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Elliot Collins: The Weight of History

For the atrium Auckland artist Elliot Collins has produced one of his signature installations. He combines elements that respond to his significant career to date with ideas he is exploring as part of his doctoral studies.

He is most well known for his word paintings with tender and wistful phrases that read like a song lyric or a poem combined with vibrant and dynamic painted backgrounds.

Through the use of text Collins’ work captures some of the softer interactions we have everyday. Ideas such as longing, desire and sadness are expressed in sometimes subtle ways – inviting the reader to take a closer look or to interpret them from a personal perspective.

 

Tim Melville writes “In artworks like these the viewer has a sense of the artist making himself vulnerable. The paintings are brave, beautifully considered and thought-provoking, with a quality of romantic melancholy and knowing innocence that hits the heart with a flash of recognition. In a world preoccupied with irony and cynicism Collins' works are loaded with hope, humanity and possibility."

His work can be experienced on a variety of scales from small canvases to large billboard sized murals that engulf the viewer. For Tauranga Art Gallery Collins has taken a slightly different approach, playing with ideas of scale in order to focus your attention on the small gestures. Alongside his installation in the Gallery, Collins also has a work on a billboard outside of the building.

Collins has exhibited extensively since graduating with a Masters of Fine Arts: Honours from Auckland University of Technology in 2007. He has featured in major shows at City Gallery, Wellington, Christchurch Art Gallery and The Dowse Art Museum and is represented by Tim Melville Gallery, Auckland.

This exhibition has been generously supported by the Kathleen Dorothy Kirkby Charitable Trust and Perpetual Guardian, and Dulux who gifted all paints for this exhibition. 

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