Artist provides insight into work

By James Beech

Jan Bambury and artist Stephen Bambury, both of Auckland, with gallery owner Nadene Milne, of Arrowtown.

Karen McMeeken, of Queenstown, Rob Sewell, of Arrowtown, and Kay Turner, of Queenstown.

Maike Blackman, of Auckland, Ulrike Kurenbach, of Gibbston, and Britta Lieven, of Invercargill.

Anna Farrier, of Wellington, and Kris Farrier, of Arrowtown.

Tim Hemingway and Paulette Meikle, both of Arrowtown.

Tracy Kelly, of Arrowtown, and Leah Seifert, of Gibbston, with Nikki Apse and Emily Nelson, both of Arrowtown.

Contemporary artist Stephen Bambury gave 55 art enthusiasts an insight into the travel, philosophy, history and architecture which informs his work at an event in Arrowtown on Friday night.

Bambury talked at Dorothy Brown's Cinema before the opening of his exhibition Then & Now next door in the Nadene Milne Gallery.

The well-travelled Christchurch-born and Auckland-based artist said it was "imperative to reassess world culture". He believed "originality is not the issue; authenticity is what's at stake".

Memorable images depicted Bambury's 7m-long, 1m-wide floor-based oil, steel and water abstract Ngamotu, as well his guerrilla-style installation in an abandoned French Romanesque abbey, which was admired by the artist and his assistant for only three hours before the police arrived.

"It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission," he told the audience with a grin.