Angela Frank - Print Council Aotearoa show at Toi Ohomai

Crossing Lines by Toni Farmer is part of a national exhibition hosted at Toi Ohomai Rotorua Photo / Riley Claxton

OPINION:

Art, in its cyclic rendering of new versions and old tropes, can seem repetitive.

But repetition is simply a deliberation of language.

When we consider media alphabet, imagery syntax, and the contemporary cultural narrative as determiner of "message", just as one returns to books, one returns to the gallery to divine today's critical "news and weather".

In the absence of a dedicated art gallery in Rotorua, various independent initiatives provide spaces for exhibition and appreciation of the local visual voice.

One of these small gallery spaces is hosted by the Creative Department building (J Block) at the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology Mokoia campus.

Currently hosted there, until November 5, is national exhibition Social Print by the artists of Print Council Aotearoa New Zealand - a national printmaking society which unites printmakers and promotes contemporary fine art printmaking.

Upon entry, this seems a quietly benign, even formal, show, but the diversity of the 25 artists' craft and intent invites attention.

Articulated in detail and the methodical contrast elemental to ink-based work, the eye is drawn to line, space, figure/ground and pigment density versus light.

The beauty of this show, however, is in the surreptitiousness of the beckon.

Rather than shouting about social issues, the quiet process of regarding the varied subtleties segues into considering the commentary in the content and the ways in which the works reflect each other.

From the catalogue: Powerful and persuasive, art can have a social function, challenging our understanding of the world in which we live and how we operate within it.

- Angela Frank is a local community artist.