 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies .(September 2021) |
Justin Summerton (born 14 January 1968, Wirral, England) is a New Zealand artist and writer, who lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.
| The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies .(September 2021) |
Justin Summerton (born 14 January 1968, Wirral, England) is a New Zealand artist and writer, who lives in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Justin Summerton was born in Wirral Peninsula, in North West England. In 1972, when he was four years old, his family emigrated to New Zealand, where he lives presently.
Summerton spent the next couple of decades in Dunedin. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree (1987) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (1993) at the University of Otago.
In 1990, Summerton got a studio flat at St Clair Esplanade, in Dunedin, where he did some of his early experiments with oils, working mainly with seascapes. The following year, he had his first solo exhibition, at O'Brooks Gallery in Dunedin.
In 1992, Summerton travelled to Liverpool. He rented a studio at the Bluecoat Chambers and worked on Liverpool cityscapes. He then went to paint and explore Paris, and then Copenhagen, in Denmark, where he was commissioned to paint a mural.
Two years later, he went to the United States. There, he exhibited in Detroit and began "live painting" in Central Park in New York City. He then continued with street painting in Nice, in the Côte d'Azur, South of France. In 1995, he worked in a log cabin in Mendocino, Northern California. At that time, he exhibited his photomontage projects and oil on canvas at the International Art Café, in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco.
A year later, he was working at a studio in Redfern, in Sydney, Australia. While living there, he exhibited in a group show at the Darlinghurst Gallery, and he contributed with a photomontage study to the first Australian auction of contemporary photography at the Wemyss Gallery.
In 1997, Summerton did paintings and photomontage studies of Tenerife (Canary Islands), Spain, Portugal, and London (live painting at Leicester Square). [1]
From 1997 to 1999, Summerton was based in Dunedin, working on his technique and basing his work around the St Clair seascape. [2] In 1999, being a keen surfer, he based himself in Karekare, west of Auckland, living initially at Bob Harvey’s bach. He is currently based in St Clair, Dunedin. [3]
Justin Summerton is a surrealist painter who depicts a dreamlike world in his work, often presenting New Zealand as a primeval landscape. [4] In his work, Summerton reveals a fascination with New Zealand natural elements, such as the sea, volcanic cones, mountains and cloud formations, which constitute the basis of all his work. His latest paintings have been described as inhabiting "a strange milieu halfway between representational landscape and surrealist dreamscape." [5] The artist makes the landscapes his own, by rearranging and/or adapting them to his vision, obeying to symbolic or allegorical purposes.
The surrealist painter favours a utopian New Zealand: "Most of my art is related to the ecology of the world," Summerton says. "I'm not a hippy, greenie painter who rants on, but maybe I am an environmentalist. New Zealand is a bit of an oasis like that and I've had that theme running through my work for a while." [6]
"Summerton’s works harness the raw energy of New Zealand landforms and coast lines through the texture of his paint. He captures and intensifies this power with layers upon layers of dense oils, culminating in a landscape that is far from traditional, and so referring to New Zealand landscape with a fresh perspective." [7]
At a recent solo show of his paintings, his technique was described as "scrumbling", a "brushstroke technique to build layers of colour and texture onto the canvas surface. This approach tends to modify rather than obscure the previous layer and creates stark contrast between dark and light pigments. The overall result is a fresh and vibrant new view of the New Zealand landscape." [8] According to Warwick Henderson Gallery administrator Pania Lincoln, "his intensive application of oils builds layers of colour and texture that give the works a visual and literal 3-dimentional [sic] quality that is unique." [9]
Justin feels a particular affinity with the New Zealand coastline and beaches, spending much of his time in the water as a passionate surfer. He explores the shores of many beaches throughout New Zealand in his paintings, from Piha (Auckland) to St Clair Beach (Dunedin).
Summerton has been identified as one of the New Zealand contemporary artists whose work is being thrown into the investment fine art market within only a few years of being produced. [10] Proof of that is the fact that Summerton has one work in a public collection - the Aigantighe Art Gallery of Timaru, New Zealand - and another work (Lamp on a Pedestal, 2002) - in New Zealand's largest private collection, the Wallace Arts Trust Collection. [11]
Justin Summerton exhibits at the Warwick Henderson Gallery in Parnell, Auckland, and sells work regularly through the International Art Centre in Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand. Numerous works by the artist have been sold at auction, including Cape Byron Lighthouse (2008), [12] sold at the International Art Centre 'Fine Art Auction' in 2009.
2013 - The Last Secret Wave (Kindle e-book)
1999 Mainland Art Awards – Merit prize for "White Island, Night" [13]
2012 – Surrealist in a Dreamlike World – International Art Centre, Auckland, new Zealand
2008 – Oasis – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2006 – Beaches and Islands – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2005 – New Works – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2003 – Interiors – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2003 – Rushcutter Bay Gallery, Sydney, Australia
2003 – Dowling St Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
2002 – Volcanic Cones – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2000 – New Works – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1999 – Primeval New Zealand Landscapes – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1993 – Paintings and Photographic studies of England and Europe – Carnegie Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
1991 – O'Brooks Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand
2001 – Bowen Galleries, Wellington, New Zealand
1999-2000 – Millennium and America's Cup Show – Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1999 – Beyond Beauty – Peters Muir Petford Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
1996 – Nexus Gallery, Sydney, Australia
1995 – International Art Café, San Francisco, California, United States
1994 – Detroit, Michigan, United States
Caughey, E. M. (2002). Art New Zealand Today: Sixty Exhibiting New Zealand Artists. Auckland, NZ: Saint Publishing.
