TJ McNamara: To the fringe and back

The word "fringe" first describes a decorative edging and, second, something not quite mainstream.

A pilgrimage round the edge of the Auckland art scene reveals much that is decorative and charming, but mainstream it is not because art is not one big river. It has reached the delta and braided into many streams.

The North Shore is out on this edge and a lot of activity at Devonport and Mairangi Bay goes unrecorded. In Takapuna, the Bruce Mason Centre houses exhibitions and at the moment is showing Stone on Stone in the foyer throughout September.

This series of paintings by Alex Stone began at the centre, then travelled to Te Papa and the Great Hall in Christchurch before returning to Takapuna.

A special feature of the work is that it involves a partnership with Winstone Wallboards, manufacturers of gib board. Most of the work is done on gib, which the artist refers to as "modern, packaged rock face" - although the work owes more to Jackson Pollock than cave art.

The absorbent surface allows Stone to brush stains directly into the surface. Then he inscribes abstract, dancing linear forms across the surface.

The colour of the stains is predominantly brown. The dancing lines are sometimes white where the gypsum shows through but often black. Despite the dull colours, each painting performs a little dance to a variety of lyrics. They are at their best when they are light-hearted rather than sombre and portentous but the effect overall is repetitive.

Also in the foyer is a big painting by Bernard Walters, who had the previous exhibition at the centre. It is a colourful, Impressionistic work and stands up well to the competition from the more unorthodox artist.

Continuing round the fringe, across the bridge to Ponsonby and the Muka Gallery - here is a work by an even more traditional artist, Lewis Miller, an Australian who concentrates on portraits and figure studies. The show continues until September 21.

The ability of Miller to capture a likeness is everywhere apparent. There are drawings and etchings recording conventionally rendered nude bodies, hairy male or busty female. The bodies are accurately drawn without being anything special, but the strongly modelled heads - profiles or full-face, male or female - are full of shrewd observation and life.

We are reminded that Miller won the coveted Archibald Prize in 1998 and has been a finalist many times. His portraits specialise in the rugged individual, a talent acknowledged in 2000 when he won the Special Sporting Prize with a painting of Ronald Barassi, the famous Aussie Rules player and coach.

Some lithographs in the show break away from the human studies, forming the delightful Zoo Series. The artist took lithographic stones to the Auckland Zoo and drew directly on them in the presence of the animals. One work is particularly fine as he captures the pacing energy of lions with great immediacy and force of line. This is an unusual show even for Muka but one that demonstrates that solid draughtsmanship is still a considerable force in art.

Further along, at 1 Ponsonby Rd, the invaluable Artstation has been given over to a photographic installation by Naomi Bell until September 14. Alien Registration: Lost Voices is made up for the most part of re-photographed photographs.

The world evoked by these shots of old passports and snapshots is the world of refugees from Nazism. The photographs are touching but the most moving part of the exhibition is a battered suitcase in the centre with destination labels that represented hope. There is also a key, kept all this time, that once opened a door in a house in Czechoslovakia. This is an intimate family history but universal in conveying feelings of exile.

Continuing our journey along the fringe, head east into Symonds St to Te Taumata Gallery, where there is a group exhibition by Maori artists until September 13.

Before even entering the gallery visitors are aware of Robyn Kahukiwa's huge image of a Maori woman, whose carrying power is such it is effective almost all the way to Grafton Bridge.

But size is not everything. A small, narrow work by John Walsh makes a mystery of Mt Taranaki, with a long, white cloud behind it and Parihaka nestling beneath. Other works in the show are full of signs and symbols; especially effective are the tall, red columns in the work of Waimarie Hunt and the soft, filtered light that fills the colourful art of Haare Williams.

For the last stop, go down Khyber Pass to the growing enclave of galleries near Newmarket. The Anna Bibby Gallery has reopened in Morgan St and its spacious, slightly industrial interior is exactly suited to showing contemporary art. The opening show, until September 14, is by Martin Poppelwell, and the accompanying group show of artists in the gallery's stable does something special by managing to be at once very serious and very funny.

Poppelwell's work is well and truly on the fringe. He reworks old cartoons alongside the ironical use of hospital rituals. At times he goes too far. A lump is a lump is a lump, ceramic or not, but the exploits of the Ante Christ (sic) are very amusing, while another, showing the use of pig's blood, is chillingly relevant.

The wit continues in the group show where Peter Robinson makes a couple of his crude, artless but hilarious comments. Piddling into Duchamp's urinal is not enough - he also draws a huge and hairy leg evoking the All Blacks and the present myth abroad that New Zealand is populated by Hobbits.

The whole thing is a comment on the Venice Biennale and shows that a fringe is still a fringe even when it dangles in the water of the Grand Canal.