Brent Harris’ studio is adjacent to Gertrude Glasshouse, the experimental satellite venue of Gertrude Contemporary. Apart from chance meetings at Tolarno Galleries openings, we haven’t really had much chance to talk since we were both doing residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, in 1994. We climb the stairs to his studio – and he points out the adjoining ground floor studio of his partner, Andrew Browne. This year going into next is an incredibly busy one for this artist, and as we ascend he lists major shows in Auckland Art Gallery, TarraWarra Museum of Art, The Art Gallery of South Australia, and Robert Heald Gallery in Wellington.
The studio is awash with light. Brushes, paint, empty anchovy and tuna tins as palettes. There is no shortage of art books and postcards, many of which I covet. And on the walls, canvases of all sizes in various stages of progress and completion. By the time I leave, I understand far better the complexity and multi-layered references contained within these paintings and prints.
Brent Harris was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1956. He was married at nineteen, divorced at twenty-two. He moved. I really like the embrace of the two figures, and the fact they are heading into the forest. They are heading into the unknown. It was Munch’s way of being able to engage with psychological issues: loss, tenderness, jealousy.”
