The Four Dimensions of a Note - Shannon Novak

The art of Shannon Novak is largely driven by pedagogic concerns. Through his geometric abstraction paintings, he aims to explore the didactic potential of art works.

In this exhibition, compositions of form seek to extend modernist inquiries into the universal, drawing reference to the works of Paul Klee, Bridget Riley and Milan Mrkusich.

Growing up in New Plymouth under the shadow of Len Lye, a strong current of the kinetic has perhaps been an inevitable theme in Novak’s creativity. Training in classical, modern and jazz music has seen Novak transformed into a medium through which the abstract symbols of notation are interpreted to produce sound and express emotion. In this exhibition, the alchemy involved in the experience of musicality is pinpointed and mapped in his deconstructions of the musical symbol.

  “The works are an exploration of notes as I perceive them – as I play them. I sense the key, I sense the volume, I sense the duration, and I sense my soul.” – Shannon Novak