Esther Bosshard: Rona on the Moon

Esther Bosshard
Rona on the Moon
6–28 August 2021
Opening Reception: 6 August, 5-7
radner@rdsgallery.co.nz

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The exhibition “Rona on the Moon” brings together selected paintings from 2018 through 2021 by Dunedin artist Esther Bosshard. Predominantly landscapes and seascapes in oil on canvas, hessian, and board – the largest work is 61xcm in height and 100cm in width, with most considerably smaller – the majority were completed in 2021. Edward Hanfling’s description of a 2018 exhibition continues to ring true: “There are paintings…that conjure figures and animals out of delicate ridges and flicks of paint…. [E]very part of the surface holds interest. The eye is drawn into minute vistas with indeterminate suggestions of matter, then back to the matter of paint itself.” Jane Malthus observes in the context of this 2021 exhibition that “Esther’s paintings freeze time, but also render landscape, beach, and moonlit seascape as both aged and ageless. They remind us of nature’s diurnal rhythms and seasonality, and, thus, our own timespan of life.”

References
Edward Hanfling, review of “Esther Bosshard: My hair is longer and the plums are ready now.”, ART NEW ZEALAND 166 (winter 2018): 48.
Jane Malthus, “Rona on the Moon,” ed. Alistair Fox and Hilary Radner, ESTHER BOSSHARD: RONA ON THE MOON, Dunedin: RDS Gallery, 2021.

Artist’s Biography
Esther Bosshard (b. 1994 in Wellington) spent three years studying painting at the Dunedin School of Art and completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts in 2015. In a world she sees as increasingly fragmented, chaotic, and noisy, her paintings are a manifestation of her quest for a simpler, quieter meditation on life, paying homage to the modest overlooked objects and landscapes in our lives. She has always been interested in the conceptualisation of the everyday in painting, because, in her words, “I love the myriad of detail, colour, pattern, form and light that we live amongst and remain largely oblivious to. My paintings, I hope, encourage introspection, recognition, and at the very best, the opening of the eyes of the viewer to the incidental beauty in his or her own life.” A recipient of the 2015 Feldspar Scholarship and the 2015 Webb Farry Award for drawing, she, as well as painting and growing flowers, also teaches life drawing at the Dunedin School of Art night classes.

Images
ESTHER BOSSHARD, “Grass, Snow, Sky” [Twizel], 2021.
ESTHER BOSSHARD, “Moon Over Dunedin,”2021.
ESTHER BOSSHARD, “Dog on Night Expedition” [St Clair Dunedin], 2021.