Cranmer, U.; Pearson, H.; Martin, M. & Braddock, G. (2008). Landforms in Contemporary Art. Whangaparaoa, NZ: Integrated Education.
Daly-Peoples, J. (2002). "Representational Dreamscapes", in The National Business Review, 1 February 2002, p. 23.
Harvey, B. (2003). Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare. New Zealand: Exisle Publishing.
Harvey, B. (2004). Westies: Up Front Out There. New Zealand: Exisle Publishing.
Robinson, D. (2008). New Zealand's Favourite Artists 2. Auckland, NZ: Saint Publishing.
Topp, A. (2009). Creating Waves. New Zealand: HarperCollins Publishers.
Colin John McCahon was a prominent New Zealand artist whose work over 45 years consisted of various styles, including landscape, figuration, abstraction, and the overlay of painted text. Along with Toss Woollaston and Rita Angus, McCahon is credited with introducing modernism to New Zealand in the mid-20th century. He is regarded as New Zealand's most important modern artist, particularly in his landscape work.
Frances Mary Hodgkins was a New Zealand painter chiefly of landscape and still life, and for a short period was a designer of textiles. She was born and raised in New Zealand, but spent most of her working life in England. She is considered one of New Zealand's most prestigious and influential painters, although it is the work from her life in Europe, rather than her home country, on which her reputation rests.
Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli, was an Italian painter who worked and travelled in Australia and New Zealand in the late 19th century influencing Charles Conder and Frances Hodgkins and helping to move Australian and New Zealand art in new directions. His portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Edinburgh, is usually considered the most searching portrayal of the writer.
John Z. Robinson is a New Zealand painter, printmaker, and jeweller. He has lived in Dunedin, New Zealand since 1978.
Shane William Cotton is a New Zealand painter whose work explores biculturalism, colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality, and life and death.
Dame Louise Etiennette Sidonie Henderson was a New Zealand artist and painter.
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe, was a notable New Zealand artist and art teacher, who spent the majority of his life in Dunedin. During the first quarter of the twentieth century, he was one of the few New Zealand artists to engage with new ideas while staying in New Zealand. At this time most adventurous New Zealand painters, such as Frances Hodgkins, went overseas. He has sometimes been described as a Vasari - a recorder of artists and their doings - based upon his published recollections, which are the only first hand published account of that milieu.
Horace Millichamp Moore-Jones, first known as Horace Jones, was a notable New Zealand artist, soldier and art teacher.
Doris More Lusk was a New Zealand painter, potter, art teacher, and university lecturer. In 1990 she was posthumously awarded the Governor General Art Award in recognition of her artistic career and contributions.
William Franklin Culbert was a New Zealand artist, notable for his use of light in painting, photography, sculpture and installation work, as well as his use of found and recycled materials.
Dean Leonard Buchanan is a New Zealand-based abstract and landscape painter. He has exhibited widely throughout New Zealand, as well as in Chile, the USA, and Japan. His first solo show in 1978 was at the Outreach Gallery in Ponsonby, Auckland. He has also been involved in many group shows - the first at the age of 19, the “ Young Contemporaries” at The Auckland City Art Gallery in 1971.
Ian Christopher Scott was a New Zealand painter. His work was significant for pursuing an international scope and vision within a local context previously dominated by regionalist and national concerns. Over the course of his career he consistently sought to push his work towards new possibilities for painting, in the process moving between abstraction and representation, and using controversial themes and approaches, while maintaining a highly personal and recognisable style. His work spans a wide range of concerns including the New Zealand landscape, popular imagery, appropriation and art historical references. Scott's paintings are distinctive for their intensity of colour and light. His approach to painting is aligned with the modernist tradition, responding to the formal standards set by the American painters Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski.
Séraphine Pick is a New Zealand painter. Pick has exhibited frequently at New Zealand public art galleries; a major survey of her work was organised and toured by the Christchurch Art Gallery in 2009–10.
Suzanne Goldberg (1940–1999) was a New Zealand painter, born in Auckland, New Zealand.
Grace Ellen Butler was a New Zealand artist.
Mervyn John Williams is a New Zealand artist. He was an early exponent of Op art in New Zealand in the 1960s–70s. In 1990 he originated a style of illusionary abstract painting based on chiaroscuro, creating the impression of three-dimensional forms and textures on a flat canvas. Since 2009 he has used digital techniques in returning to an Op art style. Williams is almost unique amongst his contemporaries in New Zealand art for having embraced abstraction at the start of his career and exclusively throughout. His work is held in all major New Zealand public collections. A monograph by Edward Hanfling was published by Ron Sang in 2014 coinciding with a survey exhibition.
Sam Foley is a contemporary New Zealand landscape painter.
Philippa Blair is a New Zealand artist. Her works are held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the University of Auckland art collection.
Ruth Cleland is a New Zealand artist, based in Auckland. Her works are held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. Cleland is known for her photo-realist paintings and pencil drawings of suburban landscapes, and her abstract grid works. Cleland lives in Auckland with her husband and fellow photo-realistic artist Gary McMillan.
Alan Pearson (1929–2019) was a neo-expressionist painter who lived in New Zealand and, in his later life, Australia.