We are closed for the duration of the locked down for the city of Hamilton
For click and collect, please visit our website and follow us on Instagram. For purchasing, contact us on e-mail at: welcomeswallow.nz@gmail.com. Let us know your preferred pick up time and we will be there for contactless hand over. Stay safe.
Welcome Swallow Gallery 2022 Calendar
To celebrate the art that we have been able to show and sell in our exhibitions to date, we have designed our own Gallery Calendar for 2022. Priced at $18 each, they are attractively priced and all profits from sales go towards the children’s charities that we help to fund.
If you are interested in obtaining these Calendars for personal use and perhaps as gifts for friends and family please e-mail your order and contact details to welcomeswallow.nz@gmail.com. Currently all sales are through the bank transfer option for payment. We will put copies aside for you to pick up at your convenience. Over the counter shop sales will resume once we are open post lockdown. If you live outside the Waikato, we will mail your order direct.
Welcome Swallow Exhibition, Ambiguity 1st October - 5th November 2021
As with our 2020 exhibition, It’s all in the Mind, the Welcome Swallow Gallery continues to push the artistic boundaries of the imagination. Never more so than in the compositions presented here; ambiguous reflections and interpretations are suitably on display. With this exhibition, the gallery’s reputation for continuing to develop new art experiences, remains untarnished.
The title of this exhibition is Ambiguity. The strict dictionary definition of this word is, ‘the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness’. While this might form the basis of all human experience, an artist has the opportunity to create both a visual and a conceptual display that captures the antonym of photo realism where objects appear in form, as intended. In this exhibition we have broadened the traditional notion of ‘abstract art’ to include impressionistic works as well as figurative compositions that each admirably alert the imagination to a state of ambiguity. In this sense the exhibition stands at the crossroads of artistic commentary. Once art throws off the shackles of literal representation it is what you see that matters the most.
Sponsored by: PACK & SEND
Ambiguity: Opening night
Photography captures, for future generations, the opening of the Ambiguity exhibition that took place during the period of a mask mandate. As the number of attendees crept close to the maximum number of 100, the current limit for social gatherings, all those who joined the launch were suitable attired. Trust Board member Clive Gilson, who welcomed the guests, pointed out that the very title of the exhibition offered many interpretations that might usefully shed light on the current uncertainties that all faced. On behalf of the eleven artists showing in the exhibition, Sylvia Sinel shared her own artistic journey, indicating that the notion of Ambiguity during the period of a global pandemic resonated with all art forms, including her own.
Returning to the podium, Gilson announced the winner of the PACK & SEND, Volunteers' Choice Award that was taken out by Juliet Roper for her composition, Two of Us (see below).
The exhibition now runs until 5th November.
Time Travel, four stoneware sculptures by Sylvia Sinel
that take the Ambiguity exhibition to another dimension
Featured Artists
Rita Angus at the Welcome Swallow Gallery
The framed poster of the 2008 Te Papa Rita Angus exhibition, Life & Vision, sits alongside her exquisite watercolour composition, Wainui mid-summer Banks Peninsula (1943) This painting was part of the exhibition seen here courtesy of a private collection (N.F.S. ). Also on display is a rare 1984 first day cover of Rita Angus stamps.
Totem Woman
Jenni Taris
Terra Sigillata, Terracotta
800mm tall
Price: $1250
Sylvia Sinel's Time Travel sculptures
Sylvia Sinel addresses the exhibition attendees
Bergon and Ball Pots for Phoebe and Basil, channeling the Francis Hodgkins Berries and Laurel installation
Ray Ching in the Welcome Swallow Gallery
Amy Krauss
The Orchard 1919
Private Collection
Katherine Church
June Evening in Buckinghamshire 1945
Private Collection
Welcome Swallow Gallery Exhibition Catalogues and information plates
Please note that although each exhibition replaces the previous one in the gallery, we may still be able to source a work of art from earlier exhibitions. We are also able to freight our art works anywhere within New Zealand and worldwide. Freight costs are additional to the Catalogue prices. By downloading the catalogues above you will have immediate access to reviewing over 500 pieces of art work.
e-mail: WelcomeSwallow.nz@gmail.com
Gallery Reviews - what is recorded
Waikato Times Reviews Threads of Life Exhibition 13 August 2019
Sam Edwards provides a thoughtful review of the threads of life Exhibition by calling out one of the pieces that was sold early on. "Zipper or Door" by artist Rainy Du is chosen as emblematic of the exhibition's intent.
Press coverage of the celebration exhibition, Waikato Times 14 May 2019
~ Waikato Times Coverage 12th February ~
The Waikato Watercolourists Exhibition 14 Feb - 31st March 2020
