Photographic documentation of On Track at Föenander Galleries, November 2021
View on artsdiary.co.nz
On Track in artsdiary.co.nz
Sunday, November 21st, 2021New Zealand Arts Review by John Daly-Peoples
Monday, November 15th, 2021Neal Palmer captures the drama of the New Zealand bush and endangered kauri:
On Track, Foenander Gallery, Mt Eden
14 November – 02 December
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
In 2018 Neal Palmer was the inaugural artist for the Karekare House residency provided by the Eden Arts Trust.
He has previously exhibited work from this period which he has continued to develop. His latest exhibition “On Track” at Foenander Gallery reflects on those original works which were intended as visual responses to walking and running the Hilary Trail on Auckland’s West Coast. Added to this his awareness of the issue of Kauri dieback has meant these new works have taken on a more urgent significance in response to the disease... Read more:
Formal Roots exhibition features the Magnolia, Bay Buzz
Thursday, July 22nd, 2021Twenty Two review, NBR
Friday, October 26th, 2018
Valley of history, Art News Summer 2018
Monday, October 1st, 2018
Valley of history, Artists at Karekare – Art News, Summer 2018
The gilded touch – Art News New Zealand, Spring 2017
Saturday, August 19th, 2017A curiosity for the environment and Greek mythology inspires an Auckland exhibition.
NZ Horse & Pony Magazine – November 2016
Sunday, October 23rd, 2016‘From the Outside’
Auckland painter Neal Palmer has strayed into new territory with his latest exhibition ‘Horsing Around’ which features thoroughbreds from the Karaka Sales…
Verve Magazine
Tuesday, April 5th, 2016
Central Leader – Mt Eden painter utilises ancient art technique
Friday, October 16th, 2015Central Leader, 15th October 2015
Mt Eden painter utilises ancient art technique – read the article here.
Sunday Star Times – Gilding the Pohutukawa
Saturday, September 12th, 2015Eleanor Black visited the studio for a gilding lesson and promo for my upcoming show – Complex Rhythms at nkb Gallery, Mt Eden (October-November 2015)
Article and video here
Video – Egg #62
Friday, March 21st, 2014The Gardens magazine interview, October 2013
Friday, October 18th, 2013Design Folio
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010New Zealand’s definitive design destination…
NZ House & Garden – February 2010
Monday, February 8th, 2010Neal Palmer’s quadtych painting Hide and Seek hangs above the dining table.
Sunday Magazine – Home, Sunday Star Times
Sunday, January 17th, 2010“The floor was a labour of love for me. It’s based on the squares of the tapa cloth, using the geometric shapes to break up the areas. It took two weeks – I used acrylic and hand to paint a layer a day. The whole family was around at the time but eventually they got kicked out while I varnished it. It’s been down seven years so it’s lasting.
It’s a good home for the three children. It was particularly good when they were toddlers – being open plan you could keep tabs on them but as they got older we put some extra doors in to block off the TV area and give them some privacy.
It’s a mixture of our personalities. My work comes and goes as I paint for shows. In the most recent I was interested in the shapes and forms flax create. The Dick Frizzell tiki in the back is a favourite of my wife Ang’s. The coffee table was her idea. She’d been collecting those teacups – they’re all slightly different colours and slightly transparent.”
Photograph: Patrick Reynolds
Interview: Olivia Tully
New Zealand Herald – November 2009 (Get Real)
Sunday, November 8th, 2009“There are red, decaying leaves, the spots of insect attack and edge-eating beetles mixed in with vigorous growth. The skill of the painting is undeniable and very attractive but these read less as symbols of mortality and more as an element of realism.” (T.J. McNamara, nzherald.co.nz)
Ponsonby News – November 2008 (Say It With Flowers)
Friday, November 28th, 2008“The breathtaking large paintings of flora create an amazing scale relationship with the viewer. Despite the size of the paintings Palmer still captures the very essence of the subject he decides to paint, through extraordinary focus on detail.”
– Ponsonby News
New Zealand Herald – November 2008 (Say It With Flowers)
Saturday, November 8th, 2008“The artist thrusts his plants uncompromisingly at us. Nowhere is this more apparent than in one long painting which is a grove of flax, dense enough to hide in with the growth patterns of its leaves making a syncopated rhythm right across.
As well as the rhythm there is the harsh reality of the ravages of insects on the leaves.” (T.J. McNamara)
Saying it with Flowers – NZ Herald, October 2008
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Artist Neal Palmer has been known to upset the neighbours. In diligent pursuit of his metier, he takes thousands of photographs of plants and flowers. Patrolling the streets of suburbia he’s apt to blur the boundaries should he spot a likely specimen. “Once I got told off when trying to snap a kowhai, but I try to ask permission if I can,” he explains.
Metro Magazine – Auckland Room, Beach house with a bang
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008Artist Tony Ogle’s house features a Neal Palmer hibiscus painting.
Ogle has a storage unit full of art, and rotates the works on display to keep them fresh. “I can get a bit complacent about the works.” The Neal Palmer hisbiscus, however, suits the room so well he never moves it.
New Zealand Herald – September 2007 (White Light)
Friday, September 28th, 2007“The paintings of Neal Palmer, at the SOCA Gallery in Newton until September 27, are also exceptionally large. The subject, when it is vegetation, is enlarged far beyond its natural size. The results are often vivid and the appropriately titled Flame Thrower is a surge of scarlet flowers spread in great detail across three panels. The painting is given weight by the column of the main stalk of the flax flower and the drooping weight of decaying leaves.” (T.J. McNamara)
– New Zealand Herald
New Zealand Herald – November 2006 (The Sum of Their Parts)
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006“Precision on a grander scale is apparent in the work of Neal Palmer who is showing at SOCA Gallery in France St, Newton. Individual paintings often consist of panels of aluminium on board. They are held together by a dancing rhythm of intersecting geometric arcs. Behind these are accurately painted pohutukawa and flax. These are exuberant, three times life size, and often startlingly red though with a hint of decay and insect activity. The brushwork emphasises such things as the fibrous nature of flax leaves.
The rhetorical enlargement, geometry and realism celebrate the variety of growth in many forms, from the trumpeting stamen of a big red hibiscus in Feeling Fruity, to the erect thrust of red flax flowers in Big Love.
This accomplished exhibition is called The Sum of Their Parts and surely the total comes to more than their sum.”
Walk-on Success – Flaxing Lyrical (Sunday Star Times),
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006Suzie Campbell Snapshot Reality: The Painted World of Neal Palmer
Monday, March 1st, 2004Suzie Campbell Snapshot Reality: The Painted World of Neal Palmer
Natural Talent Blooms – NZ Herald, October 2002
Tuesday, October 8th, 2002“Making puppets for the famous 90s TV show Spitting Image is about as far as its possible to get from the iconic New Zealand paintings Neal Palmer creates today.” (Estelle Sarney)