Kiwiana art features at NY's new Kiwiana Restaurant

Chef Mark Simmons

The kitchen at NY's new Kiwiana restaurant

Recently New Zealand chef Mark Simmons chose kiwiana art specialists NZ Fine Prints to supply the artworks for New York's brand new Kiwiana Restaurant.

Prints chosen to decorate his new restaurant that showcases NZ's cuisine and culture had to be delivered to New York within a tight timeframe before Kiwiana's opening night in August 2011.

Born and raised on a sheep farm in New Zealand Simmons was amusingly described in a recent US interview as "the former Top Chef contender with the dreamy New Zealand accent".  After a stint at NY restaurant's Public and then a role as executive chef at Melt Simmons has decided to open the first kiwi restaurant in New York - "Kiwiana".

According to Simmons "Kiwiana is about combining the rich cultural and culinary traditions of New Zealand in a friendly and welcoming space". The cuisine at Kiwiana is inspired by native New Zealand ingredients such as the horopito pepper and our national dishes such as hokey-pokey ice cream. The food incorporates elements and techniques  Simmons acquired during his travels, starting in Australia, through Japan and on to the United States. Kiwiana features a variety of lamb and seafood dishes with a New Zealand twist - such as as manuka and marmite braised baby back ribs with squash purée , Milo-rubbed venison loin with potato cake, baby leeks and cola-braised cherries and raspberry lamington with whipped coconut cream and hokey pokey brittle.

Lamingtons (Image courtesy of Kiwiana)

So next time you are in New York and want to take your American friends out for a kiwi style feast of superb NZ cuisine check out Kiwiana - 847 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, their website is http://www.kiwiana-nyc.com.

And for the record Simmons chose the following kiwiana prints from our kiwiana art collection - a large vintage style canvas by Paul Ny called "Kiwis can Fly", "Highway 80" by Grant McSherry and "Four Square Store at Sunrise" by Bill MacCormick.

What we know about an artwork's history changes our enjoyment of it

This morning we watched an insightful and entertaining look at why people like original paintings better than an identical forgery.  In this TED talk Paul Bloom argues that our beliefs about the history of an object change how experience it. And not just as an illusion but a deep measurable change in the way our brain feels pleasure viewing art.



How do we respond when the artworks may look the same but they have a different origin?  Pyschologists have argued that we care so much about origins because we are snobs, as Bloom says "we are focused on status".  So owning a handmade limited edition print is more prestigious than owning a reproduction of the same image because there are always going to be fewer original prints available to buy. Although Bloom doesn't doubt that this does play some role he believes humans are also to some extent "natural born essentialists".   He means we don't just respond to art in the way that we see it, our response is also conditioned on our beliefs about "what they really are, where they came from, what they are made of, what their hidden nature is".  You can own something that looks exactly the same as another artwork but it doesn't have the same history so your respond differently to it. 

Bloom quotes Christchurch philosopher of art Denis Dutton (whom we have featured in NZ Art Print News previously) who wrote "the value of an artwork is rooted in assumptions about the human performance underlying its creation".   Bloom's argument would be that owning an orginal print (which is the product of a creative act, knowledge of materials and technical skill) means the buyer will get a deeper pleasure from owning it than a poster of the same print.   If they were told that it was not an original print their pleasure in owning it would diminish (a case in point is Dick Frizzell's Mickey to Tiki lithograph which was reproduced with the edition number 5/50 on it, occasionally we have been contacted by people given this print as a gift whose pleasure in the gift is lessened when they are told that it is a reproduction although it looks identical to the original print).

It's an interesting question if choosing artworks with a meaningful history - even if they are "reproductions" - can have still give you a deeper pleasure. For instance if you collect only prints by quality artists or fine examples of the best paintings from New Zealand.  NZ Fine Prints try and stock only meaningful artwork, we have never understood the part of the market where custuomers are looking to buy art to "match the curtains".  I guess this touches on the prestige or snobbish element of art ownership alluded to by Bloom as a motivation of buying artwork for your home or office because your choice of art is a way of demonstrating to others your degree of artistic sophistication or level of art appreciation.  But for Prints.co.nz making a distinction between meaningful art and pure decoration is a way of helping us decide what we choose to stock at a "fine art" print specialist.

