• Ian Firth
  • Ian Firth
  • Fiona Lee Graham, Insight, 2018
  • Garry Currin, FIN, 2018 [Voices and Stories circa 1968], oil on aluminium

Art to warm the soul

June was a busy and exciting month at Northart, with two very successful exhibitions for the Auckland Festival of Photography, two very well attended floor talks, a family day with entertainment and calligraphy and origami workshops to celebrate the traditional Dragon Boat Festival, a movie night, a seminar presentation and our regular Gallery Time for Kids. It is great to see so many people braving the cold, the wind and the rain. 

Let’s hope this month offerings are just as popular. Exhibitions by Siobhan Crowley, Trevor Newman, Ray Wilkinson and Ian Moore continue in the formal galleries, while Northart’s contribution to the Matariki festival ‘Te Huihui o Matariki’ by Northcote painter Frances Atkins [Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Porou] is in the window spaces. All are well worth checking out  - you have until 11 July for those in the gallery, 24 July for the Matariki show (which being in well-lit windows is viewable day and night).

Next up in the gallery is the much awaited Northart members’ midyear exhibition. Once again, there is no theme or prescribed subject matter, rather artists have been asked to work within the size restriction of 305 x 305 mm (12 inches square). Such works may be painted or otherwise on canvas (stretched or upstretched), paper, tin, wood, ply, textile or any other support. Those artists working in three dimensions also need to keep their works within size limitations.

We are delighted to be presenting an exhibition of ceramics from the estate of Ian Firth [1931—2002], courtesy of the Firth family and Cordy’s. Ian was a pioneer of New Zealand studio pottery. Largely self-taught, he attended Elam from 1946 to 1950 where there was a pottery wheel apparently, but no one to teach pottery. He set up a ceramic partnership with Peter Webb in Devonport in late 1940s and early 1950s. before moving to Cheltenham in 1951 where he made slip cast ware with his wife Lorraine.  In 1953 he moved to Tizard Road in Birkenhead and built his house and a kiln, before setting up ‘Ian Firth Potter’ in Birkenhead Village in 1970. Following a period of living in Mahurangi the Firths moved back to the North Shore, and established a studio and kiln in Beach Haven. Ian Firth continued to live and work there until his untimely death in 2002.

Northart is privileged to present this collection from the estate, and so give family, friends and local communities the  chance to preview and enjoy it before it is auctioned by Cordy’s on September 11th. 

For information on Gallery Time for Kids, and July’s movie and seminar go to www.northart.co.nz 

 


Issue 89 July 2018