Over the past five years Paul Maseyk has been deep-diving into the Still Life genre of painting in Aotearoa New Zealand; in particular – looking to works depicting the humble jug. This project combines two of Maseyk’s loves – paintings and jugs. In turn, Maseyk has made over 60 jugs modelled from the jugs seen in New Zealand paintings that he’s found by sifting through collections, magazines, and across the internet. Jugs in New Zealand Painting brings together some of these paintings from collections around Aotearoa. The paintings span a wide art-historical canon, from Colin McCahon to Joanna Margaret Paul; Frances Hodgkins to Francis Upritchard; Edith Collier to Milan Mrkusich. Maseyk operates like a time-traveller, plucking the jugs from the works they were painted into like the pottery version of photocopying, a playful game of spot the clay doppelgänger. According to Maseyk: “I like to imagine it that I have made a facsimile of the jug the artist had in his or her studio at the time they were creating their work.” Paul Maseyk (b. 1974) lives and works in Ngāmotu New Plymouth. After completing his Diploma of Ceramic Design and Production in at Whanganui’s Polytechnic in 1997, Maseyk has since been awarded the Archie Bray Foundation of Ceramic Arts residency in Montana and the Medalta International Artist Residency in Alberta, Canada. He has worked alongside Barry Brickell OBE (1935-2016) at Driving Creek and Ross Mitchell-Anyon ONZM (1958-2022). Maseyk’s work is held in numerous collections both nationally and internationally. This exhibition has been produced in partnership with Curator Programmes Manager Greg Donson and the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, where it will be shown in 2025 in their newly redeveloped and strengthened gallery.

Press release courtesy The Dowse Art Museum.