Christina Pataialii - Proximity and Distance Exhibition

Wellington-based artist Christina Pataialii is the 2019 recipient of the Rydal Art Prize - a major contemporary painting prize administered by the Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga. As a key outcome of the Prize, we are pleased to present Christina Pataialii: Proximity and Distance, a large-scale installation conceived for the Gallery's atrium that evidences key developments in Pataialii’s practice over the past year.

In this substantial new body of work, the artist demonstrates her uncanny ability to produce both stands along with paintings and to deploy these same artworks as building blocks within a larger installation. Patailii’s signature embrace of both ‘fine art’ materials and those related to the trades is also evident through the presence of house paint applied directly to the walls of the atrium and large-scale drop cloths which will be suspended within the room. The new installation spans the full height and width of the atrium space and comprises the largest presentation of Patailii’s work to date. Patailii is represented by McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.

The Rydal Art Prize is generously sponsored by Seeds Trust.

Image: Quiet Flats, 2020, Acrylic and house paint on canvas
Photo by Harry Culy, courtesy of McLeavey Gallery.