Golden Summer
‘Golden Summer’ is a joint exhibition by Greg Straight and Ross Murray. It opens Friday March 3rd at Endemic World, 62 Ponsonby Road.
An ice-cream run to the corner dairy; that road trip up the coast; a cold one on a long, hot afternoon. ‘Golden Summer’ celebrates all this and more on a nostalgic journey around New Zealand. Greg Straight’s artwork embodies a longing for simple pleasures from days gone. And Ross Murray’s work explores the way contemporary ideas of nostalgia are linked to the things we consume. Both celebrate collective memories of the New Zealand summer.
The show kicks off at 5pm and is sponsored by some iconic NZ brands: Tip Top, L&P, Eta and Garage Project. The exhibition runs until March 14th.
How did the show come about?
Greg: Last year Ross and I were both featured in a street art magazine called No Cure based in Australia. They released a New Zealand issue and interviewed a bunch of amazing artists. Ross is from the Mount and I have family at Papamoa, so I decided to drop Ross an email and introduce myself. I am a big fan of his work and we soon became friends.
Last year I started researching and developing a series of art prints looking at different NZ landmarks and places, many of these were rural settings. On my way to the BOP, I just kept seeing these typical New Zealand scenes and wanted to turn them into artworks. Ross had been working on a similar range and by coincidence we were totally on the same page but executing them in a very different ways.
Ross’s works have a beautiful organic hand drawn feel to them often looking at old packaging and logos combined with retro styled cars, while mine are all very hard edged, geometric and kept fairly simple in their compositions. We decided to put an exhibition together to showcase these new works and Elliot at Endemic World was the perfect guy to help make this come into fruition.
Can you tell us about the theme of the show?
Ross: The show is essentially a celebration of the New Zealand summer. It features some recurring imagery: dairies, beaches, vintage advertising, Cortinas, Kingswoods and plenty of sun-baked landscapes. The overall tone is very nostalgic. Greg’s work has a beautiful simplicity to it which, in a way, symbolises the rose-tinted memories of our youth. And my work focuses on the idea of the summer road trip and how modern ideas of nostalgia are often linked to the things we consume. We both set out to make our artwork really evocative; so while a lot of the locations are imagined, they feel super familiar.
What’s your favourite NZ summer memory?
Ross: My favourite NZ summer is a combination of 2 or 3 summers at Opoutere in the Coromandel where I lived about ten years ago. Collecting Tuatua and making fritters soaked in freshly squeezed lemon juice; that lovely long beach, completely empty except for the dotterels and oystercatchers; shady walks through the pines; driving to the local orchard to buy stone fruit and Frujus; watching the kaka fly north in the morning and return south at night; and bobbing in the surf at dusk with the bronze whalers.
Greg: It would have to be the family tiki tours down to Papamoa to visit my Aunty Hazel and Uncle Jim back when I was young. We would all pile into the old station wagon with surfboards on the roof, fishing rods and enough luggage to sink a ship. Uncle would put the long line out and catch fresh snapper for dinner, and aunty would make a huge spread with veges and salads grown from their garden and sometimes hot Tuatua fritters.
I’d go surfing all day until my arms felt like they would drop off sometimes taking out Uncle’s 9 foot Big Kahuna surfboard when the swell was small. The sand on your jandles, offshore breeze in your air and the sound of laughter from the family sharing a long lunch together, that to me is my favourite memory of summer.
See more at:
Endemic World
www.rossmurray.com
www.gregstraight.com
