Elephant in the Room exhibition at Rayner Brothers Gallery

Rosemary Baragwanath and Paul Rayner with Andrea Gardner's piece Feelings at Rayner Brothers Gallery. Photo / Bevan Conley

Mark and Paul Rayner have 500 elephants in their jumbo exhibition at 85 Glasgow St and no two of them are remotely similar.

Although all the contributors were given identical moulds to work with, each piece has been interpreted differently.

Most of the names are familiar in Whanganui - Sue Cooke, Andrea Gardner, Lauren Lysaght, Leigh Anderton-Hall, Sarah Bingle, Graham Hall, Sheila Pearson and several other local artists have contributed their work.

"We invited the artists to participate but we also extended the invitation to the community and got a great response," said Paul Rayner.

"Our oldest participant is Sister Purly Mae Rankar who contributed her wonderful piece named Little Nelly.

"She is 102 and the mould would have been hard for her to manage so she fashioned her own elephant."

Opposite Sister Purly Mae's work is 7-year-old Karahi Smith's King Arthur creation.

Karahi has used the standard mould and added unique touches like a set of model aeroplane wings.

Several artists have expressed their abhorrence for the ivory trade in their work and Lauren Lysaght has transformed her elephant into its woolly mammoth ancestor.

The Rayners say the gallery/studio space in Glasgow St is working well for them and their guest artists since they moved there in August this year.

The proposed cafe at the site is scheduled to open in January and the exterior painting and landscaping at the site is now almost complete.

The Elephant in the Room jumbo group show is open for viewing at Rayner Brothers Gallery, 85 Glasgow St.

Open 12pm to 4pm Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 10am to 1pm on Saturday.