milford galleries queenstown9A Earl Street (03) 442 6896 qtown@milfordgalleries.co.nz

12th February - 9th March, 2011UPSTAIRS GALLERY

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

CALLUM ARNOLDSojourn

1. CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley II (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

1. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley II (2010)

2. CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley Track (2011), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

2. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Valley Track (2011)

3. CALLUM ARNOLD, Crown Range (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 708 x 1217 x 33 mm

3. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Crown Range (2010)

4. CALLUM ARNOLD, Cold Pass (2010) oil on linen, stretcher

oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 912 x 1522 x 32 mm

5. CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Path (2010) oil on linen, stretcher

oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 912 x 1522 x 32 mm

6. CALLUM ARNOLD, Reflecting (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 708 x 1215 x 33 mm

6. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Reflecting (2010)

7. CALLUM ARNOLD, Southerly Approach (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

7. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Southerly Approach (2010)

8. CALLUM ARNOLD, Rest Stop (2010), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 607 x 912 x 33 mm

8. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Rest Stop (2010)

9. CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Edge (2011), oil on linen, stretcher (v x h x d): 457 x 710 x 33 mm

9. DETAIL VIEW CALLUM ARNOLD, Lake Edge (2011)

Producing dynamic compositions that achieve a synthesis of landscape painting and

abstraction through gestural painted marks and complex layering of visual elements, Callum

Arnold is establishing himself as a significantly skilled and confident painter. Carefully

considered subtle shifts in light, shade, opacity or scale solicit various and altered views that

disorientate and re-orientate at every turn despite the familiarity of the landscape presented.

Forms and fleeting shadows fragment and unfurl as quickly as they emerge in a harmonious

rhythm of flux. Intersecting lines, layered imagery and fractured planes appear to migrate

within the surface of the painting kindling the suggestion of passing time and memory. “We

are captured in a moment of cross-fade between the past and the present, the picturesque

and the documentary, between memory and witness”.1

‘Sojourn’, Callum’s much-anticipated second solo exhibition at milford galleries queenstown,

reveals the artists inland journey southwards through the Lindis Valley to Queenstown. From

the crisp chill of windswept snow collected against the steep tussock-clad hillside in ‘Cold

Pass’ (Lindis Valley), the looming heavy sky and misted atmosphere in ‘Valley II’ (Lindis Valley)

as it blankets the land with its cool touch to the comforting warmth of the late winter sun

bathing the land in gold-tinted light in ‘Crown Range’, Callum’s keen ability to convey the

physical reality and sense of place in his painting is profound.

Making an emblematic presence in ‘Lake Path’ (Diamond Lake, Wanaka) and ‘Reflecting’

(Mackenzie basin) the figure is a new muse for Callum. Not only do we find that the figure

amplifies the sheer scale and expansiveness of the landscape depicted but it also makes an

allusion to that familiar physical sense of journey and movement so distinctive to Callum’s

practice.

Paths of water wistfully stretching into the distant horizon in a mirage of evaporating

reflections in ‘Lake Path’ direct our attentive gaze subconsciously as do the bright blue

watery depths of the canals as they weave a threaded path in ‘Reflecting’. Power poles, sign

posts and roads intervene and dissect in works such as ‘Valley II’ and ‘Rest Stop’ (Lindis Valley)

as if to offer a momentary lull before tempting us on another path, an alternative viewpoint.

‘Sojourn’ reveals a progression in Callum’s practice in terms of insight, complexity, stylistic

substance and painterly skill. It is clear too that a heightened spatial awareness and sense of

journey along with the interconnected emergence of the figure (as both metaphor and

subject) are becoming increasingly important and central to the narrative in his work.

Callum’s dedication to a constantly evolving practice further establishes his importance as a

remarkably assured and skilled artist who is reinvigorating and reinterpreting the experience

of the New Zealand landscape in a visual language which is entirely his own and just as

unique as the environment he travels through.

