The surprise strength is Ward’s paintings of female nudes. With their dramatic, ambiguous baroque gestures, and the rich rippling surfaces that coat the models skin as a film they are violent yet celebratory, as if part of some strenuous ritual. The emotional turbulence of these works tugs and turns you around, like a dark contemporary version of Renoir.
Mark Amery, THE DOMINION POST

Exhibitions

INHALE | EXHALE
Twin principal exhibitions at:
Gus Fisher Gallery, July 2012
James Wallace, Pah House Gallery, July 2012
Auckland

WEHI
Where fear and awe collide
Mark Hutchins Gallery, March 22 – April 14 2012
Wellington

BREATH
the fleeting intensity of life
Principle exhibition:
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, December 2011 – February 2012
Taranaki

[Ward’s work] coalesces photography, oil painting and digital imaging and is presented alongside a choreographed passage of filmic vignettes. Ward’s ongoing concerns with metamorphosis, falling, light, fear, memory, darkness and the transformative moment have led him to create a series of vast, physically imposing works that delve into other-worldly landscapes and transcendent states, to evocations of loss, redemption and unconscious realms.
Rhana Devenport, DIRECTOR, GOVETT-BREWSTER ART GALLERY