Ground Floor Galleries
5 September - 16 November
Opening Event:
18 September
Gregor Kregar:
Paradox Void
Gregor Kregar, Reflective Synthesis (2012). Aluminium and neon. Courtesy of the artist.
Gregor Kregar: Paradox Void
5 September - 16 November
Opening Event: 18 September
Paradox Void features selected mixed media sculptures and drawings by Slovenian–New Zealand artist Gregor Kregar. Installed in the galleries of the historic Pah Homestead (built1877–1879), Kregar’s works interact with the heritage architecture, reimagining the domestic past of the site. His large-scale, geometric light sculptures hang from the ornate ceiling cornices of the grand rooms, replacing the original crystal chandeliers and transforming the spaces with new energy. The spaces are further altered by other geometrical forms repurposed as seating and wall pieces, all occupying places where other features once stood.
Kregar’s floor-based sculptures evoke a sense of domestic utility, exploring the tension between form and function. Fragmented Habitat features a sculptural wooden structure composed of hexagon-shaped frames – which is also a modular shelving system, designed to be reconfigured into various arrangements. His glazed stoneware objects, with multi-geometric sides, are presented on the shelving as everyday vessels. Included in Paradox Voidare sculptures crafted from triangular segments, made of wood and mirror-polished stainless steel. As gallery seating, they become station points for audience participation.
For more than fifteen years, Kregar has been creating geometric sculptures composed of triangular segments made from mirror-polished stainless steel. These reflective surfaces offer a fragmented, sculpted view of reality, challenging our conventional notions of perspective and perception. Kregar includes neon or LED fixtures, resulting in overall forms that are dynamic and complex. The vibrant hues emitted by the lights are further enhanced by their reflection on the stainless steel. As viewers move around the sculptures, they engage in a semi-interactive experience that heightens their awareness of the artwork, the surrounding environment, and themselves.
In his polyhedron sculptures, Kregar constructs complex systems from basic shapes such as the triangle. These forms evoke geometric structures found in both biology and mathematics—subjects that have engaged scholars from antiquity to today. His sculptures often take on a crystalline form, revealing how the natural world is shaped by geometric principles. Kregar is interested in utopian architecture models as a counterpoint to conventional, grid-like building systems. His vision of utopia also suggests a fragile balance between order and chaos, where harmony is always at risk of disruption.
Photo by Tobias Kraus
About the Artist
Operating in a wide range of materials, scales and forms, Gregor Kregar has forged a reputation as one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary sculptors. Born in Slovenia in 1972, Kregar exhibits regularly throughout Australasia and Europe. Highlights of his exhibition history include involvement in the Cairo Biennale and the 29th Ljubljana Biennale in 2011, and a solo exhibition at Tin Shed Gallery as a collateral event to Sydney Bienniale in 2008.
Kregar runs a large-scale industrial workshop where he produces most of his work. This facility is frequented by architects and engineers as much as curators and gallerists, and it has been central to his production of numerous large-scale ambitious art works and installations for public and private contexts.
Kregar is the recipient of many awards and prestigious commissions, including the Melbourne-based 2015 Southern Way McClelland Commission (2013), the Lexus Premier Award as well as People’s Choice Awards at Headland Sculpture on the Gulf (2013), Paramount Award, Wallace Art Awards (2000), a permanent installation at the Christchurch International Airport (2012), the Art Omni Residency at McColl Art Centre New York, USA (2006) and a commission for a permanent work at the Lekhwiya Sports Stadium in Doha.
His work is held in significant public collections including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, The Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Kregar has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Academy of Fine Arts, University of Ljubljana, 1996) and a Masters of Fine Arts (Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, 1999).