Jade du Preez | contemporary artist | Auckland, NZ.
Paint the Cells project
2016 | Counties Manukau Police Station
Local artists transformed eight of the cells with designs reflecting the diverse community of Counties Manukau. Minister for Police, Hon Judith Collins, was at the unveiling and met with Police who work in the custody unit and with the artists involved. Inspector Tracy Phillips says this project was about making the cells a brighter place for our staff to work, and for those who are in Police custody. “We are hoping to make the cells a place where people can have time to reflect on their actions, in an environment which shows that someone cares about them.”
More here: News Hub
2016 | Counties Manukau Police Station
Local artists transformed eight of the cells with designs reflecting the diverse community of Counties Manukau. Minister for Police, Hon Judith Collins, was at the unveiling and met with Police who work in the custody unit and with the artists involved. Inspector Tracy Phillips says this project was about making the cells a brighter place for our staff to work, and for those who are in Police custody. “We are hoping to make the cells a place where people can have time to reflect on their actions, in an environment which shows that someone cares about them.”
More here: News Hub
Lakehouse Art Centre
2016 | Becroft Gallery
The Table Top Design Competition involved tables decorated in a vintage theme for Lake House Cafe.
2016 | Becroft Gallery
The Table Top Design Competition involved tables decorated in a vintage theme for Lake House Cafe.
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Artist's Partner's Project
Oil-based portraits of the partners of New Zealand creatives. |
Auckland Women's Centre Charity Art Auction
2015 | The Works Salon
Celebrating forty years of feminist empowerment at the Auckland Women's Centre.
2015 | The Works Salon
Celebrating forty years of feminist empowerment at the Auckland Women's Centre.
Back Alley Tease Launch Exhibition
2015 | Devonport
Opening Exhibition event at Back Alley Tease
2015 | Devonport
Opening Exhibition event at Back Alley Tease
Forrest Creative Launch Art Exhibition
2014 | Lake House Arts Centre
Forrest Creative graphic design launch Event.
2014 | Lake House Arts Centre
Forrest Creative graphic design launch Event.
Songs from a Shadow Garden
2013 | Art in the Dark, Western Park, Auckland
Songs from a Shadow Garden was a collaboration between visual artist, Jade du Preez, and violinist Pearl Hindley. This series of 'live music videos' involved projection over performance, mixing sweet strings with surreal visuals.
2013 | Art in the Dark, Western Park, Auckland
Songs from a Shadow Garden was a collaboration between visual artist, Jade du Preez, and violinist Pearl Hindley. This series of 'live music videos' involved projection over performance, mixing sweet strings with surreal visuals.
Projection Work - 'Te marama i te po nei'
2013 | Matariki Festival, Silo Park, Auckland
This projection was part of the Matariki 2013 festival at Silo park. As the rising of the star cluster signifies a New Year, Matariki is a time of renewal, revival and promotion of Maori culture. In this work I have borrowed the lyrics from the waiata 'Te marama i te po nei' a love song with lyrics I assosciated with the Legend of Rona and the Moon.
2013 | Matariki Festival, Silo Park, Auckland
This projection was part of the Matariki 2013 festival at Silo park. As the rising of the star cluster signifies a New Year, Matariki is a time of renewal, revival and promotion of Maori culture. In this work I have borrowed the lyrics from the waiata 'Te marama i te po nei' a love song with lyrics I assosciated with the Legend of Rona and the Moon.
Coloured in Canvas
2012 | Art in the Dark, Western Park, Auckland
Ponsonby History and Gay histories,
And Alan Ginsberg and Howl,
And Howler monkeys, wing-ed monkeys,
Dorothy and Dorothy's Sister.
And Oz vs Pink Floyd,
all in Technicolour,
all in a mixed-up family.
The Coloured-in Canvas was a four-faced mural on the interior of a gazebo. In UV paint with black lights, with face holes cut out (at kid and adult height) for viewers to look in at and become part of the scene.
This was part of the amazing Art in the Dark event over 2 nights
2012 | Art in the Dark, Western Park, Auckland
Ponsonby History and Gay histories,
And Alan Ginsberg and Howl,
And Howler monkeys, wing-ed monkeys,
Dorothy and Dorothy's Sister.
