Previous Exhibitions

October 2017 - Katherine Claypole - From her perspective

For the month of October 2017, ZIMMERMAN is featuring From her perspective - new works by Whanganui-based artist Katherine Claypole.   

By way of artist's statement for this exhibition, the artist has supplied the following excerpt from Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale:

 

"What I need is perspective. The illusion of depth, created by a frame, the arrangement of shapes on a flat surface. Perspective is necessary. Otherwise there are only two dimensions. Otherwise you live with your face squashed up against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bed sheet, the molecules of the face. Your own skin like a map, a diagram of futility, crisscrossed with tiny roads that lead nowhere. Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.”

 

The works in this exhibition play with spatial relationships, cleverly juxtaposing collage with hand stitched forms.

 

Vaguely nostalgic imagery is combined with futuristic forms, associating memory and the familiar with the uncertainty of the new and unknown.

 

Drawing foremost on the artist’s skills in drawing and design, Claypole’s work also requires considerable technical dexterity, time and determination to complete.

 

Katherine Claypole – brief artist bio

Born in Hawkes Bay, Claypole holds a Master of Fine Arts from Canterbury University School of Fine Arts (Christchurch) and a Bachelor of Design from Unitec Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Design (Auckland).

 

After seven years of lecturing in drawing at Whanganui UCOL, Claypole recently left teaching to pursue a full time career as an artist.

 

In addition to solo exhibitions in Christchurch, Auckland and Whanganui, Claypole has also participated in a number of group exhibitions and award shows.

 

In 2011, Claypole was the winner of the Carey Smith & Co Whanganui Art Award at Sarjeant Gallery. Earlier this year, one of Claypole’s hand stitched thread drawing and collage works was selected as a finalist in the Parkin Drawing Prize, New Zealand’s premier drawing award.

 

Claypole’s works are held in art collections across the country, including four works owned by the James Wallace Arts Trust.