AUCKLAND'S BRAND OF ART FLOURISHING

5:00AM Thursday July 26, 2007
By T J McNamara

The paintings of Glen Wolfgramm at Oedipus Rex Gallery until August 3 are spectacular combinations of dark line and vivid colour, particularly shades of red.

The movement and sweep across the canvas is expressive and energetic. Among the dark lines Polynesian motifs can be seen, often just hinted at obliquely. A complex pattern may suggest weaving, there are hints of the style of images on tapa cloth and indications of carving.

These motifs emerge obscurely from the vivid colours of the background, which evoke sunset and sunrise over the sea as well as the blood links of kinship. Across this background the black forms thrust across the surface with the force of roads, power lines, the swish of cars in the dark. Auckland is in the foreground; Polynesia is in the background.

This theme is followed with complexity and invention. It makes a spectacular exhibition that adds yet another potent flavour to the Euro-Polynesian art that has become special to Auckland.

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