‘Uli ‘i he ‘Uli – Black On Black | Visesia Siasau

Visesia Siasau

‘Uli ‘i he ‘Uli – Black On Black

8 June – 1 July 2017

OREXART

Central Auckland

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Exhibition Details 

‘Uli ‘i he ‘Uli – Black On Black EXHIBITED

Works from this series were exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Ora Gallery, New York; East Anglia University, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2016; produced in New York as part of the Wallace Art Awards, 2015, Paramount Award Winner ISCP New York Residency.

‘The revolutionary new colorant Vantablack has caused a sensation in the art world.
Reflecting almost no light, the company developing the product describes it as the ‘blackest black ever’ and has granted internationally renowned artist Anish Kapoor exclusive rights to its use in order to experiment with the aesthetic parameters of this profound, cosmological black. But can an artist ever own a colour? Tongan artist-philosopher Visesio Siasau has built a career exploring the notion of the void and its conceptual expression in art.’  (MET, N.Y. invitation for Visesio Siasau, 2016)

Visesio Siasau won The Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award (2015) including a trip to New York and a 6-month residency at the ISCP.  To quote the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was invited to show and discuss his work, ‘Tongan artist-philosopher Visesio Siasau has built a career exploring the notion of the void and its conceptual expression in art.’

His recent works are geometric, minimalist, black on black paintings that aim to trigger simultaneous connections between the mind, matter, and heart.  Their inky blackness alludes to ancient systems and interpretations of creativity.  The ‘void’ is a place of mystery, where time and human connections are meaningless, where everything, including man and his fragment of invented time, is part of all else.  Siasau’s use of an abstract image focuses the viewer’s attention on the painting’s surface. A pattern fills the canvas, emphasising its flatness but the result does not deny an illusion of depth.

Siasau will exhibit his new paintings OREXART in 8 June – 1 July, opening Thursday 8 June 5-7pm.

OREXART

15 Putiki Street Arch Hill
1021 Auckland, New Zealand

09-378 0588

www.orexart.co.nz