Gavin Hurley
Gavin Hurley is a full-time artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 1998, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting. Since then he has exhibited and is collected nationally and internationally in private galleries as well as public art institutions. Hurley’s collages are constructed from carefully layered flat planes of colour that together make up the simplified features of his subjects. Nostalgia for subject matter is extended to material as Hurley utilises textured papers and aged illustrations from old books thrifted from antique and second-hand stores. These collages frequently display their seams, there are cracks where shapes do not quite match and these are sometimes carried through into his paintings. Both collages and paintings share Hurley’s trademark palette which consists of sherbet pastels, generic browns and blacks, simplified primary colours and the ubiquitous powder-blue of a clear sky. All of Hurley’s works play with material and sensation, thick coarse hessian contrasts with heavy underpainting and a meticulous flat finish; varicoloured, carefully placed and glued paper shapes assemble on papery backgrounds in the company of scraps of old book covers and exercise book sheets.
The use of flat areas of colour and a general lack of modelling make Hurley’s subjects mask-like. His portraits create a sense of quietude, they are colourful and synthetic with a kind of porcelain decorum. Hurley’s colourful cast of characters make up a cobbled-together and imperfect history, all of the personages display features that seem as though they may float away, as though they are kept together merely with glue, their hessian supports or collective memory.ARTWORKS
Sorting, 2016
Paper Collage
28.0 x 38.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
Secretaries, 2016
Paper Collage
28.0 x 38.0 cm
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I am right in front of you no. 2, 2016
Paper Collage
36.0 x 36.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
The Interview, 2016
Paper Collage
28.0 x 38.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
Unidentified, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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Man 4, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
Coming and Going Grid 2, 2011
Paper Collage
70.0 x 55.0 cm
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War 2, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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The Dukes, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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Frank, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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Life, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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One Eye, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
War 3, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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War 1, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
Man 1, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
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War 4, 2011
Paper Collage
38.0 x 28.0 cm
Copyright the Artist
Postcard New Zealand, 2019
Paper Collage
41 x 29.5 cm
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After Olle Eksell, 2019
Paper Collage
41 x 29.5 cm
Copyright the Artist
Making a Guy, 2019
Paper Collage
41 x 29.5 cm
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Making a rainbow, 2019
Paper Collage
41 x 29.5 cm
Copyright the Artist
EXHIBITIONS
Paper Matters
Group Show
21. July - 1. August 2020
Group Show
Sam Mitchell, Gavin Hurley and Anita Fricek
4th April - 12th May 2019
Summer Exhibition
Group Show
7th July - 8th September 2018
BIOGRAPHY
Education
1993-1998 BFA Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland
Exhibitions (Selected)
2023 Recent Paintings, Melanie Rogers, Auckland, NZ
2021 Paintings of Paintings, Melanide Rogers, Auckland NZ
2019 Summer, Group Exhibition at Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2018 Gavin Hurley, The Rooms, Tautanga Art Gallery
2018 Business Paintings, Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2017 Gavin Hurley, Sam Mitchell, Robin Beate & Martin Popplewell, Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2016 Neatness/Disarray, Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2016 Beards, Boys, Blatters, Satteres Dreams, Sam Mitchell & Gavin Hurley, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui
2015 Tranquility Disturb'd, New Zealand Porträt Gallery, curated by Richard Wolfe
2015 Meet, Gavin Hurley and Sam Mitchell, Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2013 Man-Made, Gavin Hurley & Richard Orjis, Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
2013 Memexograph, Melanie Rogers Gallery, Auckland
2010 Kingfishing, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2009 A-Z, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2009 A-Z Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington
2009 Art with Paper, Group Show, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2008 When you were young, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
2007 Salty Yarns of the Sea, Hawkes Bay Cultural Trust, Napier
2007 Pakeha Now, The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatu, Nelson
2007 Fancy Portraits, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2007 Cameo Appearance, Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington
2006 Plastic Myth, curated by James Steele First Draft, Sydney
2006 Double D, ceramics in collaborative with Martin Poppelwell, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2006 Dep_art_ment, Auckland
2006 Birds: The Art of New Zealand Bird Life, Pataka Museum of Art and Culture, Porirua
2006 Nautial BUT Nice, Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington
2006 Salty Yarns of the Sea, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2005 Effigies and Paper Dolls, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2005 Mixed-Up Childhood, curated by Janita Craw & Robert Leonard, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
2005 Paperwork, Canary Gallery, Auckland
2005 Bloom, North Art, Auckland
2004 My Sad Captains, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2004 Cut Outs (Curator & participant), Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2003 Agent , Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2003 Portraiture – A Social Commentary, curated by Rhoda Fowler, Te Tuhi, The Mark, Auckland
2002 School Portraits, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2002 Cinema, Projection Project, High Street, Auckland (In association with R.M.G Media Co)
2002 School Portraits, Snow White, Unitech, Auckland
2002 Group Show, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2002 People That You Meet, Vada, Auckland
2001 Landscape, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2001 One Night Only, The Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland
2001 Wallace Art Award, Auckland
2001 New Art Gallery, Wellington - Christchurch
2000 Group Show, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
2000 Recent Paintings, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
1999 Emerging Artists, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland
1999 Still Life, Hawkes Bay Cultural Trust, Napier
1998 Airmail, Exchange Show, Elam / Ilam, George Fraser Gallery / Ilam School of Fine Arts
1998 Group Show, Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland