Ian Scott: Painting New Zealand

Presenting previously unseen or rarely seen works, this exhibition brings together a selection of Ian Scott’s work from the last three decades of his life. It highlights Scott’s interest in the story of New Zealand painting and painters, and expands the perception of his practice beyond his most widely known and exhibited ‘lattices’ series.

In these artworks, Scott brings together what are normally separate approaches to painting; blending portraiture, landscape, text, reproduction and abstraction. Portraits of mid-century New Zealand artists, or their artworks, literally bustle and vie for attention against New Zealand iconography and scenery.

Both memorialising and questioning nationalist narratives that had dominated art making since the 1930s, Scott’s paintings follow the impact of international perspectives welcomed by a new generation of artists, and linger on the bigger question of what it means to live and make art in this place.

Curated by: Chris Corson-Scott and Jaenine Parkinson

Main image: Ian Scott, Sacred Hill (detail), 2004, acrylic and silkscreen on canvas. Collection of the Ian Scott Estate.