First Thursdays April – Join Queenstown’s favourite late night art crawl

By Kelly Carmichael

First Thursdays Queenstown is a free community event that celebrates the diversity of arts and culture in Queenstown. This Thursday 6 April join in for a fun and friendly art crawl across six exhibition spaces showing a wide range of work.

April brings new exhibitions to Queenstown including Australian artist Diana Watson, whose exhibition opens at Artbay on the evening of First Thursdays. Watson’s large scale botanical paintings are drawn from the Sydney-based artist’s love of nature and the colours, shapes, and shadows that surround her every day. Showing at Artbay’s upstairs exhibition space is Thai artist Virut Panchabuse. Virut is known for large-scale, intricately expressive portraits created using collage techniques. Playing with the style of pop-art, he uses thousands of small pieces sourced from fashion and adult magazines to create work that references the faces and curves of women.

Also opening on the evening of First Thursdays is an exhibition at Starkwhite featuring two new art works by Fiona Pardington. Pardington’s Portrait of Kimiakau Kiwi is a photograph of a kiwi named after and found in the Shotover/ Kimiākau area. This is accompanied by a new still life in Pardington’s ongoing body of work and several of her rare and early silver gelatin photographs. Also at Starkwhite is new work and an accompanying publication by John Reynolds, Australian artist Jonny Niesche, and others.

Milford Galleries has a group exhibition including work by sculptor, jeweller, and carver Chris Charteris whose work draws from a unique and diverse cultural identity. At the core of Charteris’ practice is the cross-pollination and universality of forms alongside a deep love of materials.

Head to Romer Gallery for large-scale landscape photographs by Stephan Romer that explore the wild places and remote locations of Te Wai Pounamu/ the South Island. Also exhibiting as part of First Thursdays Queenstown is Lightworx, offering innovative combinations of light, colour, and space.

Bringing together Starkwhite, Milford Galleries, Romer, Artbay, and Lightworx, First Thursdays Queenstown seeks to connect people with creativity across our town centre. Based around Earl Street and Marine Parade, the evening sees six art spaces offer exhibitions, talks, and opportunities to engage with the region’s creative community during a special late-night opening from 5–7pm. Thanks to the generosity of Akarua, join us for a glass of this region’s finest wines. Maps are available at the participating galleries and on the First Thursdays Queenstown instagram – @firstthursdaysqt – and Facebook pages.