Roger Mortimer

Biography

Mortimer is interested in the nature of attachment in the psychological sense. When this fundamental relational need is disrupted, it generates conflict, adaptive behaviour and intense suffering. His paintings and weavings explore these themes and have been described as “an allegorical scrambling of time and geography, that pushes at the limits of the human imagination” [1], giving rise to a dense layering of colliding or intertwined worlds and systems. In Mortimer’s fantastical landscapes and watery coasts, people and creatures enact dynamic vignettes of horror and hope.

Mortimer graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 1999. In 2014 he was the Paramount Award Winner in the Wallace Art awards - one of New Zealand’s top art awards. In 2017, a survey exhibition of his work, ‘Dilemma Hill’, was shown in public galleries in Wellington and Auckland. In 2021 Mortimer had three works included in the landmark exhibition “Oceania Now: Contemporary Art from the Pacific” at Christie’s in Paris – a showcase which represented a unique opportunity for the French and international market to engage with some of the most important and established artists working in New Zealand today. The same year also saw the publishing of: Apocrypha : The Maps of Roger Mortimer - a 160 page monograph with essays examining the last 12 years of Mortimer’s map paintings and weavings. Mortimer’s works feature in a range of significant public, corporate and private collections including:

Waikato Museum of Art and History, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato,
The University of Auckland Art Collection, Waipapa Taumata Rau,
The Angela Morton Collection, Takapuna Public Library
The Ballin Collection
The Art House Trust
Barry Hopkins Art Trust Collection
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Wallace Art Trust
The Collection of Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh
The Collection of Sam Neill

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Works