Artist name: Tjalling de Vries
Exhibition title: Take Root
Exhibition dates: 3 – 26 November 2023
Opening Event: Saturday 4 November 2023, 3-5pm
Venue: Stoddart Cottage Gallery, 2 Waipapa Avenue, Diamond Harbour
Hours: Friday-Sunday plus most public holidays, 10am-4pm.
In Take Root, Tjalling de Vries connects with the Banks Peninsula environment in which he was raised, from his current home of Ōhinehou/Lyttelton. For this solo exhibition, de Vries has expanded his creative practice to produce a series woodblock prints of trees that are native to Banks Peninsula. The exhibition also includes a hand printed book made in collaboration with the poet and playwright, Pohlen Newbery, and printer and curator, Peter Vangioni. Newbery wrote the text in te reo Māori, and Vangioni printed the words on his letterpress with two of de Vries’ woodblock prints alongside. “I feel it is pleasantly fitting to exhibit these works at Stoddart Cottage considering the legacy of Margaret Stoddart’s botanical work and interest,” says de Vries.
Tjalling de Vries is an artist currently living in Ōhinehou/Lyttelton. Born in the Netherlands, de Vries grew up on Banks Peninsula and attended the University of Canterbury Ilam School of Fine Arts, gaining a BFA (Printmaking) in 2005 and an MFA Distinction (Painting) in 2011. Tjalling’s practice traverses a range of media and thematic concerns, often with a particular interest in spacial and multisensory experiences, as well as the simple art of picture making. Tjalling is represented by Jonathan Smart Gallery.