And Oz vs Pink Floyd,
all in Technicolour,
all in a mixed-up family.
The Coloured-in Canvas was a four-faced mural on the interior of a gazebo. In UV paint with black lights, with face holes cut out (at kid and adult height) for viewers to look in at and become part of the scene.
This was part of the amazing Art in the Dark event over 2 nights
3-2-1
2012 | Letham Gallery, Auckland
While working on these I listened to a discussion on the merits of "The Owl and the Pussycat," nonsense poetry, as one of the finest love poems. Similarly, Yeats and Auden (my favorites) famed for their love poems, have often involved the extravagant, ridiculous and even apocalyptic in a way that has translated well to lovers over the years.
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
The series presented for 3-2-1 began as digital collages from scavenged images. I found photos of landfills (absolute rubbish!) particularly useful as pre-existing pastiches. Through the process of arranging and sketching (and discarding) I have hoped to generate images that encourage new translations, some nonsense, some not.
2012 | Letham Gallery, Auckland
While working on these I listened to a discussion on the merits of "The Owl and the Pussycat," nonsense poetry, as one of the finest love poems. Similarly, Yeats and Auden (my favorites) famed for their love poems, have often involved the extravagant, ridiculous and even apocalyptic in a way that has translated well to lovers over the years.
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
The series presented for 3-2-1 began as digital collages from scavenged images. I found photos of landfills (absolute rubbish!) particularly useful as pre-existing pastiches. Through the process of arranging and sketching (and discarding) I have hoped to generate images that encourage new translations, some nonsense, some not.
Lost Playgrounds Installations
2011 | Britomart, Auckland
The Lost Playgrounds Art Event of February 2011 involved various artists installing and performing work in Auckland's Britomart area, of these du Preez submitted two pieces, "I am come to bid you good-bye" and likeunlike."
“I am come to bid you good-bye”
The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour. He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold with ropes. ‘Heave a-hoy!’ they shouted as each chest came up. ‘I am going to Egypt!’ cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.
‘I am come to bid you good-bye,’ he cried.
‘Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘will you not stay with me one night longer?’
‘It is winter,’ answered the Swallow, ‘and the chill snow will soon be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-
trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves are watching them, and cooing to each other. Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.’
- The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde
By construction and function the Britomart complex is a transitory space counteracting collection and community.
Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince,” this 3D animation is played on a 10-minute loop (the expected wait time on the link bus route). Displaying on an LCD looking out to one of Britomart’s bus shelters, the figure (head and shoulders), watches, smokes, checks the time, and slowly corrodes. Mixing cartoon aesthetics with CBD commuter woes, this work aims to address the elements of playfulness and every-man-sadness.
Likeunlike is a lighthearted work taken as you like it. With a play on gender and connections met and missed, this is an interactive piece, a photo backdrop, situated in one of Britomart’s bus stops.Having an element of whimsical, albeit fictitious, romance, the display takes the timeslot of the fortnight preceding St. Valentine’s Day.
The work is regenerated through photos taken and uploaded to a facebook page allowing an audience to alter and
become part of the piece. With a renegotiation advertising space to art experiment, this piece toys with the levels and truthfulness of connectivity across our various networks.
2011 | Britomart, Auckland
The Lost Playgrounds Art Event of February 2011 involved various artists installing and performing work in Auckland's Britomart area, of these du Preez submitted two pieces, "I am come to bid you good-bye" and likeunlike."
“I am come to bid you good-bye”
The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour. He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold with ropes. ‘Heave a-hoy!’ they shouted as each chest came up. ‘I am going to Egypt!’ cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.
‘I am come to bid you good-bye,’ he cried.
‘Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘will you not stay with me one night longer?’
‘It is winter,’ answered the Swallow, ‘and the chill snow will soon be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-
trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them. My companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves are watching them, and cooing to each other. Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.’
- The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde
By construction and function the Britomart complex is a transitory space counteracting collection and community.
Taking inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince,” this 3D animation is played on a 10-minute loop (the expected wait time on the link bus route). Displaying on an LCD looking out to one of Britomart’s bus shelters, the figure (head and shoulders), watches, smokes, checks the time, and slowly corrodes. Mixing cartoon aesthetics with CBD commuter woes, this work aims to address the elements of playfulness and every-man-sadness.
