Euan Macleod - Painter's major exhibition opens at Pataka

The exhibition, Euan Macleod: Painter, has been touring Aotearoa for the past two years and opens at its last stop, Pataka, in Porirua, this weekend. It's the first major touring exhibition of Macleod's work in New Zealand, featuring 40 works spanning three decades. Many of the paintings are self-portraits in which Macleod becomes part of the environment - burying himself in earth and clay or dissolving into a plume of volcanic smoke. Originally from Christchurch but based in Sydney since the 1980s, Macleod has won, among many other awards, Australia's most prestigious art prize, the Archibald Prize for Portraiture, in 1999, with his 'Self-portrait; head like a hole'. His work is held in many public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne), Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Christchurch Art Gallery.