Works dull or delight as tradition revisited

Albatrosses by Russell Jackson. Photo / Richard Robinson

Andy Warhol's works still sell for millions on the international art market and his spectre haunts the art scene.

Recently, at Lonely Dog Gallery, American artist Peter Mars was showing prints mostly done from photographs of Elvis Presley, very much in the manner of Warhol's later work that made him wealthy.

On the other hand, Warhol's early work, when he was poor, is reflected in the work of Campbell Patterson at Michael Lett Gallery. The New Yorker made long, dull films of his friends sleeping and of the Empire State Building from a fixed camera position that ran a full 24 hours.

In the show at Michael Lett, Patterson has four little films on portable DVD players. They show him washing feet, lifting pavers, tossing rubbish off a bridge and sleeping. The domesticity is emphasised by a used towel and a wet T-shirt on the gallery floor and a thick splash of soap just inside the door. It is all grindingly dull, just like early Warhol.

Such things go against ordinary common sense and so, in large measure, does the work of Richard Maloy at the Sue Crockford Gallery. The work is 12 photos of the tops of workroom tables at Elam School of Fine Arts.

You can find an intellectual justification for this and even historical precedents. Why not photograph the surfaces of tables with splashes of coloured paint and the remnants of masking tape on them, instead of the whole room? Why photograph the table's legs, which are commonplace, instead of the table top? There is a precedent for finding art in scratches and marks and scribbles.

The work here is unconvincing, except where the patches of colour are visually quite lively. The table tops that are almost bare are simply dull and don't work out of context. We are told in the commentary that the gallery is transformed and pushes boundaries with "Duchampian glee" - but Duchamp is long dead and the force of his philosophic gestures is exhausted.

Starkwhite is hosting a show by a New Zealand artist who has been based in New York for some time, where he has achieved a measure of recognition. Martin Basher is up to date in that his work is loaded with irony, that most modern of stimuli. It also displays a remarkable control over traditional techniques of painting. This is in contrast to his previous show at the gallery, which was mostly floor-standing compositions of found objects. He has moved on.

The irony lies in the way that he paints a sunset magnificently with vivid sky and movement in the water. It looks sentimentally romantic and hovers on the edge of kitsch, but is given a piquant touch by the huge supertanker on the horizon and the oily maelstrom where the water swirls in the foreground. The title of the work is Sun goes down easy and yr chilled spirit with it. The chill lies in the tanker.

There are also a number of paintings of handshakes. The hands are accurately drawn: you can feel the bones beneath the skin and see the veins on the surface. At one level they work well as tokens of friendship. They even remotely recall God and Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling and they are amiable about race relations where brown and white hands join.

Yet the element of business intrudes where one hand is backed by an immaculate white cuff and a business suit and the other a rather loose jacket. Behind all the gestures are deals.

These ironies emerge from Basher's recent time as artist in residence in the McCahon House in Titirangi, where he was struck by the difference between the natural surroundings and commercial activity of West Auckland.

Another aspect of the exhibition is the conscious display of virtuosity over several genres. There are fine abstract paintings where bands of silver roll into bands of black. He can do it all, traditional or modern, but the mixture has its own tensions.

The large, confident display of sculpture by Chiara Corbelletto at the Bath Street Gallery is based firmly on the traditions of the 20th century. It falls into three parts. First there are the Bio-structures, which are cellular - an idiom the sculptor has worked with in the past.

The material is industrial polypropylene and, generally, whether free standing or on the wall, the sculptures have two interlocking structures. The most impressive is a large free-standing piece in treated steel, painted with blue and white industrial paint.

The second aspect of her work is called Fields of Energy, where modules of timber are arranged in waves. The outstanding piece here is a large, curved work that stands against the wall. Its waves give the sense of advancing force.

A departure for Corbelletto is the third style, called Habitats, which are structures of fibre glass and fabric. These works fold in on themselves and one, An Ocean of Silence, is a black work suspended from the ceiling with an opening like the maw of a shark. The best of them is a wall-mounted work called String Theory, which has smooth folds and unexpected voids. It is the most inventive work in the show.

Another artist who has been part of the art scene for a long time is Russell Jackson, who has a quirky show at Nkb Gallery in Mt Eden. The artist has been known for his depiction of birds and the room is dominated by a striking picture of albatrosses.

The large birds are thrust forward to the point of being menacing. Another work of the familiar boatsheds in Hobson Bay is saved from cliche by the deftly painted presence of a tern.

Other paintings are more placid. Some have the Jackson trademark of a large animal in the foreground and landscape at the back.

All combine realism with painterly flourish in varied techniques, which include combing the paint for roofs and corrugated iron. In this workmanlike exhibition, only some of the wilder experiments like the painting of islands in the Coromandel are less successful.

At the galleries

What: Orewa by Campbell Patterson
Where and when: Michael Lett, 478 Karangahape Rd, to Nov 27
TJ says: Extreme examples of the idea that everything an artist does is art - films that show everyday activities with soap and towels thrown in as props.

What: Attempts by Richard Maloy
Where and when: Sue Crockford Gallery, 2 Queen St, to 27 Nov
TJ says: The artist goes his extreme way by photographing tabletops at Elam to record the casual scraps of colour left by the students attempting to make art.

What: States of Peace and Calm W. Personal Touch by Martin Basher
Where and when: Starkwhite, 510 Karangahape Rd, to Nov 27
TJ says: Romantic scenes of sea and sky beautifully painted in traditional techniques but given an ironic, post-modern spin alongside equally deft abstraction.

What: Probability Cloud by Chiara Corbelletto
Where and when: Bath Street Gallery, 43 Bath St, to Dec 4
TJ says: A substantial show of sculpture in three different modes which show considerable invention and a sense of rhythm in three-dimensional structures.

What: Earthworks by Russell Jackson
Where and when: Nkb Gallery, 455 Mt Eden Rd, to Nov 23
TJ says: Birds, a rabbit and other animals painted against local backgrounds in a variety of lively techniques.