Wayne Youle’s bold, compelling portraits of New Zealand art-world personalities include musicians, poets, writers and visual artists including Colin McCahon, Rita Angus, Margaret Mahy and Len Lye. The vibrant, multi-coloured portraits with their abstract shapes and monochrome backgrounds are deceptively simple – yet remarkably alive.

Like many artists of his generation, Youle looks to Pop Art for inspiration with bright saturated colours, hard-edged style and appropriated imagery. He takes the portrait and reinvents it, demonstrating how portraiture can assert itself as a viable and relevant art form today.

Come take a ‘portrait tour of the arts’ through the paintings of New Zealand’s best known figures in the creative arts.

Curated by Helen Kedgley