The Government Stroke
Emil McAvoy
Northart Gallery
9 – 22 April 2023
The Government Stroke repositions representations of the nation state and its agents in Aotearoa as contemporary art, re-examining the construction of Brand New Zealand, national identities, and the public imagination.
Bringing together a selection of key works by Emil McAvoy for the first time, this concept-led mini-survey exhibition features abstract paintings alongside state-commissioned photographs from the National Publicity Studios never intended for publication. Collectively, they offer a playfully critical take on past and present official government communications, and their ongoing power to shape personal and collective psychologies.
The Government Stroke revels in the ambivalent spaces between art, archive, documentary and propaganda.
Emil McAvoy is an artist, art writer, educator, curator, gallerist and a consultant for artists based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He has an MFA (1st Class Honours) from the Elam School of Fine Arts, and is a research accredited lecturer in photography, fine arts and design. He publishes widely as an essayist, arts journalist and critic for a number of galleries, and print and online publications. He is the founder of curatorial platform PHOTO OP. and publishing imprint PUFF PIECE.
His exhibition highlights include: The Truth is Out There, The Dowse Art Museum (2022), SOFT LAUNCH, PHOTO OP. (2022), The National Basement, Old Government House, University of Auckland (2020), This is New Zealand, City Gallery Wellington (2018), $1/Word: A Living Wage for New Zealand Art Writers, Projects Programme, Aotearoa Art Fair (2018), This Might Be The Place, Ilam Gallery, University of Canterbury (2017), this is the cup of your heart, Dowse Museum (2016), and PRISMISM, Enjoy Contemporary Art Space (2014).
