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ART EXHIBITION brings together two superb artists in an intriguing presentation of contemporary ceramics and arresting abstract paintings. The works of both artists - ceramics from Diane Greenwood and paintings by Jude Whitcombe - challenge conventional views on their chosen mediums and impress with the depth of their quality, sophistication and beauty. Prepare to be entertained, moved and, perhaps, even shocked, by them. Kapiti artist Diane Greenwood has had a long-term association with multiple forms of art, over time building a substantial practice in glass casting, painting and ceramics. Her formative early days were at Auckland’s Art Station and, from 2000, the Mad Dogs Studio focusing on glass casting and abstract painting. Moving to Waikanae in 2020 proved to be a watershed, since then she has specialised in ceramics through the Otaki Pottery Club and her home studio. ln this exhibition the underlying theme of the ceramic arts is transformation: provocative, unsettling and mysterious human forms that seem to move between states of being; unexpectedly asymmetrical vessels that seem to wilt and bend under their weight while subtly transmuting into more basic, stronger organic forms. The work is largely presented in a highly textured and carefully considered colour palette which incorporates matt glazes, encaustic wax and engobe which express shifting earth tones - a transformation taking place under the cover of shade. Wellington painter Jude Whitcombe has exhibited in group and solo shows in Wellington and Queenstown. Her abstract paintings are both intuitive and controlled. She appreciates painting in all forms and has been greatly influenced by some of the American painters of the 1940s and 1950s; such as Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Robert Ryman. Her interest in the New York painters of that time led her to enroll in courses from MoMA. In these, she explored and applied painting techniques in practical sessions, drawing on methods used by many painters of that era. Her paintings at the Tote Gallery focus on the unusual alliance between science and the arts; in particular curiosity about the changing paradigms relating to the cosmos. Aristotle’s definitive observational evidence circa 350 BC that the earth was a round sphere is just one insight relating to how we see the universe now. Space too is an ever-changing encyclopedia of paradigms. This exhibition draws from these themes. In this exhibition…the paintings are born from a curiosity about humankind’s survival and evolution throughout history: how we alter paradigms and construct new ones as we learn more about ourselves and our place in the cosmos. Be sure to come along to this highly unusual and stimulating exhibition.