Review by Richard Dingwall, ODT, 23 March 2006

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

E X H I B I T I O N P R I C E L I S T

1 Valley II (2010) 4,500

2 Valley Track (2011) 4,500

3 Crown Range (2010) 7,000

4 Cold Pass (2010) 9,000

5 Lake Path (2010) 9,000

6 Reflecting (2010) 7,000

7 Southerly Approach (2010) 4,500

8 Rest Stop (2010) 4,500

9 Lake Edge (2011) 3,000

Callum Arnold 2011 CV Milford Galleries Dunedin www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 1

CALLUM ARNOLD b. 1973, lives Christchurch

Ranges (2010)

Callum Arnold challenges the traditional representation of the landscape as static. His paintings are

“reminiscent of a Sunday journey. …Long drives through the landscape are experienced in passing

through the car window.” (1)

“Despite the sense of journeying, nothing is blurred. On the contrary, an Arnold painting exudes a sense

of tranquillity, of time stilled, a dream frozen.” (2)

“My interest lies in the disjointed construction that memory creates through the influence of fleeting

visions of land. The attempt is to depict a more universal view rather than a regional specific location.

Some aspects or similarities between locations are due to geographical feature of the rural

environment and the way roads are constructed to dissect the land into portions.” (3)

“The act of looking for dramatic panoramic landscapes in dislocated spaces is limited to viewing from

roads and the visual memory. My work is primarily concerned with geographic experience and the

transpositions of media upon that knowledge. The act of painting the visual…is no longer an accurate

rendering of the actual world but a collaboration of processes. The inherent spiritual nature of the land

has become diffused creating a new visual history.” (4)

“The great journey in New Zealand painting has been by road, from John Kinder to Colin

McCahon….Arnold proves that the road trip as a nationalist narrative isn’t over yet. His paintings put us

in the front seat of a vehicle driving through the heartland on a road that, paradoxically, seems to be

taking us both back to Samuel Butler’s Erewhon and forward to a future of destabilised digital

representations.” (5)

Born Wellington in 1973, Callum Arnold gained a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours, 2000 and a Masters

of Fine Arts with Distinction in Printmaking 2001 from the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts.

1. Callum Arnold, Artist Statement, 2005

2. Warwick Brown, ‘Seen this Century’, Godwit, 2009

3. Callum Arnold, Artist Statement, 2005

4. Ibid

5. David Eggleton, ‘High Visibility’, NZ Listener, April, 2006

Callum Arnold 2011 CV Milford Galleries Dunedin www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 2

CALLUM ARNOLD b. 1973, lives Christchurch

EDUCATION

2002 Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education, Christchurch College of Education

2001 MFA with Distinction in Printmaking, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts

1997 BFA Honours 2000, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 Sojourn, milford galleries queenstown

2010 Callum Arnold & Simon Edwards: New Works, Suite Gallery, Wellington

2009 Simulations, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Divergence, Suite, Wellington

2008 Direction, milford galleries auckland

Detour, Suite, Wellington

2007 Merge Shift, milford galleries auckland

Horizon, milford galleries queenstown

2006 Contents May Shift, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2005 Transitional Space, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

2004 New work, Chambers Gallery, Rangiora

2003 Simon Edwards & Callum Arnold, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

2001 Leading Impressions, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

Landscapes, University of Canterbury Fine Arts Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009 Recent Work (Dawson, Petre, Arnold), milford galleries queenstown

Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown

2008 Small Works, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

2007 Looking South, Milford Galleries Dunedin

2006 Essence, milford galleries auckland

2003 25, Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch

2002 Christchurch College of Education 125 Anniversary Art Show, Centre of Contemporary Art,

Christchurch

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

2008 Awarded Artist in Residence, Rangiruru Girls School

2008 Finalist The Wallace Awards, Auckland, New Zealand

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2009 McCrone, John, ‘Art for living's sake’, The Press, 12th December 2009

2009 Brown, Warwick, Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary NZ Artists a Collector’s Guide,

Godwit, 2009

2006 Dingwall, Richard, ‘Movie Technique Exposes The Shifting Nature of Landscape’, Otago

Daily Times, 23rd March 2006

2006 Eggleton, David, ‘High Visibility: Callum Arnold paints New Zealand from the road’, New

Zealand Listener, April 1-7, 2006