Fe29 Gallery presents new paintings from Evan Woodruffe (b.1965), which he signals with a quote from artist Georgia O’Keefe that “to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time”.
Time is what makes a painting; and Evan explains that it’s not just in the time spent making, it is also in the distillation of experience that the painter then deposits as coloured marks upon the surface of the canvas. Time is made of single moments occurring in continuation – some are precious, some mundane. In his desire to have them continue, Evan collects the shiny moments of life and then, through repetition and relationships, accumulates them into a painting.
To See Takes Time is Evan’s third solo exhibition with Fe29 Gallery. These paintings mark a considered development of his fascination with colour-driven space, and have grown from his engagement with audiences at Melbourne’s Spring 1883 (2025), Sydney Contemporary (2024), Chengdu Biennale (2023), Hastings City Art Gallery (2023), and his recent time in Japan.
Evan’s work is held in significant private and public collections, such as NZ Department of the Prime Minister, NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the Office of the Crown Solicitors (MC), The Arts House Trust, the Parkin Collection, and across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, China, Japan, USA, Germany and Spain. His practice has been published in Art New Zealand, Art News (NZ), Art Collector (AU), Huffington Post (USA), Poets & Artists (USA), and Hyperallergic (USA). He received MFA (1st Class), University of Auckland in 2014, the Molly Morpeth Canaday Award 2011, and Becroft Premier Award 2003.