STEPHEN ELLIS

Undertow | Hvac

Opening Wednesday 29th April 5.30-6.30pm

This event is part of the Aotearoa Art Fair VIP programme

Sanderson are pleased to present the exhibition Undertow | Hvac by Stephen Ellis.

The exhibition features a continuation of the artist’s Undertow series, as well as showcasing the beginning of an exciting new series by the artist titled ‘Hvac’.

During his 2025 residency at the Dunedin School of Art Ellis initiated the suite of drawings under the title - Undertow. The scenes in these drawings are set on Ōtepoti’s Saint Clair Beach, a formative coastal landscape from the artist’s childhood.

The brooding skies depicted quote the work of of Colin McCahon, who like the artist was born in Ōtepoti and studied at the Dunedin School of Art.

The Vertical elements within the compositions of these works are constructed from turned wooden objects sourced by the artist from local op-shops at the outset of his residency. These familiar domestic items - ranging from darning mushrooms to cricket bails and serving spoon handles - stand in for the iconic groynes that once protected Saint Clair Beach from tidal erosion. Following their decay and removal, significant sand loss has occurred along the shoreline, compounded by the broader environmental factor of climate change – an ongoing impetus of Ellis’ work.  

The carved wooden figures depicted within Ellis’ works have been collected by the artist over an extended period. They function as representations of the familial - both personal and collective - encompassing notions of whānau and the wider human community.

The acronym HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) provides the conceptual framework for the new related series by Ellis. As climate conditions shift, such infrastructural systems are anticipated to become increasingly visible within everyday environments. These landscapes acknowledge the influence of Brent Wong, whose 1970s depictions of cloud formations over arid terrains appear newly prescient. Further references are made to the work of McCahon and Doris Lusk, particularly Lusk’s Eroded Hills, Saint Bathans, encountered at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. These citations of canonical New Zealand art history signal not only environmental precarity but inevitable cultural vulnerability in the face of an environmental crisis. 

Ellis (b.1957 Aotearoa, New Zealand) is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. With a background in film, the artist is known for his unique process where he builds dioramas, from which his compositions are derived. In his recent series ‘Unfolding’ (2022), ‘Lamp Black’ (2023) and ‘Undertow’ (2024-2026) the artist has combined these handmade models with prompts entered into AI image generators, this layering of imagery resulting in artworks that possess a surreal and dream-like quality.