Ryan McCauley./Stuff
Hemi Macgregor’s new paintings in exhibition ‘Toitū Te Whenua, Toitū Te Moana, Toitū Te Tangata’ at Mahara Gallery Waikanae.
As you leave Pukerua Bay going north, sea and sky open you up to the light. Kāpiti Island floats sentinel in the sea and the coast lies as a lip before the mountains. Paintings by Paekākāriki based, Levin raised artist Hemi Macgregor at Mahara Gallery in Waikanae shimmer and reverberate with the feeling of this landscape. Macgregor has also been recognised as part of the current major Auckland Art Gallery survey Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Artand is part of the team working on the new wharenui at Massey University’s Pukeahu campus. His work as sculptor is evident here in the layered ridges of his work ‘Parawhenuamea’ named after the personification of fresh water in Te Ao Māori.