CHRISTINA Pataialii: proximity and distance
(Rydal prize winner 2019)

13 March - 4 July 2021

Wellington-based artist Christina Pataialii is the 2019 recipient of the Rydal Art Prize - a major contemporary painting prize administered by the Tauranga Art Gallery Toi Tauranga. As a key outcome of the Prize, we are pleased to present Christina Pataialii: Proximity and Distance, a large-scale installation conceived for the Gallery's atrium that evidences key developments in Pataialii’s practice over the past year.
 
In this substantial new body of work, the artist demonstrates her uncanny ability to produce both stand-alone paintings and to deploy these same artworks as building blocks within a larger installation. Pataialii’s signature embrace of both ‘fine art’ materials and those related to the trades is also evident through the presence of house paint applied directly to the walls of the atrium and large-scale drop cloths which will be suspended within the room. The new installation spans the full height and width of the atrium space and comprises the largest presentation of Pataialii’s work to date. Pataialii is represented by McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.

The Rydal Art Prize is generously sponsored by Seeds Trust.

On the day of Christina Pataialii's exhibition launch at Tauranga Art Gallery, Saturday 13 March 2021, she sat down with art critic and writer Anthony Byrt for a public talk. Click here for the conversation. 

Image:  Installation view (detail): Christina Pataialii, Proximity and Distance, Tauranga Art Gallery, 2021