The 2022 Art House Tour will be Roger Mortimer’s first exhibition of new work in Auckland since 2012. ‘Houhora’ comprises of six new paintings, as well as the debut of a large tapestry (Houhora) which covers the Northland coasts, from Matauri Bay to Cape Reinga.
Mortimer has been aptly described as ‘a contemporary visual mythologist’ and is widely recognised for his distinctive use of medieval imagery on early maps of Aotearoa New Zealand. His work gives a post-modern and post-colonial take on the charting of the coast line.
It is notable across these new works that a number of the compasses, landmarks and figures which inhabit Roger’s maps are cropped by the edge of the frame (where they have previously been contained). Figures, events and narrative now extend out from the canvas, as if to suggest these locally grounded scenes are part of a much larger story, which cannot be viewed from a single perspective or any one moment in time. Roger’s paintings resonate widely, presenting imagery, themes and ideas with a universal significance, whilst expressing the inescapable desire for a better future.
Roger graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1999. He was the Paramount Award Winner of the prestigious Wallace Art awards in 2014, and in 2017, a survey exhibition of his work, ‘Dilemma Hill’, was shown in public galleries across Auckland and Wellington. His paintings feature in a range of significant public, private and corporate collections across New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Asia.
Roger will have works in one of the eight houses on the Tour.
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