The Review 2017 features numerous new works: Charlotte Handy’s perceptive, revealing, portraits; Peter James Smith’s intriguing combination of cartography, history and the sublime Fiordland landscape; Neil Dawson’s masterful mix of illusion and perception, pattern and negative space in Murmuration 22, which ceaselessly alters in form and substance as the swallows circle and fly.

Simon Edwards (Rubicon Valley; Glacial Retreat), Neil Frazer (Shadow Melt; Rising Ridge), Michael Hight (Ngauruhoe; Kaimiro) and Dick Frizzell (Untitled) explore the changing atmospheres, physical presences, metaphorical language, geomorphology of the New Zealand landscape. Karl Maughan (Kohitere) investigates the differing roles of shape, distance, implication, colour and sensation in the ‘invented’ landscaped garden.

Darryn George (The Crossing #4) looks down from above, establishing a narrative filled with spiritual and symbolic content - a pathway comprised of words and pattern divides the canvas in two; the sea is parted, the story of Exodus revealed. J S Parker’s distinctive, abstracted landscapes distil essences of place, the phenomenon of weather and season, into profound visual experiences.

Joanna Braithwaite’s Slippery Slope and Old Salt may at first seem un-presupposing but that alters quickly. Through a remarkably adroit use of humour, human characteristics, environmental discourse and the paradoxes of peril, powerfully incisive narratives develop.

Tania Patterson’s completely adjustable nest boxes provide a platform upon which she delivers a compelling array of native birds with an amalgam of authority, accuracy and studied character. Ann Robinson’s Small Twisted Flax Pods are jewel-like, sinuous celebrations. Emily Siddell’s and Stephen Bradbourne’s collaborative mixed-media Still Life sets explore tone, form, and the languages of massed objects. Paul Maseyk’s critically acclaimed combination of visual story-telling and (a continuous investigation of) monumental ceramic form is to be seen in White Daisy Black Lady and The Cow.

The Review 2017 also features Caroline Earley’s tender Suspend II, a new Missing Link from Shane Woolridge, Bridie Henderson’s light-box ceramic necklace and a classic John Parker Shiny White Still Life Set.