TEN: The 10 Year Anniversary of Zimmerman Art Gallery

How do you host an art exhibition during a nationwide lockdown?

Our workaround this month is to leave the gallery lights on, day and night. This means anyone in Palmerston North can view the displayed works through the front windows, when they are out for fresh air or going about essential business.

All exhibited works are also featured here and on the gallery website.

This month's exhibition marks the 10 year anniversary of Zimmerman Art Gallery.

Here is how eight different artists responded to the theme "TEN":

Cam Munroe - "Recap" - mixed media on canvas, 152 x 90 cm

Munroe's painting is an eclectic selection of factoids from the past 10 years. Who knew 2015 was the year in which the DNA of a woolly mammoth was spliced into an elephant, and in which we developed an Ebola vaccine?

Angela Tier - "The Archeologist, The Alchemist and The Believer" - coiled stoneware, each 34cm high.

Angela Tier’s stoneware sculptures look forward to what can be achieved in a decade. Three ibis birds - the Archaeologist, the Alchemist and the Believer - stand together in a pseudo prophetic attempt to bring back our native birds from extinction. Each brings its own element to the attempted resurrection. But will their attempts at de-extinction within a decade be wonderful, or will it be disastrous?

Naga Tsutsumi - "Alchemist, Anarchist" - charcoal on paper, 98 x 71 cm
Naga Tsutsumi reflects on his own art marking in the last 10 years, a time in which charcoal has become a key part of his "art life". Alchemist and Anarchist, portrayed in charcoal, conceptually represent aspects of his art processes. The alchemist relies on skill and learning to make her way, while the anarchist fights against whatever obstacles stand in his path.

Prakash Patel - "Violet Mountain" - acrylic on canvas, 101 x 152 cm
Any milestone of Zimmerman Art Gallery would be incomplete without a work by Whanganui painter Prakash Patel, the first artist the gallery featured on opening its doors ten years ago. Is it just imagination, or does Patel’s "Violet Mountain" look like a cluster of vibrant viruses viewed under a microscope?

Ian Chapman - "Come in number 9, your time is up" - acrylic on canvas, 61 x 91 cm
Ian Chapman strikes a decidedly playful note with his contribution, cheerily farewelling the past years with "Come in number 9, our time is up". In Chapman’s wacky world, a collection of gravity-defying coracles breezily sail along mid-air, their colourful passengers enjoying the ride - for as long as it lasts.

Tony Rumball – "Vroom" - ink & acrylic on paper, 36 x 26 cm and "Artworks" - oil & ink on canvas, 30 x 30 cm

Keeping it colourful is Tony Rumball, with his celebratory painting "Vroom" – a reminder of the speed with which the last 10 years have gone, and revving the engine for a wild ride ahead.

But the world of art is not all colour and speed – a second Rumball painting, "Artworks", deftly sums up the business of owning an art gallery over the years: jobs, jobs, jobs then BINGO (you finally sell some art!)

Fran Dibble - "Accolades" - ten works in cast bronze

Fran Dibble acknowledges the gallery’s 10 year milestone with "Accolades", a collection of ten floral tributes.

“At the end of a performance, when the performer comes out to take a bow, flowers are often pitched onto the stage. This is the audience making tributes, thank you presents for a job done well.”

“These re-enacted small throwaways have been given permanence, cast into bronze, with a different flower for each year.”

Elspeth Shannon - "Small paintings" - 10 mixed media works on canvas, each 25.5 x 25.5 cm

Painter Elspeth Shannon also responded to this month’s exhibition with a collection of ten unique works. Shannon’s petite paintings are evenly spaced across the gallery walls like a protective border, their abstracted rock forms suggestive of stacked pebbles, boulders and columns in alternating hues of brown, gold and grey.