Born in New Plymouth, in 1939, Michael Smither has produced a vast and varied body of work, translating his intimate observations of his local environments, family and friends, and objects of the everyday into works of art. His artworks have come to sit alongside our notion of identity as New Zealanders, and cemented his position as one of this country’s leading exponents of the realist style.
Throughout his career, Smither has explored diverse creative avenues such as painting, printmaking, sculpture and music. As a composer and pianist, he developed a unique understanding of the correlation between the world of colour and the world of sound. This led to the development of his own visual harmonic chart, which formed the basis of a series of abstract paintings.
Smither's latest collection of work continues to explore the inter-relationship between the vibrations of individual notes and their corresponding colours. The bold, exuberant paintings and sculptures in Shared Harmonies are primarily made up of horizontal bands of radiant colour. Each colour represents a note in the octave, and the width of the band relates to the vibration length and note. In some works, the coloured bands are strong and geometric, while in others the edges are soft and shimmering as if they have been set into motion by the chime of a musical note. The effect is lyrical and uplifting; a sonorous experience of vibrancy and harmony which will delight the senses.
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