Likeunlike is a lighthearted work taken as you like it. With a play on gender and connections met and missed, this is an interactive piece, a photo backdrop, situated in one of Britomart’s bus stops.Having an element of whimsical, albeit fictitious, romance, the display takes the timeslot of the fortnight preceding St. Valentine’s Day.
The work is regenerated through photos taken and uploaded to a facebook page allowing an audience to alter and
become part of the piece. With a renegotiation advertising space to art experiment, this piece toys with the levels and truthfulness of connectivity across our various networks.
Eldorado
2010 | Off the Kerb Gallery
Gallery Statement
Discover a city of gold or perhaps a more sinister version of contemporary utopia at Off the Kerb Gallery this April. The group show ‘Eldorado’, curated by Corinna Berndt, presents brand new works by 11 emerging artists from around Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Japan. The exhibition features a variety of artistic mediums, including animation, interactive-media, text based projection, painting and photography.
Celebrating the completion of 3 years in operation since its grand opening in April 2007, artist run initiative Off the Kerb has invited artists to propose a piece of work which investigates the idea of ‘El Dorado’, an exotic place of fabulous wealth and opportunity, which unfortunately is always short of discovery.
Work Statement“We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape around us and call that handful ofsand the world.” - Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)This work is a 3D animation created through digitally rendered stills of a real-world painting. Ina software package, a model was built with on an X, Y, Z axis, and mapped with informationon colour, texture and specularity. The video clip created from rendered stills will take paint,to pixels to RGB signals.I liked Pirsig’s sand analogy very much. I wonder in the context of digital information sharingwith its promise of infinity, how will I value a handful when the grains themselves have changed form?
2010 | Off the Kerb Gallery
Gallery Statement
Discover a city of gold or perhaps a more sinister version of contemporary utopia at Off the Kerb Gallery this April. The group show ‘Eldorado’, curated by Corinna Berndt, presents brand new works by 11 emerging artists from around Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Japan. The exhibition features a variety of artistic mediums, including animation, interactive-media, text based projection, painting and photography.
Celebrating the completion of 3 years in operation since its grand opening in April 2007, artist run initiative Off the Kerb has invited artists to propose a piece of work which investigates the idea of ‘El Dorado’, an exotic place of fabulous wealth and opportunity, which unfortunately is always short of discovery.
Work Statement“We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape around us and call that handful ofsand the world.” - Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)This work is a 3D animation created through digitally rendered stills of a real-world painting. Ina software package, a model was built with on an X, Y, Z axis, and mapped with informationon colour, texture and specularity. The video clip created from rendered stills will take paint,to pixels to RGB signals.I liked Pirsig’s sand analogy very much. I wonder in the context of digital information sharingwith its promise of infinity, how will I value a handful when the grains themselves have changed form?
Watch This Space/Time
2010 | Hurstmere Road Takapuna
Trademe 60 ways - self portrait was a series of 60 portraits using images from Trademe's Findsomeone dating site. The images chosen were five in each of the twelve categories that the artist fell into, i.e. five members of the same age, another five with the same location, five with the same height and so on. In essence all of these and none of these are representative of the artist.
2010 | Hurstmere Road Takapuna
Trademe 60 ways - self portrait was a series of 60 portraits using images from Trademe's Findsomeone dating site. The images chosen were five in each of the twelve categories that the artist fell into, i.e. five members of the same age, another five with the same location, five with the same height and so on. In essence all of these and none of these are representative of the artist.
Beside the Point
2008 | Satellite Gallery
I heard portraiture aspired to capture an essence or intimacy of subjects. I guess I missed that – having, quite frankly, no specifically intimate information on any of the portrayed individuals to relay. Being placed in the environment of the gallery space, like a wall, like a light fixture, quietly living together with bodies of finished art, as each exhibition morphs into the next… what kind of object does that make the staff member? Co-existent through employment, flatmates by design.
What I enjoyed in working with full-sized pieces was the lack of understanding, somehow not being in on the joke, the expression of one more engaged in whatever their practice. That reoccurring sense of “I know something you don’t know.”
