Drawing on the landscapes of his childhood — the Hawkdun Range, the Southern Alps and beyond — Gaen distils place into memory, light and form.
Rendered in soft, nostalgic pastel palettes, the works reduce familiar terrain to its geometric essence: a single contour, a rising peak, a band of cresting light.
Working in blocks of pure colour, these fragments are enough to conjure the feeling of a landscape rather than its literal likeness. The paintings play with notions of near and far; up close, they dissolve into abstraction, while from a distance they begin to resolve into place. This shifting clarity mirrors the way we often understand the power of the landscapes we grow up in — most clearly when viewed from afar.
The result is a quiet, reflective body of work: a gentle meditation on distance, memory and belonging. Join the opening night on 12 February, 5.30pm-7.30pm, with drinks and music.
