMENT - ANDY MCCREADY

29 year old Dunedin-based artist Andy McCready is primarily a painter and illustrator, who has now started selling limited edition giclée prints of her original works, both online and through a number of galleries throughout the country.

Strongly illustrative and darkly playful, her distinctive images on customised, shaped boards are quirky, decorative and meticulously rendered. Acrylic on board is Andy's preferred medium, but this is always spiced up with an eclectic array of additional ingredients, including vintage wallpaper, gilding wax and spray paint.

Andy holds a few degrees, which, although not particularly useful in day-to-day life, were nonetheless rather interesting to study - a BA (Honours, First Class) and MA (Distinction) in Art History and Theory from the University of Otago and a Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from Massey University. These make her eminently qualified to sit in her bedroom and fuss about with paints and pencils.

Her work shares an affinity with so-called 'lowbrow' art, and she simultaneously draws inspiration from and wrings her hands at not living up to the work of contemporary practitioners like John John Jesse, Camille Rose Garcia and Audrey Kawasaki, as well as admiring all the usual suspects from art history - namely those crazy French Surrealists and uber-cool American Pop artists.

After a sell-out solo exhibition in Dunedin in 2006 (Jigsaw Pin-ups), Andy has continued to participate in a number of group shows throughout New Zealand, and is currently represented by Gallery de Novo.

ARTIST STATEMENT - SAM OVENS

Utilizing dark humour, a sense of agitation and belligerence influenced by the subcultures of punk rock and heavy metal and their snotty attitudes, Sam’s screen prints confront the viewer with his playful, neon-coloured depictions of socio-political themes such as war, rebellion and the increasing sexualisation of society. In his bodies of work Punk Popaganda and Vinyl Mayhem, we see the moral facade of religious martyrs and dropkick politicians crumble to reveal their inner depravity.

His Punk Popaganda works are composed like pop-punk/baroque portraits and owe a debt to works by Andy Warhol and British artists Gilbert and George. Colour is important as a vehicle to seduce the viewer to contemplate or provoke thought: colours bounce off each other to keep the viewer mesmerized.

These works are quotational; they appropriate and subvert media; as a society we see sex, death and corruption on every level plastered throughout conservative advertising and media. Sam appropriates these issues from conservative media and regurgitates this information filtering it by his own disgruntled frame of mind into the form of his prints, Sam acknowledges the importance of the need to criticise and challenge our society through art.