by Geoffrey Churchman

Being a long-time fan of surrealist art of which Brent Wong is surely NZ’s best exponent, I went to the opening of this exhibition last Thursday evening.

Born in New Zealand in 1945, Brent Wong spent the early part of his life in Wellington, moving north to the main commercial centre, Auckland, for a time, before settling on the west coast and he currently lives in Muriwai. Unfortunately, being now 81 he doesn’t like travelling so wasn’t at the opening.

Although Brent Wong’s work is best described as surrealistic — some say realist and visionary — he believes that there is a high level of symbolic content in most of his paintings — reflecting autobiographical material.

Regardless of what label is applied, his pieces achieve a ‘wow’ reaction.

It’s interesting what you can learn from talking to people at these events. One guy from the Hutt Valley told me that people have become fed up with the succession of LGBTQ-etc. themed exhibitions at the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt. I told him that fortunately we’ve not had that in Waikanae, although the radical activist artist Robyn Kahukiwa’s exhibition about Captain Cook in February 2020 ruffled a lot of feathers, see this post.

The Brent Wong exhibition, on the upper floor, lasts to the end of August.