The Wading Birds of Drybread | Paintings by Gregory O’Brien 2016–2020

From January 2018 until January 2019, Wellington-based artist and writer Gregory O’Brien, and his wife, poet Jenny Bornholdt, lived and worked in the Henderson House, Alexandra – an artist residency run by the Henderson Arts Trust. With the neighbouring Clutha River being a dominant and ever-present part of daily life, this year-long project has allowed Gregory to develop a body of work that responds to the histories and environs of Central Otago. The Wading Birds Of Drybread brings together 22 paintings from his year-long residency.

The second part of the exhibition extends beyond the South Island to revisit Raoul Island and the Kermadec waters. The works attest to time spent at Meretoto/Ship Cove, Aniwaniwa and beside Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington Harbour. In the artist’s mind, the movement the paintings trace through space and time is both ecological and autobiographical: ‘Go, river, go. To ocean seek your / certain end…’ (Hone Tuwhare)

Gregory O’Brien was born in Matamata in 1961. As well as writing poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he has exhibited widely as a painter and printmaker. He has been involved in numerous group exhibitions including Ashburton Art Gallery’s Water Project (2018) and Kermadec – nine artists in the South Pacific (2011-16).

Image Credits |
Main | Gregory O’Brien, On Central Time (for Ernest Plischke), acrylic on canvas, 2018

Left | Gregory O’Brien, Poem in the Matukituki Valley I, acrylic on canvas, 2018