Rare exhibition by Kiwi artist comes to Ōrewa

Estuary Arts Centre manager Kim Boyd is fizzing with excitement to be featuring work by artist Roger Bradley alongside the Autistic Expression exhibition that opens at the Ōrewa gallery this week.

It will be the first time that the Whangaparāoa artist has exhibited in the 12 years since his successful show in Parnell Art Gallery.

Roger is a prolific artist, who paints nearly every day, so it follows that his artworks are piling up, hanging on every wall of his home and stacked throughout other rooms, including the lounge.

You’d think he would be selling online, but a lifelong dislike of computers means that apart from some pieces on a friend’s website, he keeps his work to himself.

“The satisfaction of doing it is enough,” Roger says. “I’m lucky not to have to sell it for an income.”

A long career in advertising, before computers changed how things were done forever, is apparent in his use of graphic, stylised shapes, colour and words in his work.

His paintings of sea creatures and native birds, reduced to colour and line, manage to convey the essence of each species. 

He says he is never short of ideas and likes taking on controversial subjects such as genetic engineering, climate change and even the cost of speed bumps. A series called Screwed (utilising real screws) is a comment on politics.

“A scene of Rangitoto through flax bushes, it is not!” he says. “I don’t want to do what someone else has already done.”

His Dare to be Different series, which will feature at Estuary Arts, expresses his admiration for people who take the path less travelled. This includes his adult son, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of 11 and has an amazing facility for remembering people’s birthdays, among other things.

“He has a mind like a computer, especially when it comes to genealogy,” Roger says.

Roger never seeks the limelight and says at times he wonders whether he is on the Autism spectrum himself.

“I don’t like going out and marketing my work,” he says. “I am happy just doing it.”

Roger’s work will be exhibited alongside The Autistic Expression exhibition, on from April 4-May 1 at Estuary Arts Centre, Western Reserve, Ōrewa.