Collection focus artist Robert McLeod will discuss his work at Sarjeant on the Quay

Sarjeant Gallery curator Greg Donson with Robert McLeod's Planet Jeff in the collection Focus exhibition. Photo / Michael McKeagg

Wellington-based Robert McLeod is the featured artist for the Sarjeant Gallery's latest collection focus exhibition.

The Scottish-born artist immigrated to New Zealand in the 1970s and has been teaching art at Wellington High School for more than 30 years while regularly exhibiting his own work.

"He has a long association with the Sarjeant Gallery," says curator Greg Donson.

"We have 89 of his works in the collection and these most recent works are from a series called Planetheads."

McLeod originally created the works for an installation at Tauranga Art Gallery in 2012-2013 and has gifted three of seven works to the Sarjeant.

The large works, painted on marine ply, are based on artists and the works in the current exhibition are Planet Edward (named after Norwegian painter Edvard Munch) Planet Janet (American Realist painter Janet Fish) and Planet Jeff (American artist Jeff Koons).

The Planetheads are a departure from McLeod's earlier abstract works and feature large distorted heads which the artist has said were not a challenge for him.

"A head is not a difficult proposition unless it is a portrait of an individual.

"That's another set of problems."

Donson said the works have been attracting plenty of interest from gallery visitors.

"Although these works are quite grotesque, they have very pleasing colour palettes," he says.

The other large work in the exhibition is McLeod's 1981 painting Llush - a sumptuously layered work which appears to have a uniform pinkish purple colour.

"When you look more closely, you see hints of red in there," says Donson.

The other works in the exhibition are a small selection from a group of 27 untitled drawings acquired in 2004.

Donson says they are early book proofs of An Orange in a Fried Fish Shop: Paintings by Robert McLeod, published in 2002.

The layered works with cartoon-inspired imagery were gifted to the Sarjeant Gallery in 2004 and are on display to the public for the first time.

Artist Talk: Robert McLeod will discuss his works in the Collection Focus exhibition with curator and public programmes manager Greg Donson. Saturday, July 27, 11am at 38 Taupo Quay.