Candi Dentice: New Works

Sanderson Contemporary Art presents an exhibition of paintings by New Zealand artist Candi Dentice, on display October 7th through until October 26th.

In her latest exhibition Auckland artist Candi Dentice draws attention to the environment by combining impressions and objects in unique unconventional ways within the landscape.

Using a rich visual language with a fine and subtle technique perfected over a lifetime of painting, Dentice enhances the unique and beautiful qualities of the New Zealand landscape, while reminding us of the fragile nature of that environment.

Her inspiration comes from continually looking at and taking in the landscape with the keen observation of a painter. She looks at minute details in her immediate surrounds which she can then translate into paintings that are not only visually beautiful but contain a strong environmental message.

Carousal shows contemporary cars circling the dais of a merry-go-round in never ending revolutions. The image is a powerful metaphor. A strong impression is brought to mind of the endless desire for ever new models of cars (and commodities) in a consumer driven society.

Dentice extends the metaphor by including ethereal impressions of landscapes, frieze-like, around the top of the carousal. The small scale of these vistas, and the lightness of touch, gives a sense that these are fleeting impressions under threat by fossil fuel emissions which are responsible for the devastating impact on the ozone layer.

Both Carousal and Meltdown have strong graphic power, depict pristine delicate landscapes and through the imagery of ice-cream cone and carousal tap into our desire for a past, long gone, when words such as global warming and fossil fuel emissions were not part of our vocabulary.

Of equal importance to the subject matter and the environmental messages conveyed by the artist is the beauty of her technique. Dentice’s works have a strong basis in drawing, which results in very fine, intricate images, with a strong emphasis on line. There is a soft haze-like quality overall which enhances the surreal untouched beauty of the landscape and consequently the fragile nature of it in the modern world.

The exhibition opens at 5.30pm Tuesday 7th October.