Ramp Gallery reopens at Wintec
The stage is set for Hamilton’s Ramp Gallery, which is set to reopen with twice the exhibition space and a bright new entrance on Collingwood St.
It’s all go at Hamilton’s Ramp Gallery as the builders finish their work and the artists start putting up theirs.
Photographer and Wintec tutor David Cook and Ramp Gallery curator Kim Paton are excited to be part of the first exhibition to be held in the refurbished Wintec gallery on Collingwood St – nine months after it closed for refurbishment.
Ramp Gallery manager Wendy Richdale said: “The gallery is now significantly bigger with double the exhibition space.”
Originally the gallery entrance blended into the building, but Cook believes the change will open up the space to the public and make it more connected.
Kim Paton took over curating shows for the gallery last year. Together with Cook and seven other artists, she has created an exhibition looking at public spaces and the public’s interaction with them.
The exhibition, Public Good, is part of a bigger ongoing project that will include seven exhibitions and two publications.
The project looks at the possibilities of civic spaces that are unrealised or imagined.
“The design of public spaces is quite a bureaucratic process removed from public individuals,” Paton said.
Cook’s work consists of photo-documentary projects looking at contested space and the ways people interact with the environment.
His work for this project includes portraits and environment shots taken at The Base in Te Rapa. The portraits are of everyday activities like shopping, which he said is often ignored or overlooked. “I enjoy the challenge of photographing something so ordinary.”
Paton expects between 100-200 guests to attend the grand opening and preview of Public Good, which will be held at 5pm on Friday, February 22.
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