Talk associated with current exhibition 'Telling Stories of Ourselves' a retrospective exhibition of narrative paintings by Southland born and Nelson based artist, Janice Gill.

The exhibition presents an overview of Gill’s development as a self-taught painter who has worked outside established fashions and norms to “create a remarkable body of work that is entirely distinctive and fully realised within its own terms” (R. Dingwall 2004 unpublished review).

The exhibition starts with the Hokonui Whisky Saga series painted in the late 1960s which demonstrates Gill’s early style and interest in local stories. The Minnie Dean series from the 1970s shows the beginnings of Gill’s hard-edged realism which is further developed in her social and political commentaries from the 1980s to the present day.

Exhibition curated by Peter Belton for the Southland Museum and Art Gallery Niho o Te Taniwha.

Image: Janice Gill, Russian Fleet in Port 1985 (detail). Acrylic on canvas board 675 x 795 mm. Private collection, Motueka.