Prints by Greg Straight get NZ Fine Prints recommendation

NZ Printmaker Greg Straight

Pop Art Tiki by Greg Straight [Edition of 100]

Recently contemporary New Zealand printmaker Greg Straight (pictured left) was profiled by Kiaora magazine's Matt Philp (Straight's "Neon Tiki" graced the cover of the inflight magazine for Air New Zealand in June 2011). “Art and design used to be very clearly distinct but these days there’s far more of a crossover. I think my generation is more open to that. But fine art takes itself too seriously sometimes, which is why I like pop art. I love the idea of taking objects from everyday life and putting them in a gallery.”

Greg is at the forefront of the movement that is finally adding a contemporary urban sensibility into the visual arts in New Zealand.  “It’s a real challenge with kiwiana though, because everyone has had a stab at it,” he told Kiaora's Philp “You have to find ways to put a new twist on it and keep it contemporary. That might mean breaking the thing down into geometric shapes and using bold colours." 

Straight graduated from the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts majoring in print making.  A fine art printmaker who also works as a T-shirt graphic designer for streetwear brands such as Huffer and Federation Straight's artwork is an exciting melding of high art with NZ pop culture.

We are cataloguing Straight's first series of prints including "Pop Art Tiki" shown here and Greg Straight's prints wholeheartedly get NZ Fine Prints' "buy" recommendation for astute collectors building their hoard of contemporary NZ editions.

Notable new releases at NZ Prints

New releases have been piling up at New Zealand Fine Prints while behind the scenes we have been occupied with sorting and re-shelving the thousands of prints shifted from our Hereford St gallery following the Christchurch earthquakes.

Home by Weston Frizzell  1000 x 515mm [Edition of 80 Prints]

Among the new prints that have arrived have been a couple of superb new letter series prints called "Home" and "Whanau" from the studio of Mike Weston and Otis Frizzell  (for disambiguation of the various Frizzell monikers check out our previous article on who is Weston Frizzell?) and the complete Weston Frizzell seasons series (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) are now in stock with some matching numbered sets still available. 

Mike has also just sent us some previously unseen editions from the Auckland Supercity styles series, the last two editions of the Behave series and his latest solo work "Float" that we'll get catalogued onto prints.co.nz mid August - with a backlog of over 140 prints waiting to be photographed and described we are running several weeks behind schedule for new artwork submissions.  Artists submitting new prints with the images ready, dimensions measured and a great description of the artwork written with the customer in mind may find they are bumped to the top of the queue!

Two New Editions from Tony Ogle

Tony Ogle Print Hammock and Bach

NZ Printmaker Tony Ogle

Reputedly "Cathy's place at Bethell's [Beach]" "Hammock and Bach" was Tony Ogle's last print of 2010.  As with all of Ogle's fine art prints "Hammock and Bach" began as a detailed painting on board from which each individual colour is then hand separated. These separations became the stencils on the screens through which each colour is printed (some Ogle prints have up to 25 individually printed colours). The printing process involves a careful alignment and registration and constant checking for quality problems. The colours of all Tony's prints are hand-mixed and give the image a very real handmade feel and quality.  Hammock and Bach is an edition of 200. (NB for readers outside of NZ "bach" is the coloquial New Zealand expression for a holiday home).

Caravan Window, Tony's first print in 2011

Tony's first print of 2011 is "Caravan Window".  Here the kiwiana style beachside scene is cleverly framed by an oval window that echoes the shape of the caravan windows in the foreground.  A tyre rope swing hangs from the branches of the pohutukawa tree.  Edition of 180, image dimensions 450 x 180mm.   Tony subscribes to single edition productions only, he says "a true Limited Edition Fine Art Print [should be] limited to one edition, each being numbered and signed individually by the Artist. Once the Edition has sold out it should not be repeated otherwise the value of the works is compromised."   In the long term this is what gives the artworks value over time.