AUCKLAND.- Made Active: The Chartwell Show opened at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Made Active explores ideas of ‘action’ through painting, sculpture, installation and performance art, including a range of works from contemporary New Zealand, Australian and American artists.

The exhibition, made possible by long-time Gallery supporters Chartwell Trust, reveals how the Chartwell Collection has developed from 1974 until the present day, showing artists who explore gesture, action and its effects.

Made Active includes major examples of works by contemporary artists Daniel Malone (NZ) and Stephen Birch (Aust), and a small retrospective collection of important paintings by Allen Maddox (NZ). A new installation for the Gallery’s Edmiston Sculpture Terrace has also been commissioned from artist Sriwhana Spong, who will represent New Zealand at the Biennale of Sydney later this year.

Exhibition curator Natasha Conland says, ‘Made Active is an opportunity to see what artists are thinking today about sculpture and performance art practice. Visitors will also experience the variety of the Chartwell Collection, which has been providing invaluable support to Australian and New Zealand contemporary art for over 40 years.’

Daniel Malone’s house-sized installation, Black Market Next To My Name, 2007, shown for the first time at the Gallery, consists of the entire contents of his flat accumulated over a 12-year period, while Stephen Birch’s eerily calm Medium Level Violence, 2002 offers a post-911 apocalyptic set.

Of the 25 exhibiting artists, seven contribute new performance works to the programme. Made Active is the first presentation of a multi-artist performance programme at the Gallery since the 1970s.

Performance art pieces are scheduled on weekends throughout the three-month exhibition. Visitors to the Gallery may come across performances, including New Zealand artist Seung Yul Oh’s The Ability to Blow Themselves Up, which will see various people blow up balloons around the gallery until they burst.

‘Natasha Conland, as curator of Made Active, has bought together works from the Chartwell Collection which reveal the history of interest in mark and movement making,’ says Chartwell spokesperson Sue Gardiner. ‘For Chartwell, Made Active is also an opportunity to celebrate its relationship with Auckland Art Gallery in the magnificent new spaces of the extended Gallery.’

Made Active: The Chartwell Show is exhibited from 14 April until 15 July 2012.

Artists: Jim Allen/ Nick Austin/ Stephen Birch/ Ian Burns/ Paul Cullen/ Simon Denny/ Estate of L. Budd (lionel b.)/ Finn Ferrier/ Alicia Frankovich/ Shaun Gladwell/ Amy Howden-Chapman/ Paul Kos/ Laresa Kosloff/ Allen Maddox/ Daniel Malone/ Richard Maloy/ Gabriella and Silvana Mangano/ Louise Menzies and Louise Tu’u/ Tahi Moore/ Campbell Patterson/ Sriwhana Spong/ Tuafale Tanoai (aka Linda T.)/ Hannah Valentine/ Luke Willis Thompson/ Seung Yul Oh