Gallery sets fine standard at opening

Opening exhibition Mansfield Gallery, Haven Rd. Reviewed by Gail Tresidder.

Sixty artworks from 24 artists and a large display of contemporary jewellery make a clear statement as to the intended direction of the new Mansfield Gallery in Haven Rd.

Some of Nelson's most-respected artists – Grant Palliser, John Shaw, Craig Potton, Dan Campion, Tim Royall, Daniel Allen and David Haig – share wall and floor space with national artists, some not seen in Nelson before.

The gallery is divided into three rooms, one carpeted and welcoming, while elegant pale-grey floors in the others give a sharp contemporary feeling. It is unusual for a dealer gallery to be arranged in this way, and it was good being able to move around the spaces and the proportions it gave to the paintings, photos, furniture and sculpture.

Of the national artists, Aucklander Jenny Smith and Christchurch artists Dorothy Helyer and Ben Reid particularly impressed.

Landscapes and seascapes are Smith's inspiration, her beautiful work abstracted from nature. She uses cast glass for its solidity and strength and makes silk moulds to achieve the lovely wave and water patterns. The ruby red and jade glass in her Totem Towers catches the sun and the light – and both have a cast aluminium base, making them suitable for the garden or inside. I like that practical aspect of her work.

There are three Dorothy Helyer paintings on show. I kept returning to I Miei Ricordi.

Helyer is also a musician, and this large circular abstract in shades of red, blue, green and dark-blue to near-black, depicts the forward movement of time, the fragility and transitory nature of existence.

The Italian title translates as My Memories, an opus in mixed media on board.

Environmental artist Ben Reid uses his talent to bring awareness to the effect of introduced species on New Zealand's native birds, animals and plants. His delicate print of the stitchbird, Hihi (Green), is most touching. Behind the male and female birds are tiny mice, lovingly portrayed, even though they were one of the predators that almost killed off the hihi, now found only in very small numbers on the Hauraki Gulf's Little Barrier Island.

I must mention John Shaw's walnut, matai and maple desk, the quality of workmanship superb, the matching chair light and elegant, and Craig Potton's Jetty Lake Mapourika No 1107, a metaphor for life, for eternity, the jetty disappearing into the mist, water morphing in to a blue delicate and soft sky.

This is altogether an excellent exhibition.

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