Ruth Davey Revisited

Opening event Saturday, 13 July, 2-3.30pm, Afternoon tea.

Hamilton printmaker extraordinaire Ruth Davey exhibits a selection of her prints together with works collected from printmakers she has known and worked with in NZ and overseas.

Many of these prints have not been shown here before and provide a window into her own artistic influences and printmaking friendships. Much of the work in the exhibition - framed and unframed - is for sale as Ruth aims to downsize her art collection.

Now aged 95, Ruth moved to Hamilton in 1960 where she joined Waikato Society of Arts and, later, Friends of the Museum. Taking a night class tutored by Campbell Smith ignited her love of printmaking and she began travelling to Auckland to study with printmakers there, such as Stanley Palmer. In 1973 Ruth helped establish the printmaking classes at WSA School of Art, teaching until the mid 1990s. A longtime stalwart of the Hamilton arts scene, Ruth is a Life Member of WSA, Friends of the Waikato Museum and Print Council Aotearoa NZ.

Her commitment and passion for printmaking -- producing, exhibiting and mentoring -- is well known and recorded in the book Ruth Davey: Artist-Printmaker, published in 2013 in conjunction with her retrospective at ArtsPost, 'Ruth Davey: a Lifetime of Drawing and Printmaking'.