The exhibition opened NATIONAL POETRY DAY Friday 22 July 6-7.30pm with

AN HOUR OR SO OF POETRY
View the exhibition and relax into the evening listening to readings from local poets Bob Orr, John Pule and John Lyall.

GREGORY O’BRIEN is a painter and writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Described as ‘highly original’ and ‘constantly surprising’ his poetry and his artworks are very much interlinked. O’Brien combines his love of uncovering the histories and stories about locations and events with the sheer joy of his own first hand experiences. His is whimsical approach. His poems may be presented in written forms but also pictorially and often his artworks are interwoven with text.

The show will include new works following his recent travels to Raoul Island, in the Kermadecs, as one of nine artists invited to visit the island and develop a body of artworks which will be exhibited later this year at Tauranga Art Gallery to raise awareness to the need to care about our oceans and environment.

Alongside will be earlier artworks inspired by summers on Waiheke, and travels to Fiordland as well as new suite of etchings for which O’Brien collaborated with fellow artist and poet John Pule.

For artist JOHN LYALL poetry is “a way of trapping things that would otherwise drift away.” It allows him to “remember, reminisce, and tease out”. Not all of his poems are written at the time of an event; by looking back or re-writing later he has found he often contextualizes the event differently.

The writing which begun in his school days has become for Lyall a poetic autobiography – be it an idiosyncratic one. The poems provide for us an insight into the artist and his experiences, be they from his travels to participate in an exhibition in Sarajevo, or a response to his own artwork.

Do join us at the opening National Poetry Day Friday 22 July 6-7.30pm and enjoy listening to readings
from three local poets – Bob Orr, John Pule and John Lyall.

Gregory O'Brien Spinet, 2005, acrylic and ink on paper, 12 images each 30.1 x 20.8 cm

Left - right: Gregory O'Brien, Richard Henry in Fiordland, 2007 acrylic on wood, 35 x 44.4 x 28 cm. (foreground)
Gregory O'Brien, Woman sleeping in an art gallery, 2005, ink on paper, 41.7 x 29.5 cm.
Gregory O'Brien, Rublyov, 2005, acrylic and ink on paper, 41.7 x 29.5 cm.
Gregory O'Brien, Afternoon of an evening train, 2005, ink on paper, 41.7 x 29.5 cm
John Lyall,Snow Leopard Dreaming, Orange Palace, colour photograph, 71 x 49.5 cm.

Gregory O'Brien, The Uses of Clouds 2008, acrylic on board, 7 panels, framed size 1550 x 350 mm and a suite of new works on paper following on from O'Brien's recent trip to the Kermadecs.

Gregory O'Brien and John Pule - a suite of collaborative etchings, 2010-2011

John Lyall Snarl, 2004/2005,18 x 25 cm

John Lyall Incurably Domestic, installtion.2011

John Lyall I brought my own exhibit with me, 26.6 x 34 cm Limited Edition of 3, available as a Grille prints on Hahnemüle watercolour paper.
John Lyall Winklepicker, 34 x 25.6 cm Limited Edition of 3, available as a Grille prints on Hahnemüle watercolour paper.

John Lyall My Curves, their curves, 34 x 25.6 cm, Limited Edition of 3, available as a Grille prints on Hahnemüle watercolour paper.
John Lyall Vogoska Rose of Grande, Basarjke 34 x 25.6 cm, Limited Edition of 3, available as a Giclée prints on Hahnemüle watercolour paper.