Media release by The Incubator Creative Hub
A high-profile exhibition of Antony Warnes – a celebrated and wonderfully unique Bay of Plenty artist – will open at The Incubator Creative Hub in the Historic Village Tauranga on 12 April 2024.
The Incubator Creative Hub will host ‘Le Inward Aesthetic’, an exclusive glimpse into a stellar art career that spans seven decades.
Antony Warnes is a storyteller, an exuberant and enigmatic character and cultural identity. Living and breathing his passion and talent for art, Antony has resided in the Bay of Plenty for the past 30 years. Tony is a well-respected member of the Bay of Plenty community and is held in very high regard. As an artist Antony weaves a trail of admirers, collectors and artistic contemporaries spanning a prolific 70-year history. Having exhibited nationally and internationally his works can be found in collections all over New Zealand and the world. The last insight into Antony’s work was held in 2017 in the Incubator and People’s Gallery.
The Incubator Creative Hub Director Simone Anderson says,“Through my own career in the gallery sector I have known Antony and loved his remarkable style for over 25 years. I’m one of his biggest fans! We at the Incubator are honoured to be exhibiting Antony’s new exhibition and be graced by his creative genius! I know Antony’s exhibition will be an eagerly awaited event for his considerable number of other fans and friends and the chance to catch up with the legend himself.”
This new body of work employs an abundance of media that gives a balanced measure of past styles and subject matter reflecting Antony’s connection to and gratitude for his life in the Bay of Plenty. Expect to see Antony’s eclectic social commentary translated visually onto board, atmospheric storm-soaked seascapes with his signature layers of texture forming thick currents across the canvas that are inspired by his maritime experiences. The capture of the artist’s memories will set the tone of the catalogue which includes haunting and heroic subjects from within Antony’s life.
Growing up in Ōtūmoetai, Antony was influenced by the cartoon characters of Walt Disney reminiscent of his whimsical characters and his mother’s gardens of which the flowers have been a consistent theme in his work. As a young man Antony worked on the wharves of Tauranga beginning of a love affair with the ocean. Though Antony chose a nomadic lifestyle he always came back to the Bay of Plenty as his home.
