A Modest Modernism

Spatial graphics
Exhibition 
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Exhibition Designer
Graphic Designer

A Modest Modernism: Roy Cowan & Juliet Peter celebrates the creative lives of Wellington artist couple. Painters, print-makers, potters and illustrators, both artists placed aesthetics at the heart of all their work, and approached life with the idea that all artistic activity is connected.

In 2014, I designed an exhibition of the work of two New Zealand artists, Roy Cowan and Juliet Peter.

The brief from the curator was that the exhibition should feel more cosy and homely than galleries often do. This space has a concrete block wall down one side, an architectural feature that references the museum’s original 1970s design, but that is often problematic for hanging artwork and sometimes more character than is wanted for a fine art exhibition. However, for this show I decided to make a feature of the detail, placing the works on surfaces of various height and proportion, either attached to the wall or held up by stacks of half-size concrete blocks.

The routine white-paint finish was replaced with thick sheets of timber, complementing the concrete blocks and the muted tones of the ceramics, as well as suggesting coffee tables, shelves or mantle pieces; all of which added to the a sense of the domestic.