Laree Payne Gallery is pleased to present Dreams and language, a solo exhibition by New Zealand born, Australia based artist, Renee Cosgrave (Ngāti Tūwharetoa).
Comprising a suite of paintings (some produced over recent months, others over the last ten years) Dreams and language is the first exhibition of works (within an exhibition history of over fifteen years) where Renee overtly centres her relationship with Te Ao Māori. Coming to the surface of the practice following the passing of a pākeha grandfather and more recently, the birth of a māori son, Dreams and language considers listening, learning, longing and connecting.
At once deeply personal and yet with a lightness and looseness, Renee’s paintings have much in common with the less-encumbered act of drawing. The brush explores familiar forms alongside those less so, and all the while her whānau attend monthly wānanga and do the same with their mouths, their tongues. As they voice new sounds and kupu hou, Renee’s lyrical squiggles find form and rhythm as mangōpare or niho taniwha. Structure flickers across the surface as in the repetition of a form or the sequencing of a series of words before returning to gestural abstraction. Rules are at play, yet they too are being broken, a graceful spaciousness is held as evidence of learning in action.
Dreams and language coincides with We are all future ancestors; a second solo presentation of works by Renee Cosgrave alongside a large mural at Ramp Gallery (part of the Waikato Institute of Technology). We are all future ancestors will open on the same evening, from 4.30-6.30pm, with just a five minute walk between the two spaces, we encourage people to attend both exhibition openings.
