'First Test'

First Test features five artists who will be exhibiting at Suite for the first time:  Christchurch based painters Roger Boyce and Marie-Claire Brehaut, Auckland based photographer Jennifer Mason, and Wellington based sculptors Hannah Bremner and Peter Trevelyan.  Wellington artists Valerie Bos, Claire Zanelli, Andrew Topp and Grant Muir, and Wanganui based Andrea Gardner complete the line up. 

American expatriate and currently senior lecturer in painting at Ilam, Roger Boyce has had solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Paris.  His works have been included in exhibitions at the Sao Paulo Biennale, FIAC - Decouvert at the Grand Palais, Paris, PS1 and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.  Boyce's work is represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington DC) and the deYoung Museum (San Francisco) and he has contributed critical writing to Art in America, Sculpture and Art New Zealand.

First Test will be Marie-Claire Brehaut's first exhibition since completing her Honours degree in painting at Ilam.  Jennifer Mason has exhibited regularly at ORex  in Auckland and has won many awards for her photography.  Glass artist Hannah Bremner currently has work at the Sargent in Whanganui and is a regular at the Thermostat in Palmerston North.

A Masters graduate from Massey University, Peter Trevelyan will be showing an intricate pencil lead sculpture.  From 26 February (as part of the NZ International Arts Festival), Trevelyan will envelop four massive, permanent bollards on Wellington's waterfront between Te Papa and Circa Theatre.  The four bulbous kinetic forms, made from hinged and mirrored equilateral triangles, will provide an ever-changing translation of their environment as the constantly shifting surfaces reflect the surroundings.

Fresh from being profiled in Art Zone magazine, Andrea Gardner will exhibit a new mixed media sculptural work.  First Test also includes new paintings by Valerie Bos, Claire Zanelli and Andrew Topp, who all return for their second show at Suite.  Also back again is Grant Muir whose painted inkjet of a local rugby match features on this opening invitation.