2008 | Satellite Gallery
I heard portraiture aspired to capture an essence or intimacy of subjects. I guess I missed that – having, quite frankly, no specifically intimate information on any of the portrayed individuals to relay. Being placed in the environment of the gallery space, like a wall, like a light fixture, quietly living together with bodies of finished art, as each exhibition morphs into the next… what kind of object does that make the staff member? Co-existent through employment, flatmates by design.
What I enjoyed in working with full-sized pieces was the lack of understanding, somehow not being in on the joke, the expression of one more engaged in whatever their practice. That reoccurring sense of “I know something you don’t know.”
They Were Young Once
2007 | Satellite Gallery
Bill Cooke from the Manukau School of Visual Arts (part of University of Auckland) had this to say about the exhibition...
They Were Young Once is a brave idea. Satellite Gallery has set itself the task of being the ‘incubator of fledgling professional artists’ and an exhibition featuring the work of established artists alongside a selection of younger artists’ work is a very good way to go about it. This project helps give some real measure to the increasingly overused term ‘emerging artist’. There are so many ways someone can qualify as an emerging artist, none of them free of problems. But surely, being endorsed through association with eminent artists is a better way than most. And, as the title of the exhibition suggests, eminent artists were presumably emerging artists at one time. They were young once, and somewhere along the line they had a break which allowed them to pursue their dream of working as a professional artist. Now it is time to give that break to a new generation of as yet under-recognised artists. Whether we like it or not, this prestige-by-association link is important. The works of the established artists in this show; Nigel Brown, Philip Clairmont, Pat Hanly, Ralph Hotere, and Terry Stringer, carry with them a mana that will be transferred in various degrees to those of the younger, more raw talents. That transfer will have the effect of acting as a valuable endorsement for the younger artists: Jade Dupreez, Sheldon Edwards, Henry Jen, Michael McNamara, Cinzah Merkens, Kenny Willis Ortiz, ‘Sid’, and Rob Tucker. It’s not necessarily a handing on of the sacred flame, more a simple human recognition of the facts of aging and of the continuation of life.
2007 | Satellite Gallery
Bill Cooke from the Manukau School of Visual Arts (part of University of Auckland) had this to say about the exhibition...
They Were Young Once is a brave idea. Satellite Gallery has set itself the task of being the ‘incubator of fledgling professional artists’ and an exhibition featuring the work of established artists alongside a selection of younger artists’ work is a very good way to go about it. This project helps give some real measure to the increasingly overused term ‘emerging artist’. There are so many ways someone can qualify as an emerging artist, none of them free of problems. But surely, being endorsed through association with eminent artists is a better way than most. And, as the title of the exhibition suggests, eminent artists were presumably emerging artists at one time. They were young once, and somewhere along the line they had a break which allowed them to pursue their dream of working as a professional artist. Now it is time to give that break to a new generation of as yet under-recognised artists. Whether we like it or not, this prestige-by-association link is important. The works of the established artists in this show; Nigel Brown, Philip Clairmont, Pat Hanly, Ralph Hotere, and Terry Stringer, carry with them a mana that will be transferred in various degrees to those of the younger, more raw talents. That transfer will have the effect of acting as a valuable endorsement for the younger artists: Jade Dupreez, Sheldon Edwards, Henry Jen, Michael McNamara, Cinzah Merkens, Kenny Willis Ortiz, ‘Sid’, and Rob Tucker. It’s not necessarily a handing on of the sacred flame, more a simple human recognition of the facts of aging and of the continuation of life.
Run it Over
2006 | Devonport Depot
Exhibited in 2006 at Depot Artspace, Run it Over - portraits of fandom featured life sized watercolours of international cosplayers - dedicated fans who construct costumes to present as a 3D likeness of animated heroes from Japan. Source images for these portraits were generously given with permission from the subjects themselves.
2006 | Devonport Depot
Exhibited in 2006 at Depot Artspace, Run it Over - portraits of fandom featured life sized watercolours of international cosplayers - dedicated fans who construct costumes to present as a 3D likeness of animated heroes from Japan. Source images for these portraits were generously given with permission from the subjects themselves.