Richard LewerMaking Contact

Drawn from a body of work the artist describes as ‘disaster narratives’, consisting of a painted inventory of personal mishaps, embarrassments and social calamities, the pictures in this exhibition tell of two awkward encounters: one that took place while Lewer was a resident artist in Aotearoa/New Zealand at McCahon House, and the other when he participated in the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York city. With his wry ambiguous humour Lewer addresses oddly memorable interactions with visiting curators in each location, two of whom he is closely acquainted with and the other a prospective international connection. Naturally everything goes wrong and the visits are undercut by wild assumptions, an unwelcome summoning of spirits, and a curator with an extreme aversion to the cold.

While the paintings gently allude to the intimacies, dynamics and power plays of the art world, and by extension to society more broadly, they also consider the practice of art itself as a form of calling forth and reaching out across memory and time. Taking his own experiences as points of departure, the images and accompanying stories prompt us to think about our own moments of social bewilderment, discord and misunderstanding.

Making Contact with Colin McCahon was acquired for the Heide Collection thanks to the Ann Bennett Acquisition fund.