Background

Vincent Ward is an interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker. A leading public gallery of contemporary art, the Govett-Brewster, recently held a retrospective solo show of his paintings, print and cinematic installations. He has a further two ambitious solo exhibitions at public galleries in Auckland this year, which will span more than 10 gallery spaces. A significant show is also planned for China at the end of the year, the details of which are still to be announced.

It was through painting and an interest in moving image and visual story telling that Vincent Ward initially found his way to filmmaking. (Hons. Fine Arts, Ilam).

Ward has a reputation for creating powerful and haunting images. His films are widely acclaimed for their painterly quality. He has continued to do sketches and paint pre-visualisations for his films and many of his still works draw upon the Academy Award winning ‘Motion Painting Aesthetic,’ which Ward envisioned for the film What Dreams May Come.

“Somewhere between the world of motion, film and painting I am working to find an alchemical marriage of these different media.” he says.

His long-held fascination with metamorphosis and immersive experience has inspired Ward to create a physically imposing series of images evoking otherworldly landscapes, transcendence, and acute moments of loss and discovery. In his art he seeks elusive ‘transformational moments’ that connect with the human psyche.

“Just like McCahon and Binney, Ward has never shied away from the truth: Breath is suffused with that same energy. It presents a man marked by his past: a major creative figure whose visual language is rooted in memory, trauma and a darkly physical relationship with the world.”

Anthony Byrt, New Zealand Listener.