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    Gretchen Albrecht Autumnal Mirror, 1997. Private collection, Auckland

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    Gretchen Albrecht Cloud - 3, 2004. Image courtesy of the Rose Family Collection

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    Gretchen Albrecht Exile, 1985 Image courtesy of the Erika and Robin Congreve collection.

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    Gretchen Albrecht Sea of Faith, 1989. Image courtesy of the Erika and Robin Congreve collection.

Gretchen Albrecht: Returning

13 November 2005 - 6 February 2006 in the Entire Gallery

Over the past three decades, Gretchen Albrecht has developed one of the most widely recognised personal styles in New Zealand painting. This survey exhibition traces the evolution of Albrecht’s two signature forms, her hemisphere- and oval-shaped canvases.

In 1981 Albrecht spent time in Dunedin as the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago. This was a significant period in her career, as it was during this year that Albrecht began working on the hemisphere paintings that have become her best known works. Returning tracks the path Albrecht has taken since that watershed year.

Albrecht’s paintings are resonant combinations of colour and geometry, poetic images that allude to the landscape, family and the cosmos. Returning reveals both Albrecht’s power as a colourist and her mastery of scale, from small oval paintings on wood and copper to canvases that are more than three metres wide.

Gretchen Albrecht has exhibited in New Zealand and internationally for more than 35 years. Born in Auckland in 1943 she graduated from the Auckland University School of Fine Arts in 1963. Her work has been shown in many important exhibitions, including Seven Painters/The Eighties (1982), Distance Looks Our Way – 10 Artists from New Zealand (1993), Leap of Faith – Contemporary New Zealand Art (1998) and Telecom Prospect 2001: New Art New Zealand (2001).

In recent years Albrecht has shown in both Europe and the USA, including the exhibition Decades at Robert Steele Gallery, New York. A major survey exhibition of her work, Illuminations, was held at the Auckland Art Gallery in 2002.

A Dunedin Public Art Gallery touring exhibition.

Public Programmes

Gretchen Albrecht in conversation with Bronwyn Lloyd, Tuesday 29 November.

Exhibition tours Saturday and Sunday, 1pm.

Principal Sponsor