Bruce Connew
‘My work does not come from orderly research. An idea emerges from an assortment of simmering propositions, components of things yet to be fashioned. With these elements in hand, I set off in pursuit of other evidence from which to construct meaning.’
Bruce Connew is an acclaimed Auckland-based artist and photographer whose work can be found in both public galleries and private collections across the country.
Other than a brief interlude at Guildford School of Art, Connew is entirely self-taught and examines a breadth of subjects from the wryly prosaic to the chillingly confrontational. His images speak to the tension that often underlies narratives defined by dual perspectives, and convey such narratives with striking depth and complexity. While photography is his primary medium, Connew’s work resists easy categorisation.
For his most recent body of work, the artist spent several years roaming the many memorials and gravestones of Aotearoa’s colonial wars to seek out the texts on these testaments to folly. A vocabulary of colonisation. The highly celebrated series of photographs ‘A Vocabulary’ is touring nationally between 2020 and 2022 and is accompanied by a book published by the artist’s publishing house Vapour Press.
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Bruce Connew | 'folded eggs' artefacts
{Suite} Wellington 7 - 24 Aug 2019 -
Bruce Connew | Body of Work
{Suite} Wellington 11 Jul - 11 Aug 2018 -
Bruce Connew | Censored, Examined, Exploited
{Suite} Wellington 31 Jan - 23 Feb 2013 -
Bruce Connew | I Drive You Crazy, to the Moon
{Suite} Wellington 24 Mar - 16 Apr 2011
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Bruce Connew
The Funambulist Magazine January 6, 2022Bruce Connew's work featured in the latest issue of The Funambulist Magazine , alongside a conversation with writer and scholar Quito Swan, ‘Black Internationalism from...Read more -
Artist Talk | Bruce Connew
A Vocabulary February 6, 2021Join Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery Saturday, Feb 13, 1 – 3 pm, for a special afternoon of conversations with Bruce Connew, Dr Rangihīroa Panoho...Read more -
Bruce Connew
Beyond the Pale | The Dowse Art Museum April 28, 2019‘Beyond the Pale’ was first exhibited at the Dowse Art Museum, Wellington, New Zealand, August 1988, when James Mack was director. The exhibition toured various...Read more