Exhibitions celebrate Warnes

Renowned Katikati artist Antony Warnes who is known for his gestural, raw and untamed work will be exhibiting at the Incubator Creative Hub in Tauranga next month. Photo/Baz Mant

Reluctant Melancholia is a series of three concurrent exhibitions celebrating the career of the Antony Warnes and giving recognition to an artist with a history of more than 50 years' painting.

Antony is a prolific self-taught artist practising since 1965 when he began selling works at the well known local Harrisons Gallery Tauranga.

Antony Warnes is a contradictory character, enigmatic, mysterious and sometime reclusive yet flamboyant and exuberant in equal measures.

The artist is storyteller, a cultural identity, living and breathing his passion and talent for art in the Bay of Plenty.

This exhibition proudly hosted by the Incubator Creative Hub celebrates Antony's achievements, an exciting and rare opportunity to view and purchase current works, to enjoy a tapestry of retrospective pieces that span Antony's career and even a once in a lifetime opportunity to dine with the artist in a series of entertaining dinner dates.
An event of three parts including:

Part 1: Reluctant Melancholia Exhibition: Works for sale in the Incubator Gallery will give us a glimpse into Antony's current painting style. Thick and lush with vibrant colour layered with a plethora of hands on strokes in oil paint and pastel, creating textures that are full of life. Some pieces being worked on over and over for years.

Part two: Reluctant Melancholia - The retrospective exhibition will be held in the Incubator Creative Hub's latest addition, The Peoples Gallery - Toi ka rere. This will focus on Antony's prolific history and painting styles.

Owners of Antony's works have rich and sometimes humorous stories regarding their provenance so the team decided to call out for owners to share their works publicly. The collection is compiled from significant and favourite works gathered from people who have purchased or acquired his work over a 50 year period.

Part three: During the exhibition, fans and old friends will also have the opportunity to dine with Antony at a once in a lifetime event, organised by The Incubator team and hosted by The Forta Leza Restaurant.

The dinners will be held inside what used to be Antony's studio, a magical private setting reminiscent of a Brothers Grimm fairytale with Antony in his own space surrounded by the charm of the historic building steeped in atmosphere and embellished with Antony's art.

The series will open with an official launch on Saturday at the Incubator Creative Hub at 1pm.

Reluctant Melancholia and its concurrent exhibitions will be held the Incubator Creative Hub within the Tauranga Historic Village and the Forta Leza restaurant in Katikati where Antony resides.

For further details contact the Incubator Creative Hub.