We are extremely happy to present this show by two of the great characters of the Waiheke art scene, Stuart Jobling and Barry Danby. With a long career as a full-time artist Stuart is now accompanied on his artistic path by his partner Barry who has recently rediscovered his love of pottery and is also working in a sculptural vein influenced by Stuart’s mixed-media approach to painting. Barry’s recent retirement has seen his artistic output flourish alongside Stuart’s.

Stuart Jobling was born in Khyber Pass, Auckland and was educated at Auckland Grammar School after which he resided in London. He worked as a designer at the renowned fabric and furniture maker, Liberty & Company. He then worked in museum restoration on vintage and antique textiles. Jobling has been accepted three times for the Walker and Hall Award and for the Waitakere Art Award three times and has won twice.

Stuart’s abstract pieces perhaps reflect this tactile nature of fabric design he witnessed in his early career. His work has a certain materiality about it, and is not strictly two dimensional. Surfaces ripple with a sort of mache feeling as layers of built up paper and paint create an undulating surface. Since our first meeting in 2012 for the Garden Festival art auctions we have admired his dedication to abstraction and it is a craft that he has honed now for at least over 20 years. His work is held by many collectors both on and off the island.

While Stuart is for all purposes strictly two dimensional, Barry is a three dimensional artist. Stuart's early years studying furniture design, work in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and many years selling furniture in both Auckland and Waiheke are apparent in the workmanship of his recent obelisk forms, mirrors, and pottery. Given that these two have been in a relationship for over 36 years it seems sort of appropriate that Barry has started creating the obelisks. Their mixed-media surfaces echo Stuart’s mixed-media painting style, paying homage to the output of the elder statesman. The obelisk form itself is associated with reverence of statesmen or leaders, and the form and surface of them seems to reflect an admiration for its painted predecessors. Barry’s earlier training in furniture design has also returned in his creation of mirrors created from the off-cuts of the sort of irregular obelisk form. The play between the subject seeing themselves reflected back in a mirror and the sort of reflection of self marked by the obelisk seems appropriate. At least one famous obelisk, the Washington Monument, has its own accompanying reflective pool.

Stuart Jobling and Barry Danby - Exhibiting together for the first time in 20 years

Presented by Artisphere

Exhibition: 23 September to 9 October 2022

Gallery Anomalous, Surfdale Waiheke Island

Artisphere presents Stuart Jobling and Barry Danby

Artisphere presents Art in the Garden