TJ McNamara: Swift eye and slow-building tension

Opinion

Although the splatter and dash of expressionist painting or the swift accumulations of "found" sculpture could come under the heading of "fast art", the principal fast art is, by its nature, photography.

Much photography is the instant capture of a never-to-be-repeated moment and Marti Friedlander is an outstanding exponent of this.

A retrospective show at the Gus Fisher Gallery accompanies the launch of a book by Leonard Bell on her work.

Her quick perception of a significant moment is comparable to a master news photographer's but her skill is at the service of a deep humanitarian interest rather than recording accident, murder, fire or feud.

Her much-praised photographs are of people, ranging from children playing on a beach to Israeli President David Ben-Gurion.

Because she has spent most of her life in New Zealand, her black and white semi-documentary photographs are most important when they focus on this country, notably Maori and the community of artists. One of the most touching images is of the late Pat Hanly and his wife, real and characteristic in its informality.

Almost the only colour photo in this selection is of Colin McCahon's studio. This is a portrait of a man when he is absent (McCahon detested being photographed) but the tools and materials fall into a complex, almost formal composition and say a great deal about the man and his art.

The exhibition and the book are a fine tribute to a huge body of work unique in New Zealand.

Slow art is manifest in big paintings with a deeply considered vision expressed in complex, skilled feats of painting. A great exemplar of this is Bill Hammond who, in his artistic maturity, continues to explore his special world populated by creatures of his own invention. These mirror at some levels history and present attitudes as well as evoking the landscape of these islands.

Two substantial paintings, both called The Green Room, at Ivan Anthony Gallery show his work at its most atmospheric. A green room in a theatre is the place where the actors wait before they go on stage. These paintings show a land in waiting, predominantly a green land.

The larger painting has a background of volcanoes with a purple sofa in the foreground on which a figure sits as if on a stage. The background is moonlit with winged figures throughout.

There is a sense of resolution in these bird-people, especially in one splendid figure that stands tall in a grove of palms. Other figures fly in the air with their wings balancing symmetrically. Some of the trees are dim and mysterious and the effect of a tense strangeness is emphasised by the runs of paint down the canvas. Such runs have almost become a cliche in New Zealand art but here they contribute powerfully to the atmosphere of a changing order.

It would be easy to call the painting mythical in the sense that a myth explains or symbolises natural phenomena. In Hammond's painting, the phenomena are enigmatic but sensed as real and disturbingly powerful.

The smaller painting is similar but even richer in colour as a dull gold contrasts with the prevailing green. There are modern elements such as a curious lampshade with a figure climbing a stepladder towards it. Overall there is a sense of exploration and one figure has a branch of peace.

The same slow process of careful painting is apparent in the first exhibition by Tyrone Layne at the Warwick Henderson Gallery but here the ideas are much simpler, illustrative and even jokey.

One canvas, called The End of the Recession, shows two gallery attendants carrying a painting by Bill Hammond across K Rd.

With enormous care Layne fills his painting with sunshine and masses of tiny figures. New Sand at Point Chevalier shows more than 100 people sporting in the water.

The drawing is often clumsy but the group is well arranged. The people are caricatured, smiling and happy. It is more a bright vision than reality. He is not yet our Pieter Breughel.

Layne finds K Rd fascinating but where many see squalor he finds entertainment. The work is wishfully autobiographical. He paints a crowd outside Artspace and includes Impressionists in the crowd - Monet, Manet, Cezanne and Van Gogh - alongside himself. He is also at a big exhibition opening in New York. These happy paintings are at odds with the scene in Britomart station full of blood and fighting called Dawn of the Swine Flu at Britomart.

Some paintings have a plain background. The biggest of these is called Young for Ever, a space among the clouds where people carry on the activities of their life, holding hands and listening to iPods. It is obviously a special heaven.

The paintings are a good start to a career but for all their entertaining bustle they are fairly superficial and lack interesting ambiguities and levels of reference.

Also in Parnell at the Sanderson Gallery is a body of precise, careful work by Candi Dentice. Her paintings are small and charming images of trees, which she paints with extraordinary skill.

The effect is of great concentration and to add an element of strangeness the painter has paper boats floating in water and paper birds in the sky, or sits her beautiful trees on little round tables. The best work, such as Monument, has a steep hill crowned with a grove of majestic trees with alps in the background.

The paintings are allegorical as when a hollow tree shelters a young plant. When the ideas are pushed too obviously, the surreal intensity is lost.

One remarkable fact about all three of these exhibitions is that all are almost sold out.

For gallery listings, see www.nzherald.co.nz/go/artlistings>

AT THE GALLERIES

What: Looking Closely: Photographs by Marti Friedlander
Where and when: Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland St, to Nov 21
TJ says: A well-selected collection from the extensive body of work by one of our leading photographers of people.

What: The Green Room by Bill Hammond
Where and when: Ivan Anthony Gallery, 312 K Rd, to Nov 14
TJ says: Another series of Hammond's intense works with New Zealand as a green land, with waiting bird figures resolute and strange.

What: Reasonable Doubt by Tyrone Layne
Where and when: Warwick Henderson Gallery, 32 Bath St, to Nov 14
TJ says: A young artist's clever work crowded with figures all on the edge of caricature on a variety of sites from Peru to K Rd.

What: Glimpses by Candi Dentice
Where and when: Sanderson Contemporary Art, 351 Parnell Rd, to Nov 15
TJ says: Small, charming paintings featuring trees painted with skill to create allegorical situations of gifting and protection.