Overview

b. 1970, New Zealand (Ngāpuhi)
Lives in Christchurch

Darryn George is a New Zealand artist of Ngāpuhi descent, and his work reflects the dichotomy of his cultural roots—having a Christian faith along with Māori heritage. Primarily working with geometric abstraction in a palette reduced to red, black, and white, his more recent works have included figurative elements in a bright palette. Although traditionally within art history the abstraction of form avoids cultural references, George’s ability to interweave them is what defines his unique style.

George’s latest paintings are playfully polychromatic and combine abstracted shapes with foliage and flowers to create dreamlike gardens of delight. In the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings of 2019, the Christchurch-based artist witnessed diverse crowds gathering at the Botanic Gardens, coming together to join those affected in solidarity. This outpouring of love and support inspired the marked shift in George’s practice, and led him to formalise a new visual vocabulary he had been experimenting with since 2018. The resulting paintings are deliberately naïve, both in technique and palette, using oil pastels to combine illustrative depictions of gardens with cheerfully saturated colour. They are direct and joyful. They ask their viewers to revel in their exuberant innocence, but they are also grounded in a quiet and restrained composition. The vertical structure we recognise from previous bodies of work becomes both a pillar of strength, and the river flowing from Eden to nourish the crowds below.

George’s works are held in public collections in New Zealand, including The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and the Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. His work is the subject of the artist’s monograph Darryn George (Mihi Publishers, Christchurch, 2010). In 2013 George exhibited in Personal Structures, a collateral exhibition of the 55th Venice Biennale.

George holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Canterbury University, 1993) and a Diploma of Teaching (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, 1998). Based in Christchurch, he divides him time between teaching and painting.

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