Paul Winstanley Paintings 1989–2007 Exhibition dates: 26 April – 31 May 2008 Opening reception: Friday 25 April 6pm ARTSPACE is proud to present the first survey exhibition of the work of British artist Paul Winstanley. The exhibition includes a group of paintings from a recent Red Mansion Foundation exchange programme in China and a selection of paintings from 1989-2007. Paul Winstanley says, "This is a rare opportunity to gather together a selection of paintings produced over a number of years, many of which have not been seen together before, and show them in the beautiful, simple galleries of ARTSPACE in Auckland. Much of the work is in private collections in the USA so I have not seen many of these paintings myself since they left my studio." "The book Threshold, which accompanies the exhibition, will hopefully give a context to the paintings being shown and demonstrate how many of the ideas evolve through different pieces and groups of paintings. Work continues and this exhibition provides a snapshot of work to date which I am enormously looking forward to seeing and which I hope the public will enjoy." Deriving from photographs he has taken himself, Winstanley's paintings deal with the experience of looking. The architecture of vacant spaces such as waiting rooms, lecture halls, never-ending walkways are repeatedly revisited. "The achievement of Winstanley's paintings [...] is that he embeds this act of looking and the stages of unseeing within the work. This in turn produces a secondary level of conflation between the image and its reading. They cannot thereafter be separated. [...] The 'repeated' image might be simultaneous or consequential, but each make demands of readability upon the other.", says Andrew Renton in his essay in the forthcoming book Paul Winstanley: Threshold. Christel Fricke says, "One way to understand why the art of painting has survived the invention of new techniques for the production of images is to contemplate the works of Winstanley and to think about what these embodied images are and what effect they have on the viewer." Paul Winstanley: Threshold is a substantial 144-page full colour catalogue with texts by Andrew Renton, Director of Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London and Christel Fricke, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oslo. The book will be published by ARTSPACE and Clouds in conjunction with the exhibition. Paul Winstanley lives and works in London. His paintings are widely held in international collections including the Tate Collection, The British Council, MOCA Los Angeles, Irish Museum of Modern Art. He exhibits regularly at galleries around the world. Solo exhibitions include Annexe, Art Now, Tate Gallery, London, 1997, Driven Landscapes, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1993. Group exhibitions include Inside Architecture, MOCA Los Angeles, 2008, Munch Revisited, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany, 2005, Flashback, Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany, 2004, Watery, Domestic, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, 2002. Paul Winstanley will give a public talk at ARTSPACE at 3pm on Saturday 26 April. For more information please contact me on +64 9 3034965 or email media@artspace.org.nz. Paul Winstanley is here from 22 April to 4 May and will giving public talks around NZ. Details to be confirmed. Kind regards Ida Moberg Communications Manager ARTSPACE Level 1, 300 Karangahape Road, Newton PO Box 68418, Newton, Auckland 1145, New Zealand phone +64 9 3034965 | fax +64 9 3661842 http://www.artspace.org.nz OPEN Tuesday - Friday 10-6 | Saturday 11-4 ARTSPACE is a charitable trust whose mission is to present cutting edge contemporary art. ARTSPACE receives major public funding from Creative New Zealand.