Jungle Arcade is a new exhibition of works by Adrian Jackman. He sees the artists role as one to make sense of their surroundings, navigating through new technological or environmental systems to suggest a new psychological space, much as we do in the cinematic world. Always looking forward to making new painterly narratives, while hinting at ideas of the ‘glitch aesthetics’ and ‘digital disruption’.

Adrian’s paintings are collaged from a broad range of found images often zooming into isolated spaces or layers of collected objects that are melded with technology.

He has continued to investigate a hyper associated colour and illuminating palette as his personal signature and approach to painting. The real and the simulated inhabit the same space and are accorded the same importance.

Themes such as The Arcade and Videogames are present. ‘The Wasp Factory’ – a painting which hints at a digital future not yet fully realised – depicts an industrial x-ray of a building painted in bright popcorn colours that lures us into a realm of saturated colour and hi-resolution space. Conversely, ‘Pink Moon’ brings an historic artwork into a metaverse, which perhaps speaks to the almost endless multiplication that iconic works like this have in the age of NFT’s and digital reproduction.

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Adrian Jackman born 1971 in Te Kopuru (Waitaha, Iwi) graduated with a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts, in 1999 and received the Joe Raynes Masters Scholarship recipient from Auckland University in 1996, as well as the Senior Prize in Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 1993.

Since then Jackman’s been a regular finalist in the Annual Wallace Art Awards since 1993 – and was a Runner up in 1996 and received a Merit in 2008.  He was the distinguished Tylee Cottage Residency Awards recipient in Whanganui in 2012, and has also been a regular Finalist in the Molly Morpeth Canady Award, National Contemporary Art Award, GoldWater Art Award, N.Z Painting & Printmaking Award, Team McMillan BMW Art Award, Walker & Hall Art Award and the Wallace Awards.

Jackman’s work is held in a number of significant public collections across New Zealand and Overseas, including locally: The Sarjeant Gallery, Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, TSB Wallace Arts Trust, Citibank Art Collection, Auckland City Council and The Perpetual Guardian Trust.

Contact the gallery for a complete exhibition catalogue