Exhibition: I, HERE, NOW by Vivian Lynn at Adam Art Gallery

The Adam Art Gallery is proud to present a long-overdue survey of the work of artist Vivian Lynn. Curated by Christina Barton and Laura Preston, this exhibition canvasses the diversity of Lynn’s practice and brings to light works that have not been seen for many years. Vivian Lynn will be well known to many as the artist who used human hair in a series of 
large-scale installations in the 1980s, such as Guarden Gates (1982) and The Gates of Goddess: A Southern Crossing attended by the Goddess (1986). These are landmark works in New Zealand’s art history for their trenchant re-coding of materials and subjects that aimed to expose the binary logic of western patriarchal culture and its consequences. Perhaps less well known is the fact that Vivian Lynn has been a practicing artist since the late 1950s, working across a range of media – painting, drawing, printmaking, book-making, 
and installation – to develop a complex body of work that asks fundamental questions about the nature of being and the problematics of representation, especially if one is a woman. The curators believe that Lynn’s work should be better known, both for its technical virtuosity and its critical examination of the beliefs, values, ideas and assumptions that structure society and inform how women and the environment are treated. In refusing to develop a signature style and in her continual attempt to develop new modes of socially engaged practice, Lynn is an artist for our times. The exhibition will be accompanied by a public programme of talks, readings and a film screening to expand on the issues raised by Lynn’s practice.

Until 15 March 2009

For more information please visit: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/adamartgal/